Unit 4 Sensation

how do we detect loudness?

# of activated hair cells

*describe the young-helmholts trichromatic (three color) theory.

-retina has 3 different color receptors one most sensitive to red, one green, or blue which when stimulated in combination, can provide the perception of any color. -three colors sees all when stimulation of two etc.

is there ESP?

NO!

*what is retinal disparity?

a binocular cue for percieving depth by comparing images from 2 eyes, the brain makes out the distance - the greater the disparity, btw the 2 images the closer the object b/c able to see differences better

what is a visual cliff

a device use to test depth in young animals and infants

what happens in the brain that allows smell to evoke memories?

a hotline run btw the brain area receiving info from the nose and the brains ancient limb centers associated with memory and emotion.

perceptual set? give ex.

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another ex. especially when told that child and adult are relatives

what is depth perception?

ability to see 3D when retina is only in 2D. allows us to judge distance

what is audition?

act or sense of hearing think audio!

phi phenomenon?

an illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession. ex. circle ring in class lights blinking on and off

what is psychophysics?

book definition: study of relationships btw the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and psychological experience of them. google definition: the branch of psychology that deals with the relationships between physical stimuli and mental phenomena.

is perception innate or learned?

both river of perception is fed by sensation cognition and emotion which is why we need multiple levels of analysis "simple" perceptions are the brain's creative products

how is bottom-up processing different than top-down processing?

bottom-up is just identifying while top-down is interpreting ex. holding up a pen to class... bottom-up (it is a pen) top-down (blue pen that says rite aid on it)

**phantom limb sensation?

brain creates pain when people experience this when it misinterprets the spontaneous central nervous system activity that occurs in the absence of normal sensory input.

stroboscopic movement?

brain will also perceive continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images ex. flip book

sensorineural hearing loss?

cause by damage to the cochlea receptor cells or to the auditory nerves also called nerve deafness -cant receive signal cause damage receptor cells

conduction hearing loss?

caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea --mechanical system damage therefore can't reach cochlea

middle ear

chamber btw. the eardrum & cochlea containing 3 tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochleas oval window. h. a. s. hammer, anvil, and stirrup

like taste, smell is a _____ ______

chemical sense

cochlea

coiled, bony, fluid filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses.

_______ enable you to perceive color, while ______ enable black and white vision.

cones/rods

what is frequency and how is it related to pitch?

def: the # of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time ex. per sec def: a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

define subliminal. can we sense something below our absolute thresholds? explain.

definition: below ones abs. threshold for conscious awareness -yes! remember abs. threshold mean detection 50% of the time so we can detect below that but rarely

what is transduction? and give ex.

definition: conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transformation of stimulus energies, such as sight, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret into neural messages. -stimulus energy into neural impulses ex. eyes receive light energy and transact them into neural messages

*what are binocular cues?

depth cues such as retinal disparity that depend on use of 2 eyes

*what are monocular cues?

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone

cochlear implant?

device for converting sound into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

what is sensory adaptation and give ex.

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant of constant stimulation or diminished sensitivity that occurs with unchanging stimulation ex. when your in the dark and the lights turn on at first its extremely blinding but then your eyes get use to it and adjust.

retina disparity

each eye has a different view of the world

the ability to identify scents peaks in ______

early adult hood

what is change blindness? give ex.

failing to notice changes in the environment. ex. if Mr. L changed posters around in room and didn't notice

what is inattentional blindness? give ex.

failing to see a visual object when our attention is directed elswhere ex. video with watching how many passes...miss the gorilla walking through

closure?

fill in gaps to make object ex. make a cube

what is selective attention? give ex.

focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. ex: brooke/sam attention part of cocktail party effect!

proximity?

group nearby figures together. ex. sets of line group in 2

similarity?

group sim figs together

what is gestalt

idea or organized whole we like to arrange thing like that

describe perceptual adaptation.

in vision the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. goggles in class.

Label and describe the following parts of the eye. pupil, iris, lens, retina

iris- ring of muscle tissue either dilates or restrict depending on amount of light (controls diameter of pupil) pupil- opening in the center of the iris. The size of the pupil determines the amount of light that enters the eye. The size is controlled by the dilator and sphincter muscles of the iris. retina-a layer at the back of the eyeball containing cells that are sensitive to light and that trigger nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is formed lens-light from a single point of a distant object and light from a single point of a near object being brought to a focus by changing the curvature of the lens.

place theory of pitch perfection? what is the problem?

links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochleas membrane is stimulated. problem? explains only high-pitch, but not low pitch

telepathy

mind to mind communication

*what are feature detectors?

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such a s shape angle and movement. -refers to the process by which nerve cells in the brain respond to specific aspects of visual stimuli, such as movement or shape located in visual cortex.

what is the volley principle?

neural cells alternate firing, by firing in rapid succession, they can achieve a combined frequency above 1000 waves per second. think volley ball

what does it mean when someone is color deficient?

not color blind but rather simply red or green sensitive song or both.

what is figure ground?

organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground) ex. pic w. people in bk

*steps of visual processing

parallel processing: brain cells teams process combined info about color, movement, form, and depth feature detection: brain's receptor cells respond to specific features-gees, lines, and angles retinal processing: scene: recognition: brain interprets the constructed mage based on info from stored images

precognition

perceiving future events

define perceptual constancy.

perceiving objects as unchanging(having consistent shapes, sure etc. even as illumination and retinal images change

clairvoyance

perceiving remote event/ sensing friend house is burning

what is blind spot?

point at which optic nerve leaves the eye creating a "blind spot" b/c no receptor cells are located there.

Define signal detection theory and give examples.

predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid or with background stimulation noises. assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. ex. some teachers are better at calling out cheaters during a test predicts when we will detect weak signals and helps explain why people respond differently to some stimuli

4 basic touch receptors?

pressure warmth cold and pain

describe weber's law

principle that to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant % (rather than constant amount). -webers law concerns difference thresholds (jnd's), not absolute thresholds, and it states that these are constant proportions of the stimuli, not that they remain constant

Define Sensation and give ex.

process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. ex. feeling a warm sensation

what is accommodation? give ex.

process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina ex. reading a book vs reading a road directions on signs

Define perception

process of organizing and interpreting sensory info enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. -the way someone sees something can be similar or different.

what is parallel processing and give ex.

processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of info processing many functions ex. vision (color movement form and depth).

frequency theory ? problem?

rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. problem? explains only low-pitch, but not high pitch.

after processing by the retina, what happens next?

retina helps encode and analyze the sensory info -130 mil receptor rods and cones travel to your bipolar then to your mil cells through their axons making up the optic nerve, to your brain.

Label and describe the following parts of the retina: rods, cones, and optic nerve

rods: clack and white cones: colors optic nerve: conations neurons that relay nerve impulses from the retina to higher centers in the visual system google definition: each of the second pair of cranial nerves, transmitting impulses to the brain from the retina at the back of the eye

vestibular sense? where is it located?

sense of body movement and position including sense of balance. located inner ear

how can retinal cells misfire?

sensitivity can lead to cells misfiring

nociceptors?

sensory detectors that detect hurtful temps, pressure of chemical etc.

gate-control therapy?

spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass onto the brain

the _______ of sound waves determines their ______.

strength/loudness

what is parapsychology?

study of paranormal phenomenon including ESP and psycokinesis

5 sensation?

sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami

kinethesis?

system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts ex. touching nose with eyes closed

what was the fundamental truth that gestalt psychologists illustrate?

tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes

what does smell not pass through?

thalamus

what did an experiment conclude about much of our info processing?

that much of our information occurs automatically out of sight, off the radar screen of our conscious mind -occurs in the back of mind

what is the fovea?

the central point in the retina, around which the eyes cones cluster

define ESP.

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition

inner ear

the innermost part of the ear containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

what is different threshold? +ex.

the minimum difference btw 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time, we experience this as just noticeable difference. ex. an image & adding something notice change 50% of the time

define absolute threshold and give examples.

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. ex. detecting sound in each ear/testing (the smallest sound the the ear can detect 50% of the time)

describe sensory interaction and give ex.

the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influence its taste.

in visual info processing, what happens at the entry level?

the retina processes info before routing it via thalamus to the brains cortex visual info-retina-thalamus-brains cortex

*what is the opponent-process theory? how does it explain after images? give ex.

theory that opposing retinal process (red-green, and yellow-blue, white-black)enable color vision. ex. flag demonstration staring at green for a while then see yellow

feature detector are located where?

visual cortex

describe the terms wavelength, hue, and intensity and discuss how they relate to vision

wavelenth is the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of next. That wavelength determines the hue or color. ex. red is long wavelength. Intensity is the amount of energy in light waves (how tall wavelength is).

what is a benefit of sensory adaptation?

we are constantly adapting to our senses and it makes it easier for us to be in different situations.

how is our sense of touch a mix of distinct sense?

we have diff types of specialized nerve ending with in the skin

connectedness?

we like uniformed and linked

continuity?

we make the lines smooth and continuous

how do we measure sounds? how are these used in the increase of sound intensity?

we measure sound in decibels. the abs. threshold for hearing is arbitrarily defined as zero decibels/ every 10 decibels correspond to a tenfold increase in sound intensity.

describe the experience of smell(olfaction).

we smell something when molecules of a substance carried in the air reach a tiny cluster of 5 mil or more receptor cells at the top of each naval cavity. olfactory cells respond selectively. odor molecules are receptor proteins are embedded in the surface of nasal cavity neurons.

what does it mean that focus listing comes at a cost?

when you focus on something you miss out on other big ideas or details from just focusing on that one thing ex. headphone, ringing in one ear told to focus missed out on other ear

describe and give ex. of lightness constancy

white paper reflects 90% of the light falling on it; black paper only 10% in sunlight black may reflect 100 times more light than white paper viewed indoors

does depth perception grow with age?

yes

what happens if hair cells are damaged?

you would not be able to hear bc they cannot transfer sound to electrical waves and b/c the sound would be too low.