Sensation & Perception
_______ occur when the sensory organs--the eyes, ears, nose, skin, and taste buds--are activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain.
Sensations
The sensitive surface of the eye that acts like the film in a camera is called
What is the retina
Which flavor is associated with being poisonous?
Bitter
This ability allows you to recognize that a distant person is not shrinking, even though their image on your retina becomes smaller as they move farther away.
What is Size Constancy?
These terms describe depth cues that use one or both of our eyes
monocular cues
binocular cues
Certain parts of the body like your fingertips and lips are very sensitive because they have more of these
What are nerve endings
This theory states that perception of sensory stimulus is influenced by factors such as setting and expectations.
Signal Detection theory
Fluid-filled structure of the inner ear where sound waves are changed to neural impulses.
Cochlea
The sense of taste can be most easily disrupted by blocking which other sense?
Smell
You notice a shirt looks the same, whether seen under fluorescent light in a classroom or soft lighting at home, thanks to this perceptual process.
What is color constancy
A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
What is a visual cliff
What are three parts of touch or the skin senses?
Pressure, temperature and pain
What part of the brain has the job of putting all the sensory information together and acting upon it?
The thalamus then it goes to
Cerebral cortex for further processing
What is the function of cones in our eyes?
They detect color and detailed vision
This is the bulb in your nose that detects small bits of molecules and communicates with the brain
the Olfactory bulb
Even when you see this object from different angles, such as a rectangle turning into a trapezoid on your retina, you still recognize its true form.
What is Shape Constancy
This monocular depth cue involves the tendency to perceive parallel lines converging in the distance, providing cues about the relative distance of objects.
What is linear perspective (Just perspective is also fine)
How does Gate theory work to reduce pain?
flooding brain with other stimulus blocks some pain messages
What is the minimum amount of difference to detect that two stimuli are not the same?
difference threshold
This is a transparent structure that changes shape to focus images on the retina.
The Lens
The official term for the sense of smell
olfaction
This phenomenon explains why a white piece of paper still appears white whether in a brightly lit room or under dim candlelight.
What is Brightness constancy?
This visual phenomenon, essential for depth perception, occurs because each eye receives a slightly different image due to their distinct positions, allowing the brain to perceive depth and three-dimensional space. What is it?
Retinal disparity
What are our kinesthetic senses responsible for?
Sense that tells us the position and motion of our body parts
What is the minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus?
What is the absolute threshold
This term describes the sharpness of your vision
Visual Acuity
List the 5 different taste categories
salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami
What was the key finding from the reading "What you see is what you've learned" about perceptual constancies
Perceptual constancies are learned not inborn
List 3/6 of the monocular cues for vision
1. perspective
2. clearness
3. overlapping
4. shadow
5. gradient texture
6. Motion Parallax
This organ in the inner ear is responsible for telling you that you are physically upright without your eyesight or balance.
Semi-Circular Canals
(Vestibular system)