Vision
You walk from a dark movie theater to outside (bright and sunny) and can barely see for a few seconds. Why does this happen?
Your pupil constricts (light adaptation)
Damage to a specific region of the inner ear makes it difficult for someone to hear certain pitches but not others.
pitch being tied to location along the basilar membrane
someone with damage to the back of their brain struggle to interpret visual input even though their eyes work perfectly fine
the brain fails to process visual information
you dont notice the feeling of your clothes on your skin after a while
sensory adaptation
Spicy food feels "Hot" but this sensation is actually caused by pain receptors
activation of pain receptors influencing taste
a person can see shapes clearly but struggle to distinguish colors in dim light. HINT: one photoreceptor is works better in low light
rods are more active then cones
Inside the inner ear, sound vibrations travel through fluid and trigger tiny hair cells that convert them into neural signals.
transduction occurring in the cochlea
you recognize a song just from the first few notes because your brain uses your past experiences to interpret the sound
Top-Down processing
youre abe to tell the difference between a 3 pound weight and a 5 pound weight, but you cant tell the difference between a 40 pound weight and 42 pounds
proportional difference detection (just noticble difference)
you can touch your nose with your eyes closed because your brain knows where it is
body position sense
after staring at a bright green image, you look at a white wall and briefly see red. What theory explains this phenomenon?
opponent-color processing theory
A high-pitched whistle activates a very specific location along a membrane in the inner ear, while a low drumbeat activates a different area.
What is place theory explaining pitch
An infant explores the world primarily by building perception directly from sensory input rather than prior knowledge (what type of processing are they using)
Bottom up processing
a teacher expects a student to do poorly, they then automatically interpret all their answers negativly even though they are correct. What kind of INFLUENCE causes this?
top-down influencing (You think itll be that way so you perceive it that way)
after spinning in circles, you feel dizzy and off-balanced even after stopping
disruption of the vestibular sense
even though a door opens and its image on your retina changes, you still recognize it as a door, why?
Shape constancy
When listening to a deep bass sound, neurons fire in a rhythmic pattern that matches how fast the sound waves are coming in.
What is frequency theory explaining pitch perception
a person is more likely to feel their phone vibrate when expecting an important message, even if the vibration is very faint
lower detection threshold due to expection (signal detection)
why do you see a triangle even with no lines, just strategically places dots
gestalt (clousre)
after touching an icepack for a while it starts to feel less warm even though the temperature hasnt changed
Sensory adaptation
When you look at a bright object and then quickly shift your gaze, you briefly notice a dark spot where the image disappears because there are no receptors in that area.
What is the blind spot (where the optic nerve leaves the eye)
You’re listening to music through headphones, and when one earbud stops working, the sound feels flatter and harder to fully experience, even though you can still hear it.
What is the brain using input from both ears to fully process sound (binaural hearing/loss of spatial processing)?
youre trying to study in a quiet room when you hear a faint humming sound. Your friend who's in the same room as you doesn't hear anything, even though the sound is the same
what is signal detection theory
people looking at the same image might report seeing different things, why?
perceptual set influenced interpretation
why does food taste bland when youre sick?
One sense influencing another (you cant smell so you cant taste)
OR
One sensory system is impaired which affects another one)