Sensation
What is sensation?
Detecting physical stimuli (light, sound, touch) with sensory receptors. And send signals to brain.
What is perception?
Interpreting and organizing sensory information to recognize meaningful objects and events.
The five senses are
Sight-vision, hearing-audition, taste-gustation, smell-olfaction, touch-somatosensation.
What is a blind spot?
Spot where optic nerve leaves eye; no receptors.
What is audition?
Hearing; processing sound waves.
How is bottom-up processing different than top-down processing?
Bottom-up starts with senses and builds up to the brain.
Top-down brain uses experiences/expectations to interpret senses.
Define perceptual constancy:
Seeing objects as unchanged (size, shape, color) even when they look different.
What does the term gustation mean? What are the 5 gustatory receptors?
Taste; sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami.
Wavelength determines______________, whereas amplitude determines______________.
Color and brightness
Amplitude of sound waves determines__________. Frequency of sound waves determines__________.
amplitude-loudness
frequency-pitch
What is selective attention? Give an example.
Focusing on one thing while ignoring others (like hearing your name across a loud room)
Describe and give an example of lightness constancy.
A white shirt looks white in sunlight and shade.
Why is smell closely tied to memory?
Smell connects directly to memory/emotion areas in the brain. amygdala and hippocampus.
Describe the difference between rods and cones. Where are each located?
Rods= sensitive to low light, no color, mostly in peripheral retina.
Cones= detect color and fine detail, concentrated in the fovea (center of retina).
Describe the place theory of pitch perception.
Different frequencies stimulate different places along the cochlea (high pitch=base, low pitch=apex)
Explain absolute threshold and difference threshold. How are they different?
Absolute=smallest stimulus you can detect.
Difference= smallest change you can notice (between 2 stimuli)
Describe and give an example of color constancy.
A red apple looks red in different lighting.
What is kinesthesis sense and where is it located?
Sense of body position and movement; in muscles/joints.
What is parallel processing? Give an example.
Brain processes color, motion, shape at the same time.
Describe the frequency theory and volley principle of pitch perception.
frequency-nerve firing rate matches sound.
volley-groups of neurons take turns firing.
Describe Weber's Law:
The just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus (ex; you notice a $5 change more easily on a $20 than a $200)
What is the phi phenomenon?
Illusion of movement when lights flash in sequence (like movie frames).
According to the gate-control theory what do large and small nerve fibers do? And where does the 'gate' take place?
Small fibers= open pain gate (increase pain)
Large fibers=close gate (reduce pain)
Gate is in the spinal cord
How does the opponent-process theory explain color vision and afterimages?
Colors work in pairs (red-green, blue-yellow); explains afterimages.
In locating sounds, why are two ears better than one?
Helps locate sound by comparing timing and loudness.