Module 20: Sensation and Perception
Module 22: Vision
Module 23: Visual Organization and Interpretation
Module 24: Hearing
Module 25: The Other Senses
100
Define sensation, perception, bottom up processing, and top down processing
Sensation is the process by which our sensory retires and nervous system receive stimulus energies from our environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information. Bottom up processing begins with the sensory receptors. Top down processing is making perceptions guided by high-level mental processes: experiences and expectations.
100
As we look at a flower, the intensity of the colour we see is related to the wave's... and the hue, or colour, is related to the wave's...
Wave Amplitude (height) determines intensity/brightness. Wavelength is the distance between wave peaks, and it determines hue/colour.
100
How did Gestalt psychologists understand perceptual organization?
They saw how the brain organizes fragments of sensory data into gestalts (wholes), beginning by perceiving and object as distinct from its surroundings (figure-ground), and then ordering the stimuli by organizing them into groups by proximity, continuity, and closure.
100
How do we hear?
Sounds waves are bands of compressed and expanded air. Our ears detected these changes in air pressure and transform them into neural impulses, which the brain decodes as sound
100
How do we sense touch? (four parts)
Touch sensations are a mixture of pressure, warmth, cold, and pain
200
If you move your watchband up and inch, you will feel it for only a few moments. What does this illustrate?
Sensory adaptation
200
Explain how light energy enters the eye. In what order does it go through each part of the eye?
Light energy enters the eye through he cornea, then passes through the pupil which has been made bigger or small by the iris. The lens then focuses light energy particles onto the eye's retina.
200
What is perceptual adaptation?
the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
200
What do short or long wavelengths mean? What do great and small amplitudes mean?
Short wavelength = high frequency = high pitch
long wavelength = low frequency = low pitch
great amplitude = loud sounds
small amplitude = soft sounds
200
What are the differences and similarities of our senses of taste and smell?
Taste is made of five basic sensations: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savoury), and of the aromas that interact with information from the taste receptor cells of the taste buds
there are no basic sensations for smell. we have some 20 million olfactory receptor cells, with about 350 different receptor proteins.
300
What three steps are involved in all our sensory systems and what is transduction?
1. receive sensory stimulation, 2. transform that stimulation into neural impulses, and 3. deliver the neural information to the brain. Transduction is the process of converting one form of energy into another.
300
Explain the differences and similarities of rods and cones
Both convert light energy into neural impulses. Cones are found in and around the fovea, have a direct hotline to the brain, and help us see details and colour.
Rods are found in the outer regions of the retina, they come together to transmit their energy to a single bipolar cell, and they help us see black and white when there's faint light, and see peripheral motion.
300
How do binocular and monocular cues give us depth perception?
monocular cues like linear perspective (lines seem to meet as they get further away) and interposition (closer objects tend to slightly cover further objects) allow each eye alone to perceive depth.
binocular cues, like retinal disparity (comparing images from both eyes), allow the brain to compute distance.
300
How do we detect loudness?
Loudness depends on the number of activated har cells. Louder sound = more hard cells activated.
300
Explain how we experience pain as bottom-up sensations, top-down processes, and gate-control theory
Bottom-up: we receive input from nociceptors, the sensory receptors the detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals
Top-down: our experiences, attention, and culture effect how we experience pain
Gate-control theory: a gate in the spinal cord either opens to permit pain signals to travel up the small nerve fibres to the brain, or closes to prevent them
400
What is the difference between absolute thresholds and different thresholds?
Our absolute threshold for any stimulus is the minimum stimulation needed for us to aware of it 50 percent of the time. Our difference threshold is the minimum difference between stimuli needed for us to determine the difference 50 percent of the time.
400
Explain the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory and Hering's opponent-process theory
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory says the retina has three types of colour receptors (red, green, and blue)
Opponent-process theory says on the way to the brain, neurons in the retina and the thalamus code the color related information from the cones into pairs of opponent colours.
400
Can a person blind from birth, who gained sight after surgery see perfectly normally? Why or why not? What is the critical period?
Experience guides our perceptual interpretations. Without that experience, someone would be unable to visually recognize shapes and forms.
There is a critical period for some aspects of sensory and perceptual development, without it, the brain's neural organization does not develop normally
400
Explain place theory and frequency theory, and which type of sounds they allow us to hear (high or low)
Place theory says that the pitch we hear is linked to the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated (high sounds)
Frequency theory is the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve that matches the frequency of a tone. (low sounds)
400
What is kinaesthesia and vestibular sense?
kinaesthesia: our movement sense - our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
vestibular sense: our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance using the semicircular canals and vestibular sacs to sense the tilt or rotation of our head
500
What is priming and does it persuade us to change our behaviour?
A stimulus, normally that we only perceive on an unconscious level, that predisposes our perceptions, memory, or response. Such as a flash of an angry picture before having to rate a person's kindness. This cannot persuade us to change our behaviour.
500
How does the brain use parallel processing?
The brain uses parallel processing to handle many aspects of vision (colour, movement, form, and depth) simultaneously. Other neural teams integrate the results, comparing them with stored information and enabling perceptions.
500
What are the five perceptual constancies and how do they help us construct meaningful perceptions?
perceptual constancy: perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change
colour constancy: perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected
brightness constancy: our ability to perceive an object as having a constant lightness even when the lighting changes
size constancy: is perceiving objects as unchanging in size despite their changing retinal images
shape constancy: our ability to perceive familiar objects as unchanging in shape
500
How does the ear transform sound energy into neural messages?
Outer ear funnels sound waves to the eardrum
The bones of the middle ear (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) amplify and relay the vibrations through the oval window into the fluid filled cochlea
This causes the basilar membrane to ripple, bending the har cells on its surface which trigger impulses at the base of the nerve cell
these fibres form the auditory nerve which sends messages to the thalamus and then the auditory cortex.
500
Explain sensory interaction and embodied cognition
Sensory interaction: one sense may influence another
embodied cognition: the influence of bodily sensations, gesture, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements (being in a warm room might make you think the people you are with are kinder/warmer)