Basic Principles of Sensation and Perception
You are sitting in the gym during one of the noisiest assemblies of the year. Somehow, you perceive it when a friend three rows back uses your name in conversation. This is an example of
cocktail party effect
Contexts effects are related to which type of processing: bottom-up, or top-down. Why?
Top down-- contexts effects are contextual elements that influence our perception
This is the coiled, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear. Sound waves traveling through the fluid trigger nerve impulses
cochlea
The German word for “form” or “whole”. This group of psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
Gestalt
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts is called...
kinesthesia
Describe the difference between sensation and perception
Sensation has to do with the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment; perception is how we organize and interpret sensory objects, which enables us to recognize meaningful objects and events
Influences on perception include our expectations, the context of the situation, and…
Name one other influence on perception. Emotion; motivation
In hearing, this is the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated
place theory
This is an example of a binocular cue, and is used for perceiving depth. By comparing images from both retinas, the brain computes the distance-- how far away the object is. What is the name of this binocular cue?
retinal disparity
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
gate-control theory
You listen to a very short clip of a song, and are having trouble recognizing the word that’s being sung. However, if you’re played a full minute of the song, you’re able to recognize the word. This is an example of which kind of processing?
top-down
The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision. Some cells are simulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.
Opponent-process theory
This refers to hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness
Sensorineural hearing loss
An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession is called… and give a real world example
phi phenomenon; lights on a marquee, Christmas lights
Give an example of sensory interaction.
sensory interaction is the principle that one sense may influence another-- the smell of food influences its taste
Define Weber’s law
For an average person to perceive the difference between two stimuli, the stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage
Carlos watches a cartoon about a rabbit in the morning. Later in the day, his psychology teacher shows him this picture, and he immediately sees a rabbit instead of a duck. Which term describes Carlos’ predisposition to perceive the rabbit and not the duck?
Perceptual set-- a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
You are driving on the highway, and notice a car in the lane to your right. The driver of the car doesn’t seem to notice that you’re there, and starts to merge into your lane. You are able to process the speed of this car, how close it is to you, and the angle at which it’s cutting across your lane at the same time, thanks to…
parallel processing-- our ability to process many aspects of a problem at once
Give and explain one example of a monocular cue
Relative height or size, relative motion, linear perspective, interposition, light and shadow
How would an evolutionary psychologist explain the function of our sense of taste?
Pleasurable tastes attract us to food that will give us energy; bad taste alerted our ancestors to food that may be toxic
What is the percentage difference for weight, light and tones?
2%, 8% and .3%
Your best friend decides to paint her room an extremely bright electric blue. Describe the physical properties of the color's light waves.
Short waves; large amplitude
Identify the two types of photoreceptors in the retina. Name them, and identify one characteristic of each.
Cones/rods-- can speak to the location of each, or the sensitivity to light/color for either
Describe perceptual constancy, and give an example
Perceptual constancy- top-down process, perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change. An example of this is our perception of snow, regardless of environment. Snow still appears white to us, whether illuminated by low moonlight or bright sun.
Jim plays on his school’s soccer team. Recently, he’s been out for a while after a bad fall left him with a sprained wrist. In his first game back, he’s feeling a little anxious about getting hurt again. In the first half of the game, Jim collides with another player and takes another pretty bad fall. All of his teammates are there and watching. How could you describe Jim’s experience of pain from a biopsychosocial approach?
Anticipation/anxiety over getting hurt again = psychological influence, activity in the spinal cord’s large and small fibers = biological influence, presence of his team watching his fall = social-cultural influence