Psyc 2010 Trombetti Learning Objectives for Exam 1 From Chapter 3
Sensation and Perception
"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the
doors of perception. Aldous Huxley
Introduction: What are Sensation and Perception? pp. 80-84
Distinguish between sensation and perception, giving examples of each.
Sensation is detection and basic sensory experience of sounds, images, and odors.
Perception is how we interpret those things in a meaningful way.
Your eyes’ physical response to light, splotches of color, and lines is sensation.
Organizing those things so that you interpret those colors as a painting, flag, or
other object is perception.
Identify the sense receptors for vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch & pain, the specific
stimulus associated with each, and explain the process of transduction.
Stimulus energy must be in a form that can be detected by our sensory receptor
cells and are sensitive only to specific types of energy otherwise there’d be too
much going on at one time.
Transduction is the process by which physical energy is converted into a coded
neural signal that can be processed by the nervous system.
Discuss the idea of sensory thresholds, and discuss what these imply about human
sensory capacity.
Absolute threshold refers to the smallest possible strength of a stimulus that can
be detected half the time, and difference threshold is the possible difference
between two stimuli that can be detected half the time.
Psychological experience of sensation is relative.
Our sensory abilities are more sensitive than we think.
Explain the process of and give examples of sensory adaptation
Sensory cells become less responsive to a constant stimulus based on duration of
exposure.
Example: in a cold pool and your body gets used to it, but anyone jumping in for
the first time will still think it’s freezing.
Define subliminal perception and the mere exposure effect. Discuss research on the
effects of subliminal presentations on attitudes, preferences, emotions and behavior.
Subliminal perception refers to the detection of stimuli that are below the
threshold of conscious awareness; too faint to be detected. Although not
consciously perceived, it can evoke a brain response.
Mere exposure effect refers to well-documented finding that repeated exposure to
a particular stimulus leads to increased liking for it.
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The process of detecting a physical stimulus, such as light, sound, heat, or pressure.
The process of integrating, organizing, and interpreting sensations
Specialized cells unique to each sense organ that respond to a particular form of sensory stimulation.
The process by which a form of physical energy is converted into a coded neural signal that can be processed by the nervous system.
The smallest possible strength of a stimulus that can be detected half the time.
The smallest possible difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time.
A principle of sensation that holds that the size of the just noticeable difference will vary depending on its strength in relationship to the original stimulus.
The perception of stimuli that are below the threshold of conscious awareness.
The decline in sensitivity to a constant stimulus.
the distance from one wave peak to another.
A clear membrane covering the visible part of the eye that helps gather and direct incoming light.
The white portion of the eye.
The opening in the middle of the iris that changes in size to let in different amounts of light.
The colored part of the eye, which is the muscle that controls the size of the pupil.
A transparent structure located behind the pupil that actively focuses, or bends, light as it enters the eye.
The process by which the lens changes shape to focus incoming light so that it falls on the retina.
Abnormality in the shape of the eye causing distant objects to appear blurry.
Abnormality in the shape of the eye causing objects near the eyes to appear blurry.
A thin, light-sensitive membrane located at the back of the eye that contains the sensory receptors for vision.
The long, thin, blunt sensory receptors of the eye that are highly sensitive to light, but not to color, and that are primarily responsible for peripheral vision and night vision.
The short, thick, pointed sensory receptors of the eye that detect color and are responsible for color vision and visual acuity.
A small area in the center of the retina, composed entirely of cones, where visual information is most sharply focused.
Area of the retina without rods or cones, where the optic nerve exits the back of the eye.
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, producing a small gap in the field of vision.
In the retina, the specialized neurons that connect to the bipolar cells; the bundled axons of which form the optic nerve.
Photoreceptor which adapts slowly to bright light.
Photoreceptor which reacts quickly to bright light.
In the retina, the specialized neurons that connect the rods and cones with the ganglion cells.
The thick nerve that exits from the back of the eye and carries visual information to the visual cortex in the brain.
Point in the brain where the optic nerve fibers from each eye meet and partly cross over to the opposite side of the brain.
The perceptual experience of different wavelengths of light, involving hue, saturation, and brightness.
The property of wavelengths of light known as color; different wavelengths correspond to our subjective experience of different colors.
The property of color that corresponds to the purity of the light wave.
The perceived intensity of a color, which corresponds to the amplitude of the light wave.
The theory that the sensation of color results because cones in the retina are especially sensitive to red light, green light, or blue light.
trichromatic theory of color vision
One of several inherited forms of color deficiency or weakness in which an individual cannot distinguish between certain colors.
A visual experience that occurs after the original source of stimulation is no longer present.
The theory that color vision is the product of opposing pairs of color receptors, red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white; when one member of a color pair is stimulated, the other member is inhibited.
opponent-process theory of color vision
The technical term for the sense of hearing.
The intensity (or amplitude) of a sound wave, measured in decibels.
The unit of measurement for loudness.
The relative highness or lowness of a sound, determined by the frequency of a sound wave.
The distinctive quality of a sound, determined by the complexity of the sound wave.
The part of the ear that collects sound waves; consists of the pinna, the ear canal, and the eardrum.
A tightly stretched membrane at the end of the ear canal that vibrates when hit by sound waves.
The part of the ear that amplifies sound waves; consists of three small bones: the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup.
The part of the ear where sound is transduced into neural impulses; consists of the cochlea and semicircular canals.
The coiled, fluid-filled inner ear structure that contains the basilar membrane and hair cells.
The membrane within the cochlea of the ear that contains the hair cells.
The hairlike sensory receptors for sound, which are embedded in the basilar membrane of the cochlea.
Technical name for the sense of smell.
Technical name for the sense of taste.
Chemical signals released by an animal which communicate information and affect the behavior of other animals of the same species.
The enlarged ending of the olfactory cortex at the front of the brain where the sensation of smell is registered.
The specialized sensory receptors for taste that are located on the tongue and inside the mouth and throat.
The unpleasant sensation of physical discomfort or suffering that can occur in varying degrees of intensity.
Specialized sensory receptors for pain that are found in the skin, muscles, and internal organs.
A neurotransmitter that is involved in the transmission of pain messages to the brain.
The theory that pain is a product of both physiological and psychological factors that cause spinal gates to open and relay patterns of intense stimulation to the brain, which perceives them as pain.
gate control theory of pain
The technical name for the sense of location and position of body parts in relation to one another.
Sensory receptors, located in the muscles and joints, that provide information about body position and movement.
The technical name for the sense of balance, or equilibrium.
Information processing that emphasizes the importance of sensory receptors in detecting the basic features of a stimulus in the process of recognizing a whole pattern.
Information processing that emphasizes the importance of the observer's knowledge, expectations, and other cognitive processes in arriving at meaningful perceptions; analysis that moves from the whole to the parts; also called conceptually driven processing.
A school of psychology founded in Germany in the early 1900s that maintained that our sensations are actively processed according to consistent perceptual rules that result in meaningful whole perceptions, or gestalts.
A gestalt principle of perceptual organization that states that we automatically separate the elements of perception into the feature that clearly stands out (the figure) and its less distinct background (the ground).
figure-ground relationship
Perception of information by some means other than through the normal process of sensation.
ESP (extrasensory perception)
The scientific investigation of claims of paranormal phenomena and abilities.
The use of visual cues to perceive the distance or three-dimensional characteristics of objects.
Distance or depth cues that can be processed by either eye alone.
Distance or depth cues that require the use of both eyes.
The tendency to perceive objects, especially familiar objects, as constant and unchanging despite changes in sensory inputs.
The perception of an object as maintaining its size despite changing images on the retina.
The perception of a familiar object as maintaining the same shape regardless of the image produced on the retina.
The misperception of the of the true characteristics of an object or image.
A famous visual illusion involving the perception of the identical length of two lines, one with arrows pointed inward, one with arrows pointed outward.
A visual illusion involving the misperception that the moon is larger when it is on the horizon than when it is directly overhead.
The influence of prior assumptions and expectations on perceptual interpretations.
German Gestalt psychologist who is best known for his studies on the perception of motion; also studied the perception of pain and the effects of past experience on perception; immigrated to the United States in 1938.
German psychologist who founded Gestalt psychology in the early 1900s, immigrated to the United States in 1933, studied the optical illusion of apparent movement, and described the principles of perception.
Specialized sensory receptors for pain that are found in the skin, muscles and internal organs.
A condition characterized by a partial or complete loss of the sense of smell.
The body's natural painkillers that are procuced in many parts of the brain and body.
endorphins and enkephalins
A taste category that involves the distinctive taste of monosodium glutamate, aged cheeses, mushrooms, seaweed, and protien rich foods such as meat
A phenomenon in which a person continues to experience intense painful sensations in a limb that has been amputated.
Myelinated nociceptors involved in the fast pain system that transmit sharp, intense, but short lived pain signals, immediately following a surgery.
law that states when several perceptual organizations are possible, the perceptual interpretation that will occur will be the one that produces the best, simplest, and most stable shape.
Monocular cue that suggests that faraway objects appear hazy or slightly blurred.
Gestalt principle of organization that refers to the tendency to percieve objects that are close to one another as a unit or figure.
Binocular cue that relies on the fact that our eyes are set a couple of inches apart and thus cast slightly different images on the retina of each eye.
According to the trichomatic theory of color vision, color results becasue cones in the eye are especially sensitive to which three colors of light?