True or False and explain:We do not experience the world directly.
False, We experience it throguh a series of "filters" known as senses
Why does the brain sense the world indirectly?
Because the sense organs convert stimulation into the language of the nervous system
What is the language of the nervous system?
Neural messages
Sensory psychology
The study of senses and their effect on our behavior
Sensation
The process by which our stimulated sensory receptors (eyes, ears...) and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment.
True or false and why:Our sense organs are not alike at all.
False, All of our sense organs are very much alike. They all transform physical stimulation (such as light waves or sound waves) into the neural impulses that give us sensations (such as light and dark).
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
_______ creates an interpretation and elaboration of ______
Perception; sensation
_______ refers to the initial steps in the _______ of a stimulus.
Sensation; processing
Psychophysics
Relationship between physical stimuli and our psychological experiences to them
In all of our sense organs, what is the job of sensory receptors?
To convert incoming stimuli information into electrochemical signals- neural activity.
Where does transduction occur?
In the sensory receptors
Transduction
The sensory process that converts energy such as light or sound waves into the form of neural messages.
During transduction, information goes from the senses to the ______, then to the various areas of the brain.
Thalamus
What does transduction begin with?
The detection by a sensory neuron of a physical stimulus.
During transduction, when the appropriate stimulus reaches the sense organ, what occurs?
It activates specialized neurons called receptors.
During transduction, the receptors respond by doing what?
Converting their excitation into a nerve signal.
What is a way to think of transduction?
A bar code scanner
Vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, pain and body position are all similar for what three reasons?
1) They all transduce stimulus energy into neural impulses2) They are all more sensitive to change than to constant stimulation.3) They all provide us with information about the environment we are in.
Our senses are different in one way, what is it?
With the exception of pain, all the senses taps a different form of stimulus and each sends the information it gathers to a different part of the brain. Each sense operates in much of the same way but each extracts different information and sends it to its own specialized processing region of the brain.
Why do different sensations occur (see a bell or hear a bell)?
Because different areas of the brain become activated
The ________ carries a code of the sensory event in a form that can be further processed by the brain.
Neural impulse
Sensory adaption is critically influenced by what?
Change, so our sense organs are change detectors
Change detectors specialize in what?
Gathering information about new and changing events
Sensory adaption
The diminishing responsiveness of our sensory systems to prolonged stimulation.
Stimulation that usually persists without change in intensity usually shifts to the background of our awareness unless what?
The stimulation is quiet, intense or painful
The concept of sensory adaption applies to _______ of our senses.
all
Absolute Threshold
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
Difference threshold
The minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli
Difference threshold is also known as what?
Just-noticeable difference
Weber's Law is related to what other threshold?
JND or difference threshold
Ernst Weber noted what?
That for people to really perceive a difference, the stimuli must differ by a constant proportion not a constant amount.
What makes the perceptual difference with Weber's Law?
The change in proportion rather than the change in amount
Fechners Law
The size of JND is proportional to the intensity of the stimulus, the JND is large when the intensity of the stimulus is high
Steven's Power Law
A law of magnitude that is more accurate than Fechner's Law and covers a wide variety of stimuli
Signal Detection theory
predicts how we detect a stimulus amid other stimuli and assumes that we do not have an absolute threshold
We detect things based on what three things?
Our experiences, motivations and fatigue level
Subliminal stimulation
below ones absolute threshold for conscious awareness
Does subliminal stimulation work?
Slide studies showed some emotional reactivity (called priming a response) but the effects are subtle and fleeting
What is the problem with subliminal messages?
People behave at different thresholds at different levels. What may be subliminal (below the threshold) for one person may be supraliminal (above the threshold) for someone else
What is our most dominating sense?
Vision
What is our most complex, best developed, and most important sense for humans?
Vision
What four things does the eye/vision do?
1) gathers light2) focuses it3) converts it to a neural signal4) sends these signals on for further processing
How does the eye work?
The eye transduces the characteristics of light into neural signals that the brain can then process.
Where does transduction occur in the actual eye?
In the retina
What is the retina
The light sensitive layer of cells at the back of the eye
Photoreceptors
Light sensitive cells (neurons) in the retina that convert light energy into neural energy
Rods
Photoreceptors that are especially sensitive to dim light but not color
Cones
Photoreceptors that are especially sensitive to colors but not dim light
Cones are responsible for our ability to what
see" colors
What is the area of sharpest vision?
The fovea
What area has the highest concentration of rods and cells?
The fovea
Optic nerve
The bundle of neurons that carries the visual information from the retina to the eye
Once stimulus is changed into a neural impulse, where does it go to get passed on to the brain?
Optic nerve
Blind spot
The point where the optic nerve exits the eye and where there are no photoreceptors
Any stimulus that falls in what area can not be seen?
Blind spot
What occurs in the visual cortex
The brain begins working by transforming neural impulses into visual sensations of color, form, boundary and movement.
Parallel processing
The simultaneous processing of several aspects of a problem
Different parts of the what are used to identify different images?
Visual cortex
Feature detectors
Specific cells that see the lines, motion, curves, and features of an image
opponent processing theory
there are some color combinations that we never see, such as redish green or yellowish blue
Color perception is controlled by what?
the activity of two opponent systems: a blue-yellow mechanism and a red-green mechanism
we only use what type of energy to see
Light energy
Wavelength
The distance from the peak of one light wave to the peak of the next.
The distance obtained from wavelength determines what?
The hue (color) of the light we perceive
Intensity
the amount of energy in a lightwave
intensity is determined by what
the height of the wave
The _____ the wave, the ___ intense the light is.
Higher; more
True or false and why: Color does not exist outside of the brain
True, color is a perception that the brain creates based on the wavelength of light striking our eyes
When is color created?
When the wavelength in a beam of light is recorded by the photoreceptors in the form of neural impulses
After a wavelength is recorded by the photoreceptors, where does it then go?
To specific regions of the brain for processing
What are the three types of color blindness?
1) Inherited 2) Partial3) Complete
Inherited color blindness is most common in who?
Males
Inherited color blindness
affects both eyes, but does not worsen over time
Partial color blindness
Affects some colors
Complete color blindness
rare, affects all your color vision
What is the most common variation of color blindness?
Color weakness, where people have a hard time distinguishing between certain colors
True or false and why:Light has no real color
True, it is our mind that perceives the color
Young Helmholtz Trichromatic (three color ) theory
Realized that color can be created by combining the light waves of three primary colorsRedGreen Blue
What did the Young Helmholtz Trichromatic (three color ) theory guess?
That we have 3 different types of receptor cells in our eyes. Together they can pick any combination of our 7 million color variations.
Most colorblind people simply lack what?
Cone receptor cells for one or more of the primary colors
Hearing is also known as our what sense?
Auditory
Hearing occurs when what (general)?
The vibrational energy of vibrating objects, such as guitar strings, transfer the surrounding medium, air- as the vibrating objects push the molecules of the medium back and forth
What are the two physical characteristics of sound?
FrequencyAmplitude
Frequency
The number of cycles of complete wavelengths in a given amount of time
Frequency determines what?
The pitch of a sound
Amplitude
How loud the sound is. The higher the crest of the wave, the louder the sound. It is measured in decibels.
The maximum extent of a vibration or displacement of a wave is measured from what?
The position of equilibrium
Place theory
Different hairs vibrate in the cochlea when they hear/interpret different pitches. So some hairs vibrate when they hear high pitches and other vibrate when they hear low pitches.
Frequency theory
The rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone thus enabling us to sense the pitch. all of the hairs vibrate but at different speeds.
Conduction deafness
An inability to hear, resulting from damage to the structures of the middle or inner ear
What are 2 solutions for conduction deafness?
1) Replace the bones2) Get a hearing aid to help
Nerve (sensorineural) deafness
The inability to hear, linked to a deficit in the body's ability to transmit impulses from the cochlea to the brain. The hair cells in the cochlea get damaged. Loud noises can cause this.
How can you fix nerve deafness?
There is no way to replace the hairs, but a cochlea implant is possible
What are the two physical mechanisms that keep track of body position?
1) Vestibular sense2) Kinesthetic sense
Vestibular sense
tells us where our body is oriented in space and maintains our sense of balance
What are the receptors for vestibular sense like?
Tiny hairs in the semicircular canal of the inner ear
Kinesthetic sense
keeps track of body parts, relative to each other, it provides constant sensory feedback about what the muscles in your body are doing.
What are the kinesthetic sense receptors like?
They reside in joints, muscles, and tendons. They are usually automatic unless the person is learning a new skill.
Why do we study smell and taste together?
Because of sensory interaction
Sensory interaction
the principle that one sense may influence another
The sense of taste is also known as what
gustation
Human taste has what four qualities?
1) Sour2) Sweet3) Bitter4) Salty(occasionally unami)
Specialized nerves carry nothing but ___ messages to the brain.
Taste
Taste is realized on what?
a specialized region of the parietal lobe's somatosensory cortex
Taste and smell are both what types of senses?
Chemical
Papillae
The bumps on our tongue that help grip food while our teeth are chewing. They also contain our taste buds.
Taste receptors can be frequently damaged by what? and what replaces them?
Alcohol, smoke, acids or hot foods; gustatory receptors
The sense of smell is also called
olfaction
what first occurs with smell?
odors first interact with receptor proteins associated with hairs in the nose
what is the second step of smell
the hairs convey information to the brains olfactory brain, located on the underside of the brain.
In humans, olfaction has a close connection with what?
Memory
Phremones
Chemical messengers that are picked up through our sense of smell, founded in the early 1930s by studying silkworms. we are unsure of whether they exist in humans.
Touch occurs through what
receptors located in our skin
Gate control theory of pain
The spinal cord contains a neurological gate that either blocks pain signals or allows them to continue onto the brain. Ultimately, pain signals are routed to the anterior eingulate cortex located along the fissure separating the frontal lobes.
Pain is sensed by two different pathways, whats the difference between the two?
One moves very fast, one slow
The level of pain felt results from the combination of what
Information from the 2 pathways
How does pain medication work?
By blocking the faster of the two neural pathways
Bottom up processing
Analysis that emphasizes the characteristics of the stimuli rather than our concepts and expectations
top down processing
analysis that emphasizes the perceiver's expectations, concept, memories and other cognitive factors rather than individual characteristics
illusion
when your mind interprets an image that is demonstrably incorrect
perceptual consistency
the ability to recognize the same object as remaining constant under changing conditions
what are three examples of perceptual constancy?
1) Size (different distances)2) Color (different lighting)3) Shape (different angles)
In-attentional blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Change Blindness
Failure to notice change in the environment around us
Choice blindness
Failing to notice a change in a previously selected item
Why does the hermann grid illusion work?
The way the receptor cells in your visual pathway interact with each other
What do Gestalt psychologists argue?
the brain forms a perceptual whole that is more than the mere sum of its sensory parts
gestalt psychology divides perceptual experience into what two things
figure and ground
figure
the part of a pattern that commands attention and stands out
ground
the part of the pattern that does not command attention, the background
Closure
humans have a natural tendency to perceive stimuli as complete and balanced even when pieces are missing. our minds make us see incomplete images as wholes by supplying the missing segments or filling in gaps.
perceptual set
a readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a given situation (when you are staying home alone and you notice every noise and think that is a threat)
Perceptual set
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, based on schemas
law of similarity
the gestalt principle that we tend to group similar objects together in our perceptions
law of proximity
the gestalt principle that we tend to group objects together when they are near each other
law of common fate
the gestalt principle that we tend to group similar objects together that share a common motion or destination (think a flock of birds)
laws of pragnanz
the gestalt principle which states that the simplest organization requiring the least cognitive effort will emerge as the figure. your mind wants to make the most meaningful yet easiest interpretation of stimuli that it can make
selective attention
the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
cocktail party effect
describes the ability to focus one's listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversations and the background noises, ignoring other conversations. a form of selective attention
depth perception
the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are 2d. allows us to judge distance.
binocular cues
how we transform 2d objects to 3d perception. depth cues that depend on both eyes.
monocular cues
how we transform 2d objects to 3d perception. depth cues that depend on one eye
retinal disparity (binocular parallax)
refers to the fact that our eyes are about 6.3 cm apart on our face on average and as a result each sees the world from a slightly different angle. the closer an object comes to you the greater the disparity is between the two images.
accommodation
the tension of the muscle that changes the focal length of the lens of the eye. it brings into focus objects at different distances. the depth cue is quite weak and only effective at short viewing distances.
convergence
a binocular cue. when watching an objet close to us, our eyes point slightly inward. the difference in the direction of the eyes is called convergence. the depth cue is effective only on short distances
interposition
a monocular cue, if something is blocking our view we perceive it as being closer
relative size
a monocular cue, if we know that two objects are similar in size, that one looks smaller is farther away
relative clarity
monocular cue, we assume hazy objects are farther away
texture gradient
monocular cue, the coarser it looks, the closer it is
relative height
monocular cue, things higher in our field of vision, they look farther away
relative motion
monocular cue, things that are closer appear to move more quickly
linear perspective
monocular cue, parallel lines seem to converge with distance
light and shadow
monocular cue, dimmer objects appear farther away bc they reflect less light
perceptual adaptation
in vision the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
context effects
based on immediate context, not schemas. you do not hear the word but can guess it based on the context it was said in
motion perception
we perceive motion incredibly well, we judge mostly by the size of the object
phi phenomenon
an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession
describe the process of hearing
1) the middle ear transmits the vibrations (sound waves) hit the eardrum then the anvil then hammer, stirrup, cochlea, membrane (oval window)2) The incoming vibrations cause the cochlea's membrane (oval window) to vibrate, moving the fluid hat fills the tube. This motion causes ripples in the basilar membrane (hair cells). 3) the movement of cells triggers impulses in the adjacent nerve fibers which form the auditory nerve that connects via the thalamus to the temporal lobe.
External ear
the outer visible portion of the ear that collects and directs sound waves toward the tympanic membrane by way of a canal that extends inward toward the temporal bone
middle ear
the outer portion of the ear, consisting of the auride and canal extending to the tympanic membrane
internal ear
the semicircular canals and cochlea, which form the organs of balance and hearing and are embedded in the temporal bone
external auditory canal
the passage leading inward through the tympanic portion of the temporal bone, from the auricle to the tympanic membrane
malleus (hammer)
hammer shaped bone in the middle ear that is attached to the inner surface of the tympanic membrane that transmits sound vibrations
incus (anvil)
one of three ossicles of the middle ear that conducts sound vibrations from the malleus to stapes
stapes (stirrup)
one of three ossicles in the middle ear that transmits sound vibrations from the incus to the internal ear
semicircular canal
2 semicircular interconnected tubes located inside each ear that are a component of the bony labrinyth
cochlea
primary organ of hearing, coiled tube in inner ear, where sound waves are translated into messages
auditory nerve
connects inner ear to brainstem and is responsible for hearing and balance
oval window
kidney shaped opening leading from the tympanic membrane to the vestibule of the inner ear
tympanic membrane
tightly stretched sheet of tissue
organ of corti
structure in the cochlea of inner ear that produces nerve impulses in reponse to sound vibrations
cornea
transparent layer forming the front of the eyes
lens
transparent structure behind the iris, colored part of eye that bends light rays
dilate
when dark, iris gets bigger and vice versa
pupil
expanding and contracting opening in iris of eye, light passes to retina
black
absorbs all colors of visible spectrum and reflects none of them to the eye
white
results as a sum of all possible colors
ganglion cells
a type of neuron located near the inner surface
lateral geniculate nucleus
relay center in the thalamus for visual pathway that receives a major sensory input from the retina
optic chiasm
x shaped structure formed by crossing of optic nerves in the brain
olfactory bulb
neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in the sense of smell
explain the connection between sense smell and limbic system. what might this explain?
smell cells in nose, known as the olfactory bulb, is connected to the limbic system, which takes care of emotion and long term memory. this could explain why our sense of smell may be a powerful trigger for memory.
gustav fechner
considered to be the founder of psychophysics and thus of experimental psychology of a whole
david hubel
a canadian neurophysiologist noted for his studies of the structure and function of the visual cortex
torsten wiesel
discovered feature detectors
max wetheimer
founder of gestalt psychology who studied phi-phonomenon
linda bartoshuk
studied sensitivity of the tongue
carl pulfrich
developed pulfrich effect
false positive
when we perceive a stimulus that is not there
false negative
not perceiving a stimulus that is present
schemata
describes a position of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationship among them
backmasking
a technique that involves presenting one visual stimulus immediately after another brief target visual
brightness constancy
the tendency for a visual object to be perceived as having the same brightness under widely different conditions of illumination
stroboscopic effect
visual phenomenon caused by aliasing that occurs when continuous motion is represented by a series of short or instantaneous samples
autokinetic effect
a phenomenon of visual perception in which a stationary is a small point of light in an otherwise dark or featureless environment appears to move