Sensation and Perception Notecards

_________________________ depend on the movement of both eyes in accurate depth perception. o Binocular depth cures. Examples of binocular cues for depth perception include convergence, retinal disparity, and constancy. The _________ principles of organization help explain how we group our sensations and fill in gaps to make sense out of our world o Gestalt. These principles are: Similarity principle Seeing similar objects as groups Closure Principle Filling in gaps in familiar patterns Continuity principle Tendency to see continuous patterns, not interrupted ones. Simplicity principle Seeing the simplest shapes possible Proximity principle Tendency to perceive similar objects as groups or sets Describe the pathway of sound from the outer ear to the brain o The outer ear receives sound waves, the earflap directs the sound down the auditory canal to the eardrum. The eardrums vibration causes the bones in the middle ear to vibrate, pushing them against the cochlea. The cochlea hairs turn sound vibrations into neural impulses. The auditory nerve sends the impulses to the cerebral cortex of the brain What is the difference between sensation and perception? o A sensation is the activation of a sensory receptor by a stimulus. o A perception is the organization of sensation into meaningful experiences. Perceiving info about the world through means other than the sense is known as _________________. o Extrasensory perception (ESP). 4 types Clairvoyance Perceiving objects or info without sensory input Telepathy Involves reading someone elses mind or transferring ones thoughts Psychokinesis Moving objects with your mind Precognition Ability to foretell events o Many people are interested in ESP, but no scientific evidence supports the existences of these skills

Why can we see steadily and read street signs even when we are walking and running? o The vestibular system regulates the bodys sense of balance. The fluid in the semicircular canals moves as our bodies move, which allows our eyes to stay focused and keeps us from getting dizzy. Why can we see steadily and read street signs even when we are walking and running? o The vestibular system regulates the bodys sense of balance. The fluid in the semicircular canals moves as our bodies move, which allows our eyes to stay focused and keeps us from getting dizzy. The ____________ carries impulses from the inner ear to the brain, resulting in the sensation of sound. o Auditory nerve. Loudness of sound is determined by the amplitude, or height, of sound waves. The strength, or sound pressure, is measured in decibels. Pitch depends on sound-wave frequency, or the rate of the vibration of the medium through which the sound wave is transmitted. ____________ is the ability to discriminate properly between figure and ground o Figure-ground perception. When you look at a 3-D object against the sky, you have no trouble distinguishing between the object and its background. Objects become the figure and stand out from the background. Since we have 2 eyes, why dont we see in double vision? o The visual system receives 2 images, but we see a single image, composed of a combination of the 2 images called binocular fusion. Not only does the visual system receive 2 images, but there is also a difference between the images on the retinas, called retinal disparity. When the 2 images are combined, we see the object as 3-D and solid. According to the _______________________, we can lessen some pains by shifting our attention away from the pain impulses or by sending other signals to compete with pain signals. o Gate control theory of pain. When pain and non-pain impulses compete, it creates a bottleneck or gate that limits the number of impulses that can be transmitted. For instance, if you stub your toe and then rub it, you increase the non-pain impulses and decrease the pain impulses, and the sensation of pain is dulled. ____________allows people to notice differences in sensations and react to the challenges of different or changing stimuli. o Sensory adaptation. We are able to respond to changes in our environment because our senses have the ability to adapt, or adjust themselves, to a constant level of stimulation. They get used to a new level and respond only to changes away from it. __________________ carries smell impulses from the nose to the brain. o The olfactory nerve. For a person to smell something, the appropriate molecules must come into contact with the smell receptors in the nose. These molecules enter the nose in vapors that reach a special membrane where the smell receptors are located, which then send messages about smells through the olfactory nerve to the brain. What is the electromagnetic spectrum and why do we only see a portion of it?

It includes radio waves, microwaves, light, infrared radiation, ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and gamma rays. The receptors in our eyes allow us to see only certain wavelengths. How does vision occur? o Light enters the eye through the pupil and reaches the lens, a flexible structure that focuses light on the retina. The retina contains 2 types of light- sensitive receptor cells, or photoreceptors, called rods and cones, which change light energy into neural impulses, which then travel over the optic nerve to the brain, where it is routed to the occipital lobe. Advertisers sometimes use ________________________, which are brief auditory or visual messages presented below the absolute threshold so that there is a less than 50% chance that they will be perceived. o Subliminal messages. The idea is that such messages will be perceived only by the unconscious mind, thus influencing thoughts and opinions without the viewers knowing they have been exposed to the idea. There is no clear evidence that subliminal messages are more influential than conscious messages. What are monocular depth cues? o Depth perception cues that can be used by a single eye. People use many monocular depth cues to perceive distance and depth. Some cues we use are relative height, interposition, light and shadows, texture- density gradient, motion parallax, linear perspective, and relative motion. How do illusions demonstrate the difference between sensation and perception? o Sensations are sensory input, while perceptions are the processing of stimuli. Illusions occur when the brain misinterprets the sensory stimuli and processes it incorrectly. What is the difference between the absolute threshold and the difference threshold? o The absolute threshold is the weakest amount of a stimulus required to produce a sensation. o Difference threshold is the minimum amount of distinction a person can detect between two stimuli What is perceptual inference and what makes it possible? o Perceptual inference occurs when the brain fills in the gaps of what our senses are telling us. It is largely automatic and unconscious. We need only a few cues to inform us that a noise we hear is the dog barking or that the road continues on the other side of a hill because we have encountered such stimuli and objects in the past and know what to expect from them in the present. Define: Constancy o The tendency to perceive certain objects in the same way regardless of changing angles, distance, or lighting. An example of constancy is perceiving an object as being the same size whether it is close up or far away. How does the signal-detection theory explain how you may be able to study while listening to music with the television turned on in the background?

The signal-detection theory assumes that humans can choose what stimuli to attend to and block out other surrounding stimuli. Your motivations, sensitivity, and decision making affect your concentration. In addition to the 5 basic senses of smell, taste, touch, vision, and hearing, what are the other 3 senses that humans have? o Sense of balance, or vestibular system, sense of movement and body position, or the kinesthetic system, and pain. What is the psychological principle that explains why you are more likely to notice ten pounds added to an empty backpack than you are to notice the same 10 pounds added to a backpack that already contains one hundred pounds? o Webbers Law Suggests that the larger or stronger the stimulus, the larger the change required for a person to notice that anything has happened to it. In the backpack containing 100 pounds, it would take a larger weight change, such as 50 or 100 pounds to create the same perception of change.