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75 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
Top-down processing |
Prior knowledge that affects perception. Starting with higher level processes, then working down |
Legos |
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Bottom-up processing |
Processing that begins with raw sensory data (from sensory receptors) that are sent up to the brain. |
Building legos no manual |
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Sensation |
Process of detecting, converting, and transmitting information from the external and internal environments to the brain. Starts with receptors cells in sense organs such as the eyes, which detect and appropriate stimulus. |
Mind's window |
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Perception |
Process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information into meaningful patterns. |
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Sensory reduction |
Process that filters through incoming sensations. Cells in reticular formation sends messages via the thalamus to alert cortex. Reticular formation also screens info |
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Absolute threshold |
Minimum amount of stimulation necessary to detect stimulus. (Ie. Tick of a watch at 20 ft.) |
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Difference threshold |
The amount of increase in stimilus needed to notice a difference (just noticeable difference) |
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Sensory reduction |
Process that filters through incoming sensations because otherwise, we would be overwhelmed by unnecessary info. Involves reticular formation |
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Subliminal |
Pertaining to stimuli presented below conscious awareness. Persuasion minimal, only weak stimuli involved. |
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Sensory adaption |
Sensory systems reduced responsiveness to unchanging stimuli. Receptors get tored and fire less. Smell and touch adapt quickly, never adapt visual. Also not intense stimuli bc important to pay attention to. |
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Gate-control theory |
Theory that pain sensations are processed and altered by mechanisms in the spinal cord. Gate closed by impulses from the brain. When body tissue is damaged, impulses from small fibers open the gate. Chemical p opens the gate, and endorphins close it |
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Coding |
allows stimulus to be interpreted as distinct sensations since the neural impulses travel by different routes from different parts of the brain. |
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Wavelength |
Distance between waves Light: determines the hue we see Sound: frequency determines pitch, short wavelengths=high frequency=high notes |
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Amplitude |
Height of the wave Light: determines intensity or brightness of the light Sound: determines volume |
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Timbre |
Allows us to distinguish between different instrument and voices |
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Complexity (mix) |
Determines whether we see a pure color or one that is a mix of different colors |
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Transduction |
Receptors convert energy from detected stimulus into neural impulses. These are sent along to the brain. |
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Cornea |
Protects the eyes and bends incoming light to provide focis. |
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Iris |
Allows the pupil to dialate in response to light intensity or inner emotions. |
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Lens (accommodation) |
Focuses incoming light rays onto receptors in the back surface. Does this by changing shape (accommodation) |
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Retina |
Light waves are detected and tranducted into neural signals by vision receptor cells (rods and cones) |
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Rods |
Only detect white, black, and gray. Enable us to see in dim light and at night |
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Cones |
Visual receptor cells concentrated near the center of the retina. Responsible for color vision and fine detail most sensitive in brightly lit conditions. |
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Blind spot |
Back of retina lies an area that has no visual receptors and no vision. Point where blood vessels and nerves enter and exit the eyeball. |
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Fovea |
Tiny pit in the center of the retina filled with cones; responsible for Sharp vision |
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Ganglion cells |
Send visual input from the retina to the brain via the optic nerve |
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Trichromatic theory |
States that color perception results from 3 types of cones in the retina: sensitive to either red, green, or blue |
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Opponents process theory |
Herings theory that color perception is based on 3 systems of color opposites: blue-yellow, red-green, and black-white. When one in the pair is stimulated, the other does not fire. Stare at one too long and it get fatigued and burns out. |
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Dual process theory |
Color is processed in a trichromatic fashion at the level of the retina (cones), and in an opponent fashion at the optic nerve and thalamus. |
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Outer ear |
Pinnacle, auditory canal, and eardrum, which funnels sound waves to the middle ear. |
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Middle ear |
Hammer, anvil, and stirrup, which concentrate eardrum vibrations onto the cochlea's oval window. |
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Inner ear |
Cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs Generate neural signals sent to the brain |
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Cochlea |
Three chambered, snail shaped structure in the inner ear containing receptors for hearing |
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How the ear hears |
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Frequency theory |
Explains that pitch perception occurs when nerve impulses sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound wave. Better explains how we hear low sounds |
A sound wave with a frequency of 90 hertz would produce 90 action potentials per second in the auditory nerve |
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Place theory |
Pitch perception corresponds to the particular spot on the basilar membrane that is most stimulated. |
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Olfactory bulb |
Where most olfactory information is processed before being sent to other parts of the brain. Part of the limbic system, temporal responsible for conscious recognition, and limbic system explains the spark of emotional memories. Each odorous chemical appears to excite a portion of this. |
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Nerve deafness |
Inner ear deafness resulting from damage to cochlea, hair cells, or auditory nerves. Most common cause is loud noises. |
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Pheromones |
Airborne chemicals that affect behavior, including recognition of family, aggression, territorial marking, and sexual mating. |
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Taste sensations |
Dissolved foods flow over bumps on our tongue called papillae and into the pores to taste buds, containing the receptors for taste. |
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Skin senses |
Pain, touch (pressure), temperature (cold and warm). Protects internal organs, provides brain with survival skills, and tells us when we are touching something |
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Vestibular sense |
Sense of body and balance. Located in the inner ear, composed of vestibular sacs and semicircular canals. Motion sickness caused by sensory overload in this and random versus expected movements (passenger vs drive) |
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Kinesthesis |
Sensory system for detecting body posture, orientation, and movement of individual body parts. |
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Selective attention |
Filtering out and attending only to important sensory messages |
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Feature detectors |
Specialized neurons that respond only to certain sensory information. |
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Prosopagnosia |
Failure to recognize faces |
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Habitation |
Brain's reduced responsiveness to unchanging stimuli. People use novelty, intensity, and contrasts to combat this |
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Inattentional blindness |
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere |
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Change blindness |
Failing to notice changes in the environment (form of inattentional blindness) |
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Cocktail party phenomenon |
Example of selective attention. When you hear your name from across the room, you will involuntarily switch your attention. |
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Gestalt principle |
How the brain organizes sensory impressions into a whole |
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Figured ground |
Ground is always seen as farther away than the figure |
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Proximity |
Close together, grouped together |
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Continuity |
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Closure |
Tendency to see a finished unit from an incomplete stimulus |
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Similarity |
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Perceptual constancies |
Size, shape, color, brightness |
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Ames room illusion |
Based on unusual construction of the room. Through a peephole, it appears to be a normal cubical room, when it is actually trapezoidal. Our brain assumes the people are the same distances away with different size in body when it is the opposite |
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Retinal disparity |
Binocular cue to distance in which the separation of the eyes causes different images to fall on each retina |
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Convergence |
The closer the object, the more the eyes turn inward |
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Linear perspective |
Parallel lines converge as they get farther away |
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Interposition |
Objects obscure or overlap are perceived as closer |
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Relative size |
Close objects cast a larger retinal image |
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Aerial perspective |
Distant objects appear hazy and blurred compared to close objects |
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Light and shadow |
Brighter objects are perceived as being closer than darker objects |
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Relative height |
Objects positioned higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away |
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Confirmation bias |
Acknowledging confirming events and ignoring non supportive evidence |
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Innumeracy |
Failing to recognize chance occur ancestors for what they are owing 5o a lack of training in statistics and probability |
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Willingness to suspend belief |
Refusing to engage critical thinking skills because of wishful thinking or personal need for power or control |
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Vividness problem |
Anecdotes, sincere testimonials, are more easily remembered than scientific info |
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Webers law |
Principle that in order to perceive difference threshold, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant percent rather than a constant stimulus. Amount varies depending on the sense and intensity of the stimulus. Large when stimulus intensity is high, and small when it is low. |
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Signal-detection theory |
Theory prediciting how and when we detect the oresence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Investigates how motivated we are to detect certain stimuli and what we expect to perceive. Ex. Expect and text more likely to detect it. |
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Energy sense |
Vision, hearing, and touch. Takes form of light, sound waves, and pressure |
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Chemical sense |
Taste and smell. Senses gather particles. |
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Survival functions of basic taste |
Sweet-energy source Salty- sodium essential for physiological processes Sour- potential toxic acid Bitter- potential poison Umami- proteins to grow and repair tissue |
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