Chapter 6 Test on Tuesday 12/4/12 (65 MC)
Define the following: Sensation, Perception, Priming, Absolute Threshold, Transduction, Sensory
Adaptation,
What type of processing analysis begins at the sensory receptors? (Bottom up processing)
Absolute threshold needs what amount of stimulation of a stimulus 50% of the time?(Minimum Amount)
Be able to identify an example of a human Absolute Threshold.
Which Sensation/Perception theory states that personal expectations and motivations influence the level of
absolute thresholds? (Signal Detection Theory)
Suppose a person is expecting an important visitor, someone that it would be unfortunate to miss. As time
goes on, the person begins to "hear" the visitor and may open the door, only to find that nobody is there.
This person is "detecting" a stimulus, or signal, that is not there because it would be worse to miss the
person than to check to see if the individual is there, only to find that the visitor has not yet arrived. (Signal
Detection Theory)
What type of message is presented below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness? (Subliminal)
Weber’s law is the principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant _____________ for their difference to
be perceived. (Proportion)
The following example is an example of what sensory awareness?
When people see an incomplete sketch that they are unable to identify: they are shown more of the
sketch until they recognize the picture. Later they will identify the sketch at an earlier stage than was
possible for them the first time. (Priming)
Being aware of the smell of someone’s house when you come in, then slowly not realizing it smelled at all is
an example of what concept of sensation/perception? (Sensory Adaptation)
Making electromagnetic energy into visual information is a process called________________(Transduction)
(Just like making Mrs. Ponder’s whinny voice from sound waves to neural impulse is the same thing)
Know Parts and functions of these parts of the eye:
Lens, Pupil, Iris, Retina, Rods, Cons, Fovea, Blind spot, Ganglion cells, Bipolar cells, Optic Nerve.
What is blindsight? (Damage done to the visual cortex that causes the person not to consciously be aware
of processing of the visual input)
What is the ability to detect certain types of visual stimuli, like movements, shape, and angles, requires
specialized cells in the brain? Without these, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to detect a round
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object, like a baseball, hurdling toward you at 90 miles per hour. (Feature detectors) Who were the two
scientists who discovered this ability? (Hubel and Wiesel)
What area of the brain does MOST of the sensory information go to first? Which sensory information does
not go to this area? (Thalamus – Smell)
What is the ability of the brain to do many things at once? (Parallel Processing)
What is the theory that cones are specifically sensitive to red, green and blue colors? (Young Helmholtz
theory)
Know parts and functions of the ear: Ear drum, Hammer, anvil, stirrup, oval window, Cochlea, Basilar
Membrane (hair-cell lined), Auditory nerve
Know the Outer Ear, Middle Ear, Inner Ear areas. (what is contained in each)
What is the sense of hearing also known as? (Audition)
What is the measure of the absolute threshold of hearing? (Decibels)
Know what the Place Theory is….(suggests that the pitch we hear is related o the place where the cochlea’s
basilar membrane is stimulated)
Two types of deafness (and where they occur)and how you could possibly repair/help these disabilities.
(Conduction- middle ear- hearing aid: Sensorinueral- inner ear-high amplitude sounds-possibly repaired
with cochlear implants, but not always fixable)
What are the four basic sensations of touch? (pressure, pain, warmth, and cold)
What is the result sensation of cold and warmth stimulation? (hot)
What is Kinesthesis? (position and movement of individual body parts)
What area of the body has an effect on vestibular sense? (Semicircular canals- in the ears)
What is the theory that has the spinal cord fibers the basis of preventing pain signals from reaching the
brain? (Gate Control Theory)
What happens when someone who has an amputated limb? (phantom limb sensations-often experience
pain in the non existent limb because the brain continues to send information to this area, which
sometimes translates to pain)
What are the basic types of taste? (sweet, bitter, salt, sour, umami)
What is sensory interaction? (how one sense effects the functioning of another)
What are the receptors that let you know that there is a Turkey in the Oven? (Olfactory receptors/bulb)
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What is gestalt? (organized whole)
Perception of objects as distinct from it surrounding is called _________________________
(figure ground)
Know:
Proximity, continuity, Closure (eel is on the wagon), Interposition (overlap), Perceptual
set(stereotypes/mental conceptions), depth perception (looking at infants, how?), Retinal Disparity
(somewhat different images our two eyes receive of the same object), linear perspective, stroboscopic
motion/movement, Phi Phenomenon(perception of movement created by the successive blinking on and
off of adjacent lights), shape constancy, Size constancy, Color constancy.
Who was the philosopher that believed that people learned to perceive the world through experience?
(John Locke)
Adjusting to upside down glasses or some other perceptual changing situation is
called____________________ (perceptual adaptation)
What is parapsychology?
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