Unit 3 Review

OVERVIEW
Module 20- Basic Concepts of Sensation and Perception
Module 21- Influences on Perception
Module 22- Vision: Sensory and Perceptual Processing
Module 23- Visual Organization and Interpretation
Module 24- Hearing
Module 25- The Other Senses
Touch
Pain
Taste
Smell
Body Position and Movement
Sensory Interaction

Study Resources

https://youtu.be/unWnZvXJH2o?si=18JDAJAHrsqr-Tar

https://youtu.be/fxZWtc0mYpQ?si=zjhBOPL8bSLHlfbl

https://youtu.be/n46umYA_4dM?si=hTP0Qf9_0aFwj7lx

https://youtu.be/jReX7qKU2yc?si=KSGheQ3xEAWIbpsH

Unit 3 Review 1
 Module 20- Basic Concepts of Sensation
and Perception
sensation: the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system
receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

sensory receptors: sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli.

perception: the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information,

enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

sensation and perception are actually parts of one continuous process

bottom-up processing: analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and
works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.

starting with the sensory input, the brain attempts to understand/make

sense.

top-down processing: information processing guided by higher-level mental

processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and
expectations.

guided by experience and higher-level processes, we see what we expect

to see.

selective attention: the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular

stimulus.

cocktail party effect: the ability to attend to one voice among a sea of
other voices

inattentional blindness: failing to see visible objects when our attention is

directed elsewhere.

basketball/gorilla video

change blindness: failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of

inattentional blindness.

person giving directions video

Unit 3 Review 2
 choice blindness: failing to recall a choice immediately after having made that
choice

all our senses:

receive sensory stimulation, often using specialized receptor cells

transform that stimulation into neural impulses

deliver the neural information to our brain

transduction: conversion of one form of energy into another. the transforming

of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses
our brain can interpret.

psychophysics: the study of relationships between the physical

characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological
experience of them.

what is it about the smell, taste, and texture of buttery popcorn that
produces a delicious, satisfied, happy response in you.

absolute threshold: the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a

particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

signal detection theory: a theory predicting how and when we detect the
presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise).
assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends
partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

two conditions: strength of signal and psychological state

subliminal: below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

priming: shows that we can be affected by stimuli so weak that we don’t

consciously notice them, and we can evaluate a stimulus even when we’re not
consciously aware of it.

even if you don’t think you notice a stimuli, your brain might, and that can
impact you.

Unit 3 Review 3
 difference threshold: the minimum difference between two stimuli required for
detection 50 percent of the time. we experience the difference threshold as a
just noticeable difference (JND).

Weber’s law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must
differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).

two lights must differ in intensity by 8% for you to notice the change.

sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant

stimulation.

once we notice and evaluate a new stimuli as non-threatening, we can pay

less attention to it. this saves our attention for new incoming stimuli, or
changes in the existing stimuli.

Module 21- Influences on Perception

perceptual set: a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

we see what we expect to see

13/B example

top-down processing influences perceptual set because our experience

influences our expectations. context influences perceptual set because our
expectations cause us to perceive differently.

our learned concepts (schemas) prime us to organize and interpret ambiguous

stimuli in certain ways.

context effects

our motivation, as well as our physical and emotional context, can create
expectation and color our interpretation of events and behaviors.
motivation: desirable objects, such as a water bottle viewed by a thirsty
person, seem closer than they really are.

emotion: hearing sad music can predispose people to perceive a sad meaning
in words that sound alike... mourning rather than morning, die rather than dye,

Unit 3 Review 4
 pain rather than pane.

extrasensory perception (ESP): the controversial claim that perception can

occur apart from sensory input.

telepathy: mind-to-mind communication

clairvoyance: perceiving remote events (in another location)

precognition: perceiving future events

psychokinesis: mind moving matter

parapsychology: the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and

psychokinesis.

skeptics argue that (1) to believe in ESP, you must believe the brain is capable of
perceiving without sensory, and (2) researchers have been unable to replicate
ESP phenomena under controlled conditions

Module 22- Vision: Sensory and Perceptual

Processing
wavelength: the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the
peak of the next. electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of
gamma rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.

hue: the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what
we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.

intensity: the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which

influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness. intensity is
determined by the wave’s amplitude (height).

the hue (color) we perceive in light depends on its wavelength, and its brightness
depends on its intensity.

short wavelength = high frequency (bluish colors)

long wavelength = low frequency (reddish colors)

great amplitude (bright colors)

Unit 3 Review 5
 small amplitude (dull colors)

cornea: the eye’s clear, protective outer layer, covering the pupil and iris.

light enters the eye first through the cornea

pupil: the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light
enters/passes.

iris: a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around
the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening (by expanding and
contracting over the pupil).

lens: the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help
focus images on the retina.

retina: the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor
rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual
information.

light waves are transduced into neural impulses by the rods and cones,
then passed to the bipolar cells and the ganglion cells.

after entering the eye through the cornea, passing through the pupil and iris, and
being focused by the lens, light energy particles (from a thin slice of the broad
spectrum of electromagnetic energy) strike the eye’s inner surface, the retina.

Unit 3 Review 6
 accommodation: the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus
near or far objects on the retina.

the lens changes it curvature and thickness

myopia: nearsightedness

hyperopia: farsightedness

rods: retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to
movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t
respond.

located along retina’s outer periphery, remain sensitive in dim light, enable
black-and-white vision, share connections to a single bipolar cell sending
a combined message to the brain, sensitive to faint light and peripheral
motion.

cones: retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina
and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. cones detect fine detail
and give rise to color sensations.

cluster in and around fovea, become unresponsive in dim light, have

hotline to brain: one cone transmits its message to a single bipolar cell,
which relays the message to the visual cortex

the retina’s light sensitive rods and color-sensitive cones convert light energy into
neural impulses.

cones and rods each provide a special sensitivity—cones to detail and color, rods
to faint light and peripheral motion.

optic nerve: the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

comprised of the axons of the ganglion cells; leaves through the back of
the eye

carries impulse to the thalamus and on to the visual cortex of the occipital
lobes.

after processing by bipolar and ganglion cells in the eyes’ retina, neural impulses
travel through the optic nerve, to the thalamus, and on to the visual cortex.

Unit 3 Review 7
 blind spot: the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind”
spot because no receptor cells are located there.

fovea: the central focus point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones
cluster.

area of greatest visual acuity... or sharpness of focus.

cones are found in and around the fovea. many cones have a direct hotline to the
brain, transmitting their message to a single bipolar cell that relays it to the visual
cortex. rods are found in the retina’s outer regions. several rods together transmit
their energy to a single bipolar cell.

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory: the theory that the retina

contains three different types of color receptors (cones)—one most sensitive
to red, one to green, one to blue—which, when stimulated in combination can
produce the perception of any color.

color blindness

about 1 person in 50 is color blind

males are more affected (genetically sex-linked defect)

most people are not actually blind to all colors, they simply lack
functioning red-/green-sensitive cones, or sometimes both.

red-green cone deficiency is the most common form of color

blindness

vision is monochromatic (one color) or dichromatic (two-color) and

seems ‘normal’ to them

opponent-process theory: the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-

green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. for example, some cells
are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and
inhibited by green.

activation of one color of the pair inhibits activation of the other

yellow/green UK flag example

Unit 3 Review 8
 these two theories, and the research supporting them, show that color processing
occurs in two stages. the retina’s red, green, and blue cones respond in varying
degrees to different color stimuli, as the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
suggested. The cones responses are then processed by opponent-process cells,
as Hering’s opponent-process theory proposed.

feature detectors: nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to
specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, edges, lines, angle, or
movement.

David Hubel & Torsten Wiesl

these detectors receive information from individual ganglion cells in the retina and
pass it to other cortical areas, where supercell clusters respond to more complex
patterns.

parallel processing: processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously;

the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions.

through this, the brain handles many aspects of vision (motion, form, depth, and
color) simultaneously. the brain delegates the work of these aspects to different
areas.

Module 23- Visual Organization and

Interpretation
gestalt: an organized whole. gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency
to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

figure-ground: the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures)
that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).

grouping: the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

proximity: grouping nearby figures together

continuity: perceiving smooth, continuous patterns rather than

discontinuous ones

Unit 3 Review 9
 closure: fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object

depth perception: the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the
images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

visual cliff: a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and
young animals.

binocular cues: a depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use
of two eyes.

as an object becomes closer or farther, both binocular depth cues operate

to help us judge distance.

retinal disparity: a binocular cue for perceiving depth. by comparing

retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance—the
greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the
object.

two fingers in front of eyes example

monocular cues: a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective,

available to either eye alone.

relative height: we perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther

away.

relative motion: as we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to
move.

relative size: if we assume two objects are similar in size, most people
perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away.

interposition: if one object partially blocks our view of another, we

perceive it as closer.

linear perspective: parallel lines appear to meet in the distance. the

sharper the angle of convergence, the greater the perceived distance.

light and shadow: shading produces a sense of depth consistent with our
assumption that light comes from above.

Unit 3 Review 10
 stroboscopic movement: the perception of a rapid series of slightly varying
images as continuous movement.

we construct this motion in our heads

phi phenomenon: an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent

lights blink on and off in quick succession.

perceptual constancy: perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent

color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images
change.

top-down process that recognizes objects without being deceived by

changes

color constancy: perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if

changing illumination alters the wavelength reflected by the object.

lightness/brightness constancy: perceiving objects as having a constant

brightness even as its illumination varies.

relative luminance: the amount of light an objects reflects relative to its

surroundings

shape constancy: perceiving the form of familiar objects as constant even

while our retinas receive changing images of them.

door open example

size constancy: perceiving objects as having an unchanging size, even while

our distance from it varies.

perceptual adaptation: the ability to adjust to changed sensory input,

including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

experience guides our perceptual interpretations.

sensory restriction research indicates that there is a critical period for some
aspects of sensory and perceptual development. without early stimulation, the
brain’s neural organization does not develop normally.

Unit 3 Review 11
 those who are blind from birth who are gained sight after surgery lack the
experience to visually recognize shapes and forms.

Module 24- Hearing

audition: the sense or act of hearing

sound waves are bands of compressed and expanded air. our ears detect these
changes in air pressure and transform them into neural impulses, which the brain
decodes as sound.

frequency: the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given

time.

pitch: a tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

sound waves vary in amplitude (height), which we perceive as differing loudness

(measured in decibels), and in frequency, which we experience as differing pitch.

short wavelength = high frequency (high pitched sounds)

long wavelength = low frequency (low pitched sounds)
great amplitude (loud sounds)

small amplitude (soft sounds)

passing through accessory structures to sense receptors, vibrating air triggers
nerve impulses that the brain decodes as sounds.

auditory canal: the channel located in the outer ear that funnels sound waves
from the pinna to the tympanic membrane (ear drum).

ear drum (tympanic membrane): thin layer of tissue that vibrates in response
to sound waves.

ossicles: incus, malleus, and stapes; transfer the sound wave vibrations from
eardrum to oval window of cochlea.

oval window: the membrane-covered opening of the cochlea. it vibrates when

it receives the sound waves and causes the fluid inside the cochlea to move.

outer ear funnels sound to the middle ear.

Unit 3 Review 12
 middle ear: the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three
tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the
eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window.

cochlea: a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves
traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.

accessory structures move the sound wave to the sense receptors (stereo-cilia) in
the inner ear where the wave energy undergoes transduction to neural energy that
the brain can interpret.

inner ear: the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular
canals, and vestibular sacs.

basilar membrane: the cilia on this membrane transduce sound waves into
neural impulses

the motion of the sound vibration against the oval window of the cochlea causes
ripples in the basilar membrane, bending the hair cells lining its surface.
the hair cell (cilia) movements in turn trigger impulses in adjacent nerve cells,
whose axons converge to form the auditory nerve.

sound waves traveling through the auditory canal cause tiny vibrations in the
eardrum. the bones of the middle ear amplify the vibrations and relay them to the
fluid-filled cochlea. rippling of the basilar membrane, caused by pressure changes
in the cochlear fluid, causes movement of the tiny hair cells, triggering neural
messages to be sent (via the thalamus) to the auditory cortex in the brain.

Unit 3 Review 13
 sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness): hearing loss caused by damage
to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; the most common
form of hearing loss.

people may hear sound but have trouble discerning what someone is
saying

cochlear implant: a device for converting sounds into electrical signals

and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the
cochlea; can restore hearing for some people.

conduction hearing loss: a less common form of hearing loss, caused by

damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

our brain interprets loudness from the number of activated hair cells. a soft tone
activates only the few hair cells attuned to its frequency.

place theory: in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place
where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated.

explains how we hear high-pitched sounds

Unit 3 Review 14
 proposes that our brain interprets a particular pitch by decoding the place
where a sound wave stimulates the cochlea’s basilar membrane.

frequency theory (temporal theory): in hearing, the theory that the rate of
nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a
tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch.

explains how we hear low-pitched sounds

proposes that the brain deciphers the frequency of the neural impulses
traveling up the auditory nerve to the brain.

volley principle: neural cells can alternate firing.

by firing in rapid succession, neurons can achieve a combined

frequency above 1000 waves per second.

sound waves strike one ear sooner and more intensely than the other. the brain
analyzes the minute differences in the sounds received by the two ears and
computes the sound’s source/location.

Module 25- The Other Senses

Touch
our sense of touch is actually several senses—pressure, warmth, cold, and pain—
that combine to produce other sensations, such as hot.
tickle: stimulation of neighboring pressure receptors

heat: stimulation of hot and cold receptors

itching: repeated stimulation of pain receptors
wetness: repeated simulation of cold and pressure receptors
somatosensory cortex receives incoming sensory information from our skin, as
well as other senses.

Pain
nociceptors: the sensory receptors that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure,
or chemicals

Unit 3 Review 15
 pain reflects bottom-up sensations (input from nociceptors) and top-down
processes/cognition (experience, attention, and culture).
pain is a biopsychosocial event. as such, pain experiences vary widely, from
group to group and from person to person.

gate-control theory: the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological
“gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. the
“gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers
and is closed by activity in larger fibers (such as massage) or by information
coming from the brain (such as distracting thoughts).

the brain can create pain, as it does in phantom limb sensations.

pain treatments often combine physical and psychological elements, including
placebos and distractions. placebos can diminish the central nervous system’s
attention and responses to painful experiences. distraction can activate neural
pathways that inhibit pain and increase pain tolerance.

Taste
taste (gustation) is a composite of five basic sensations—sweet, sour, salty, bitter,
and umami—and of the aromas that interact with information from the taste
receptor cells of the taste buds.

Taste Indicates

Sweet energy source

Salty sodium essential to physiological processes

Sour potentially toxic acid

Bitter potential poisons

Umami proteins to grow and repair tissue

umami: savory meaty taste; indicates proteins to grow and repair tissue.

on the top and sides of your tongue are 200 or more taste buds, each containing a
pore that catches food chemicals.

in each taste bud pore, 50 to 100 taste receptor cells project antenna-like hairs
that sense food molecules. this is where the chemicals in food are transduced to
neural messages for the brain.

Unit 3 Review 16
 Smell
olfaction: the sense of smell.

there are no basic sensations for smell. we have around 20 million olfactory
receptors cells, with about 350 different receptor proteins.
odor molecules trigger combinations of receptors, in patterns that the olfactory
cortex interprets. the receptor cells send messages to the brain’s olfactory bulb,
then to the temporal lobe, and to parts of the limbic system (does not pass neural
information through thalamus).

Body Position and Movement

kinesthesia: our movement sense—our system for sensing the position and
movement of individual body parts.

vestibular sense: our sense of body movement and position that enables our
sense of balance.

semicircular canals: three tiny, fluid-filled tubes in the inner ear

vestibular sacs: calcium crystal-filled structures

Unit 3 Review 17
 our vestibular sense relies on the semicircular canals and vestibular sacs to
sense the tilt or rotation of our head.

Sensory Interaction
sensory interaction: the principle that one sense may influence another, as
when the smell of food influences its taste.

we can hear soft sounds better when they are paired with a visual cue

synesthesia: when the stimulation of one sense (such as hearing sound)

triggers an experience of another (such as seeing color).

embodied cognition: the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other

states on cognitive preferences and judgments.

after holding a warm drink rather than a cold one, people were more likely
to rate someone more warmly, feel closer to them, and behave more
generously.

Unit 3 Review 18