Download Module 11 Objectives

CHAPTER 5/6 Essential Questions
Sensation and Perception
Sensing the World: Some Basic Principles
1.
What are sensation and perception? What do we mean by bottom-up processing and topdown processing?
 Define sensation
 Define perception
 Define bottom-up processing
 Define top-down processing
 Go back and read the unit’s introduction on page 115:
o What is prosopagnosia?
o How does this illness help to clarify the difference between sensation and
perception?
2.
How are we affected by selective attention?
 Identify how many bits of information are processed per second.
 Define selective attention
 Explain the cocktail party effect
 Describe how selective attention affects someone who is driving and talking (or
texting) on a cell phone at the same time.
o Why is talking to a person next to you while driving less distracting than
talking on a cell phone while driving?
 Define inattentional blindness, and describe how the now famous experiment
described this idea.
 Describe change blindness, change deafness, and choice blindness.
 Describe the pop out effect.
3.
What are absolute and difference thresholds, and do some stimuli below the absolute
threshold have any influence?
 Define absolute threshold and provide one example for one of our senses.
 Define signal detection theory
o Provide an everyday example of this concept

Define subliminal
o Define priming
 Explain how priming can affect our attitudes.
o Describe the effectiveness of subliminal tapes that enhance memory and selfesteem.


Define difference threshold
Define Weber’s Law
4.
What is the function of sensory adaptation?
 Define sensory adaptation and provide an example.
 Explain why, when staring at an unmoving object, does it not vanish from sight?
 Explain why sensory adaptation is beneficial to our survival.
Vision
5.
What is energy that we see as visible light?
 Define transduction
 Define wavelength
o Define hue
 Define amplitude
o Define intensity
 Define saturation (not in text, I’ll go over in class)
6.
How does the eye transform light energy into neural messages?
 Define cornea
 Define pupil
 Define iris
 Define lens
 Define accommodation
 Define retina
o Describe how an image looks when displayed on an eye’s retina.
o Define rods
o Define cones
o Define bipolar cells
o Define ganglion cells
o Define optic nerve
o Define blind spot
o Define fovea
o Explain why cones are more capable of processing fine detail than rods.
o Describe why your pupils dilate when you enter a dark room.
7.
How does the brain process visual information?
 Define feature detectors
 What are supercell clusters?
 Contrast serial processing vs. parallel processing
 Identify the four sub dimensions of vision
 Identify what percentage of the cortex is utilized in facial recognition tasks.
 Explain why Mrs. M saw people appear suddenly out of nowhere.
 Define blindsight and provide an example of such a phenomenon.
o How does this idea relate to dual-processing (two-track mind)?
8.
What theories help us understand color vision?
 Explain why a tomato is really red.
 Define the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic color theory
o Contrast subtractive and additive color mixing (not in text; Mr. U will go
over in class)
o Explain the cause of color blindness.
 Define opponent-process theory
o Identify the three opposing color pairs.
o Explain why you see the Union Jack Flag (red, white, and blue) after staring
at the one on page 133.
Hearing
9.
What are the characteristics of air pressure waves that we hear as sound?
 What does amplitude determine in sound?
 Define frequency
 Define pitch
 In terms of decibels, identify: absolute threshold, a whisper, normal conversation,
when hearing loss can occur (look at figure 4.20 on page 136).
 Define timbre (not in text; I’ll go over in class)
10. How does the ear transform sound energy into neural messages?
 Define outer ear
 Define middle ear
 Define cochlea
 Define inner ear
 Explain the role of the basilar membrane in the production of electrical impulses.
 Define auditory nerve
 Define auditory cortex
 What accounts for most hearing loss (top of page 136)
 Why do men’s hearing seem to be less acute than females?
 How do we detect loudness?
11. What theories help us understand pitch perception?
 Define place theory
 Define frequency theory
 Explain how the volley principle explains why we can hear very high pitch sounds.
12. How do we locate sounds?
 How does having two ears help us locate sounds?
 Sounds from which direction are the most difficult to detect?
13. What are the common causes of hearing loss, and why does controversy surround cochlear
implants?
 Define conduction hearing loss
 Define senorineural hearing loss
 Define cochlear implant
Other Senses
14. How do we sense touch and sense our body’s position and movement? How do we
experience pain?
 Explain why touch should be considered a “priority” sense.
o Identify the four distinct skin senses.
o Explain what effect is felt when warm and cold spots are stimulated at the
same time.
o What is the rubber hand illusion?

Distinguish between kinesthesis and the vestibular sense.
o Define kinesthesis
 What happened when Ian Waterman lost his sense of kinethesis?
o Define vestibular sense.
 Which two structures enable our vestibular sense?

Why is our ability to experience pain a good thing?
o Define nociceptors
o Define gate control theory
 What effect does the following have on the pain gate:
 large tissue stimulation
 endorphins
o Define Substance P (not in text; Mr. U will go over in class)
o How does the brain create pain w/out physical experience?
 Define phantom limb sensations
 Define tinnitus
o Identify two psychological and two social-cultural influences on pain
perception. (look at Figure 4.25)
o Identify three methods used by researchers in experiments to control pain.
15. How do we experience taste?
 Identify the five basic taste sensations.
 Why do tastes exist (besides for pleasure)?
 Describe the role of taste buds in taste.
 Why does burning your tongue on hot pizza reduce your taste sensitivity?
 Why do adults enjoy stronger tasting foods than children?

Define sensory interaction
 Explain how smell influences taste
 Define the McGurk Effect
 Define and provide examples of embodied cognition (not in text—Mr. U
will go over in class.
 Define synesthesia
16. How do we experience smell?
 Define olfacaction
 Explain the role of olfactory receptors in smell.
 When does our sense of smell peak? Who has a better sense of smell- females or
males?
 Why is the sense of smell primitive compared to our other senses?
o How might this relate to the thalamus (not in text—see if you remember from
Unit 3B)?
o Discuss why odors often evoke powerful memories.
Perceptual Organization (CH 6)
17. How did the Gestalt psychologists understand perceptual organization?
 Define Gestalt.
 How does looking at the Necker Cube on page 151 illustrate Gestalt concepts?
18 How do figure-ground and grouping principles contribute to our perception?
 Define figure-ground
 Define grouping and draw the five examples of grouping
19. How do we see the world in three dimensions?
 Define depth perception
 Define visual cliff and specify when an organism refuses to cross it.
 Define binocular cues
 Define retinal disparity and explain how 3-D movies imitate this effect.
 Define convergence

Define monocular cues and define the following monocular cues:
 relative size
 interposition
 relative height
 relative motion
 linear perspective
 light and shadow
20. How do we perceive motion?
 In order to compute motion, our brains make what assumption about a shrinking
object?
 Define stroboscopic movement
 Define phi phenomenon
21. How do perceptual constancies help us organize our sensations into meaningful perceptions?
 Define perceptual constancy
o Define shape constancy
o Define size constancy
 Explain how the following make use of the interplay of perceived size and
distance
 Monster Illusion (Figure 4.42a)
 Ponzo illusion (Figure 4.42b)
 Moon illusion
 Muller-Lyer illusion (not in text: Mr. U will go over in class)
 Distorted room illusion (Figure 4.43)


Define lightness/brightness constancy and explain how Figure 4.44 manipulates this
idea.
Define color constancy and explain how it relates to Figure 4.45.
Perceptual Organization
22. What does research on sensory deprivation and restored vision reveal about the effects of
experience on perception?
 Explain how cataract surgery on adults who are blind from birth increased our
knowledge of the nature-nurture issue.
o How does this suggest a critical period?
 Explain the research of Blakemore’s kitten’s (Not in text—Mr. U will go over in
class)
23. How adaptable is our ability to perceive?
 Define perceptual adaptation
 Identify which organisms can adapt to a distorted visual world.
24. How do our expectations, contexts, and emotions influence our perceptions?
 Define perceptual set.
o Provide two examples that show how a perceptual set influences what we see.
o Explain the importance of schemas in our perceptions. .
 Provide examples how context effects influences our judgments.
 Explain how culture and context effects influences whether the object above the
woman’s head is a window or a box (picture at bottom of page 164)
 Provide an example how each motivation and emotion influences our perception.
25. What are the claims of ESP, and what have most research psychologists concluded after
putting these items to the test?
 Define extrasensory perception.
 Define parapsychology
 Define telepathy
 Define clairvoyance
 Define precognition
 Define psychokinesis
 Identify a possible reason between visions and events (coincidences)
 Explain why ESP’s inability to produce a single, reproducible phenomenon
discredits it among most psychologists.