Need to know

• What is the definition of sensation?

  A bottom-up process of receiving sensory information from changes in the environment (stimuli)
• What is perception?


  The top-down process by which our brain organises and interprets sensory information.
• What are sensory receptors?

  Groups of specialised cells in the body which detect changes in the environment and produce electrical impulses in response
• What does the brain do once it receives information from our senses?

  Interprets the information to create a complete sensory picture of the environment
• How does the brain make sense of the world?

  By combining the information from each sense, along with previous experience and learning
• Which organ allows for sight?

  The eye which contains cells that detect light and colour
• Which organ allows us to hear?

  The ears are hit with sound waves which vibrate bones in the middle ear. These vibrations transfer fluid in the inner ear where hair cells produce electrical signals that travel to the brain.
• Which organ allows for taste? How many tastes can it detect?

  Taste buds on the tongue react to chemicals in food. It can detect 5 basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitty, salty, umami
• Which organ allows for smell?

  Specialised calls in the nose detect chemicals in the air
• Which organ allows for sense of touch?

  Receptors in the skin detect different types of touch, including pressure, vibration and temperature
• What two components work together to produce vision?

  The eye and the brain
• How does light enter the eye?

  Light passes through the pupil into the retina
• What happens when light hits the retina?

  Light receptors are stimulated and send signals
• What does the brain do with signals from the retina?

  The brain turns signals into an image
• What is the function of the iris?

  Controls the size of the pupil
• What is the pupil?

  Black part of the eye that lets light in
• What is the role of the lens in the eye?

  Focuses light onto the retina
• What is the retina?

  Light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye
• What does the optic nerve do?

  Carries messages from the retina to the brain
• What are visual cues?

  Pieces of visual information about the environment
• What is visual constancy?

  Perceiving objects as constant despite changes
• What is the most important type of visual constancy?

  Size constancy- our perceptions of the size of objects remain the same, even if the object changes its angle or distance
• What are depth cues?

  Information within the environment that helps us understand depth
• What are monocular depth cues?


  Depth cues that only require one eye
• What is occlusion in monocular depth cues?

  Objects that obscure others appear closer
• What does relative size indicate?


  Smaller objects appear further away
• What is linear perspective?

  Parallel lines appear to converge in the distance
• What does height in plane indicate?

  Higher objects in the visual feild appear further away
• What is texture gradient?

  Gradual change from coarse to fine with distance
• How does colour gradient affect perception?

  Background color impacts foreground color perception
• What are binocular depth cues?

  Depth cues that require both eyes
• What is retinal disparity?

  Difference in view from each eye caused by the way in which each eye views a slightly different angle of an object
• How does retinal disparity help us?

  It provides information about distance
• What is convergence in depth perception?

  As the eyes focus on an object moving towards us, the retinal disparity becomes larger, telling us the object is getting closer
• Who drew the duck-rabbit picture?

  Joseph Jarrow
• What is an ambiguous figure?

  An image interpreted in more than one way
• What are visual illusions?

  When sensory data is misinterpreted
• What is size constancy?

  Perceiving objects as the same size regardless of distance and the size of the image they make on the retina
• If an object is far away, how will it affect the disparity?

  The disparity between the two images will be small
• If an object is close, how will it affect the difference in disparity?


  The difference in disparity will be large