Study Guide for Final Exam

Study Tips:

• Make notes from the lectures. Study to know all the details related to each concept covered.

• Study with a friend: make up exam questions to quiz each other.

• Cover information with your hand and see if you can write it out (and understand what you are writing!)

• Apply it to your own life; make up your own examples

• Refer back to and memorize the examples that particularly helped you understand a concept.

• Put things in your own words

• To do well on the exam you have to overlearn the material: really know it!!

Exam Tips:

• Make sure you answer each question (even if you have to guess on one).

• On true/false questions make sure that you read each one carefully. Don't overlook one word that would change the truthfulness of the statement.

• On the multiple choice questions, make sure you read through each answer thoroughly, and understand exactly what the question is asking. Eliminate answers you know are wrong.

• Don't dwell on questions that confuse you. Come back to them at the end.

• Read all possible choices for each multiple choice question, even if you think you found the correct answer right away.

• Answer all parts of each essay question.

• Answer what the question asks, not just what you know about the topic.

• Make a quick outline on the side to organize your thoughts for an essay question.

Overall concepts covered on the exam: (These are to guide your studying. You should make sure you thoroughly understand all the material covered on and related to each of these topics).

• Sensation & Perception Terms (Sensation, Transduction, Perception, Cognition, & Action)

• Perception's Main Themes (Transduction/Neural Coding, differences among species, clinical insights, & top-downvs bottom-up processing)

• Nature of Light & Light reception

• Anatomy of Human Eye (sclera, pupil, iris, cornea, lens {accommodation}, retina {fovea & periphery}, optic nerve & blind spot)

• Types of Visual Receptors (rods & cones)

  • shape and distribution differences

  • dark adaptation differences

  • light adaptation differences

  • spectral sensitivity to different wavelengths and color vision differences (Purkinje Shift)

  • Acuity differences & concept of convergence

• Vertical Connections in Retina (Bipolar & Ganglion Cells (center surround Ganglion receptive fields))

• Horizontal Connections (Lateral Inhibition & relation to Mach Bands and Hermann Grid)

• Visual Cortex

  • types of cortical cells (Simple, complex, end-stopped)

  • organization of cortical cells (location columns, orientation columns, ocular dominance columns, & hypercolumns)

• Extrastriate Cortex (form channel & visual agnosia, color channel, motion channel) also what & where pathways

• Object Perception- Gestalt

  • Figure/Ground (what it is and what factors determine it)

  • Illusory Contours

  • Principles of Organization (Proximity, Similarity, Good continuation, common fate, closure, pragnanz, common regions, element connectedness, & synchrony)

• Dimensions of Color (hue, brightness, & saturation)

• Additive & Subtractive Color Mixing

• Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision

  • S-cones, M-cones, & L-cones and how they contribute to color vision

  • Color Blindness

• Opponent Process Theory (types & lateral inhibition)

• Color constancy

• Monocular Depth Cues (linear perspective, texture gradient, aerial perspective, shadow/shading, interposition, motion parallax, & accretion/delection of texture)

• Binocular Depth Cues (stereopsis)

• Oculomotor Depth Cues (convergence & accommodation)

• Depth via Self-motion (optic flow)

• Size Perception & Visual Angle

• Size Constancy (size-distance scaling, visual angle, & Holway and Boring Experiment)

• Familiar Size & Relative Size in Size Constancy

• Distance & Size Illusions (Muller-Lyer, Horizontal-Vertical, parallelograms, ames room, Poggendorff, moon)

• Motion (Apparent & actual motion)

  • optic array

  • optic flow

    • expansion, contraction, parallel

    • global vs local

    • Object Motion (point-light walkers, relative vs common motion, movement aftereffects)

• Perception/Action Cycle

  • Heading from Optic Flow

  • Balance from Optic Flow

  • Affordances

  • Time to contact from optic flow

  • Calibration of action

• Auditory Stimulus (properties of sound waves--frequency, amplitude, & phase)

• Anatomy of Ear (pinna, auditory, canal, tympanic membrane, ossicles (malleus, inclus, stapes), oval window, cochlea (canals, membranes, organ of corti)

• Bone Conduction

• Sound Localization (interaural time difference {onset & phase difference}, interaural intensity difference, pinna's shape, sound level, frequency at distances, movement parallax, reflection {direct vs indirect}

• Vestibular System

  • Simple Invertegrate Vestibular systems

  • Human Vestibular Systems

    • Semicircular canals anatomy

    • semicircular canals method of detecting rotary accelerations (not constant rotation speed)

    • diziness from alcohol

    • saccule & utricle anatomy & method of detecting linear accelerations

    • motion sickness

• Touch -- skin types and layers

  • Skin Mechanoreceptors (slowly adapting vs rapidly adapting and small vs large receptive fields) -- (names, location, and perception generated by each type)

  • Density of Mechanoreceptors or Nerve Fibers -- 2 point thresholds (sensitive and insensitive areas)

  • Organization of Touch in the Brain (cortical receptive fields & topographical organization)

  • Passive vs Active Touch (manner of active touch in relation to object) and relation to kinesthesis & proprioception

  • Temperature (receptors & thermal adaptation)

• Smell

  • stimulus & anatomy

  • Smell Constancy

  • Identification/recognition of odors

  • effect of odors on memory

  • effect of odors on purchasing behaviors

  • smell as a warning system

  • smell eliciting emotions

  • use of smell by animals

• Taste

  • stimulus & anatomy

  • Taste Thresholds & principle responding area on tongue

  • effect of temperature on taste thresholds

  • genetics & taste thresholds

  • taste adaptation

  • taste disorders & effect on behavior

  • Taste modifiers

• Pain

  • Types of stimuli

  • Cognitive Influences

    • Expectation

    • Shifting Attention

    • Content of Emotional Distraction

    • Individual & Group differences

  • Gate Control Theory

  • Pain Disorders

    • Insensitivity to pain

    • Chronic pain

    • Phantom-limb pain