PSYC 111

Review for Exam 2

Chapter 6: Vision
Concepts to be able to define or describe:
1. Characteristics of visual stimuli: hue, brightness, saturation
2. Parts of eye (sclera, cornea, iris, pupil, etc...)
3. Layers of the retina (photoreceptors, bipolar cells, ganglion cells)
4. Direction of light in retinal processing
5. Differences between rods and cones
6. Differences between fovea and peripheral vision
7. Opponent-color system
8. Cell types of bipolar cells (ON cells, OFF cells)
9. Cell types of ganglion cells (ON cells, OFF cells, ON/OFF cells)
10. Cell types in primary visual cortex (simple cells, complex cells, hypercomplex cells)
11. Dorsal vs ventral streams of vision (where vs what)
12. Deficits related to damage to dorsal (akinetopsia, etc...) vs ventral stream
(achromatopsia, etc...)
13. Describe the process of phototransduction from the point at which light shines onto
the retina (photoreceptors) to the final output of the action potentials in the cerebral
cortex (primary visual cortex, V1) for an ON bipolar cell that connects to an ON
ganglion cell that connects to a simple cell in primary visual cortex.
i. How light is transduced to produce a change in potential in the
photoreceptor, ON bipolar cell and ON ganglion cell.
ii. The polarization of the cell (hyperpolarization/ depolarization) in each
layer of the retina (photoreceptor, ON bipolar cell and ON ganglion cell),
making sure to mention at what point action potentials begin.
iii. What cells in the retina comprise the optic nerve?
iv. What part of the thalamus processes visual cortex before ultimately
exciting the simple cell in primary visual cortex?

Chapter 7: Audition, the body senses, and

chemical senses
Concepts to be able to define or describe:
1. Characteristics of auditory stimuli: loudness, pitch, timbre
2. Parts of ear (outer: pinna, auditory canal, eardrum (tympanic membrane); middle:
ossicles; and inner: cochlea, oval window, round window, organ of corti)
3. How airwaves enter the ear (describe parts of the outer ear) relative to sound
perception.
4. How airwaves are amplified and communicated by the middle ear (describe parts of
middle ear) to the inner ear.
5. How the movement of airwaves is transduced into an electrical signal in the inner ear
to the brain (describe parts of inner ear, including tip links and cilia).
6. Place & Rate code of pitch (frequency) for sounds
7. Rate code of loudness for sounds

PSYC 111

Review for Exam 2

8. Six qualities of taste (bitterness, etc...)

9. The three types of papillae
10. How taste is perceived
11. Difference between electrical and chemical senses

Chapter 9: Reproductive Behavior

Concepts to be able to describe or compare:
1. Sry gene and its role in gonad development
2. Hormonal development of the gonads (ovary &/testis), internal sex organs and external
genitalia
3. 4 types of errors in sexual development (Sry translocation, Androgen insensitivity,
Mllerian duct syndrome, Turners syndrome)
4. Effects of pheromones (Lee-Boot effect, Whitten effect, Vandenbergh effect, & Bruce
effect)
5. Hormonal support of sexual behavior in rodents (both male and female behavior)
Figure 9.7 in book, also presented in lecture.
6. Vasopressin & oxytocins roles in pair bonding
7. The 3 brain regions involved in sexual and paternal behavior (medial preoptic area,
sexually dimorphic nucleus, ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus), be familiar
with evidence supporting the involvement of these regions.