4 - Sensation & Perception

Question 1

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our enviornment

Answer 1

Sensation

Question 2

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory info, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Answer 2

Perception

Question 3

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory info

Answer 3

Bottom-Up Processing

Question 4

Info processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Answer 4

Top-Down Processing

Question 5

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Answer 5

Selective Attention

Question 6

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Answer 6

Inattentional Blindness

Question 7

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Answer 7

Change Blindness

Question 8

Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret

Answer 8

Transduction

Question 9

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

Answer 9

Psychophysics

Question 10

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time

Answer 10

Absolute threshold

Question 11

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus and background stimulation

Answer 11

Signal Detection Theory

Question 12

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Answer 12

Subliminal

Question 13

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response

Answer 13

Priming

Question 14

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time.

Answer 14

Difference Threshold

Question 15

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

Answer 15

Weber’s Law

Question 16

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Answer 16

Sensory Adaptation

Question 17

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Answer 17

Perceptual Set

Question 18

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Answer 18

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

Question 19

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

Answer 19

Parasychology

Question 20

The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next

Answer 20

Wavelength

Question 21

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, etc…

Answer 21

Hue

Question 22

The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude

Answer 22

Intesity

Question 23

The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

Answer 23

Pupil

Question 24

A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening

Answer 24

Iris

Question 25

The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

Answer 25

Lens

Question 26

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

Answer 26

Retina

Question 27

The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Answer 27

Accommodation

Question 28

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond

Answer 28

Rods

Question 29

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions

Answer 29

Cones

Question 30

The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

Answer 30

Optic Nerve

Question 31

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

Answer 31

Blind Spot

Question 32

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster

Answer 32

Fovea

Question 33

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shapes, angles, or movement

Answer 33

Feature Detectors

Question 34

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's neutral mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers of conscious problem solving

Answer 34

Parallel Processing

Question 35

The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue - which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color

Answer 35

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

Question 36

The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision

Answer 36

Opponent-Process Theory

Question 37

An organized whole

Answer 37

Gestalt

Question 38

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Answer 38

Figure-Ground

Question 39

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Answer 39

Grouping

Question 40

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

Answer 40

Depth Perception

Question 41

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

Answer 41

Visual Cliff

Question 42

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes

Answer 42

Binocular Cues

Question 43

A binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance - the greater the disparity between the two images, the closer the object

Answer 43

Retinal Disparity

Question 44

Depth Cues, such as interposition and linear perceptive, available to either eyes alone

Answer 44

Monocular Cues

Question 45

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Answer 45

Phi Phenomenon

Question 46

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Answer 46

Perceptual Constancy

Question 47

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

Answer 47

Color Constancy

Question 48

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Answer 48

Perceptual Adaptation

Question 49

The sense or act of hearing

Answer 49

Audition

Question 50

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Answer 50

Frequncy

Question 51

A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Answer 51

Pitch

Question 52

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones that concentrates the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window

Answer 52

Middle Ear

Question 53

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

Answer 53

Cochlea

Question 54

The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

Answer 54

Inner Ear

Question 55

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerve; also called nerve deafness

Answer 55

Seneorineural Hearing Loss

Question 56

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

Answer 56

Conduction Hearing Loss

Question 57

A device for converting sound into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

Answer 57

Cochlea Implant

Question 58

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

Answer 58

Place Theory

Question 59

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

Answer 59

Frequency Theory

Question 60

The theory that the signal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain

Answer 60

Gate-Control Theory

Question 61

The system or sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Answer 61

Kinesthesia

Question 62

The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance

Answer 62

Vestibular Sense

Question 63

The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste

Answer 63

Sensory Interaction

Question 64

In psychological science, the influence of bodily sensation, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments

Answer 64

Embodied Cognition