Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is a transduction?
The type of sensory neurons that transform physical energy (light, sound, ect) to neural impulses.
Define a sensory threshold.
The minimal amount of sensory stimulation needed to activate a sensory neuron.
What is the absolute threshold?
The minimum stimulus needed to detect it about 50% of the time.
What is a just noticeable difference in stimulus?
The smallest amount of change that we are able to detect in a stimulus.
What are the two general ideas about how individuals sense information?
Bottom-up processing and top-down processing.
What is synesthesia?
When detecting one sense triggers a completely different sense.
What does the retinix theory explain?
It is used to explain color consistency.
What is the trichromatic theory?
It suggests that we only detect blue, red, and green wavelengths.
What is the opponent-process theory?
suggests that color perception is controlled by the activity of two opponent systems. explains why we will often see after images after staring at an image for a long time.
What do chemical senses detect?
Smell and taste.
Define the olfactory nerve.
A cranial nerve that relates to our sense of smell.
Anosmia
The inability to smell.
What is a kinesthetic sense?
The ability to sense movement or know where your body is without the need of visual aid.
What do our proprioceptors do?
Detect the orientation of our bodies and send the information to our brains.
Define CIPA
Insensitivity to pain. (Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis)
