Chapter 3 Flashcards
sensation
the process of receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and turning them into neural energy
perception
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense
bottom-up processing
sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it up to the brain for interpretation (stubbing your toe)
top-down processing
allows the organism to sense what is happening and to apply that framework to information from the world (avoiding the chair you stubbed your toe on)
sensory receptors
detect stimulus information and transmit it to sensory (afferent) nerves and the brain
absolute threshold
the minimum amount of stimulus energy a person can detect (how far away before you hear someone whispering)
difference threshold
the degree of difference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected
signal detection theory
focuses on decision-making about stimuli in the presence of uncertainty (trying to listen to something in the distance)
selective attention
the act of focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others
perceptual set
readiness to perceive something in a particular way
sensory adaptation
the change in responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation (the smell of garlic is terrible, but after a few minutes you barely smell it)
retina
the multilayered light-sensitive surface in the eye that records electromagnetic energy and converts neural impulses
rods
the receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light but are not very useful for color vision
cones
the receptor cells in the retina that allow for color perception
visual cortex
located in the occipital lobe, part of the cerebral cortex, involved in vision
feature detectors
neurons in the brains visual system that respond to particular features of a stimulus
trichromatic theory
color perception is produced by three types of cone receptors in the retina that are particularly sensitive to different, but overlapping, wavelengths
opponent-process theory
cells in the visual system respond to complementary pairs of red-green and blue-yellow colors
figure ground relationship
the principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out (figure) and those that are left over (ground)
gesalt psychology
interested in how people naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns
depth perception
the ability to perceive objects three dimensionally
binocular cues
depth cues that depend on the combination of the images in the two eyes and the way they work together
monocular cues
powerful depth cues available from the image in one eye
perceptual constancy
the recognition that objects are constant and unchanging even though sensory input is changing (how something looks in light vs. dark)
cochlea
a tubular fluid filled structure that is coiled up like a snail
kinesthetic sense
senses that provide information about movement, posture, and orientation
vestibular sense
sense that provides information about balance and movement
