Chapter 3

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

the process of detecting a physical stimulus (ex: light, sounds, heat)

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

Process of integrating, organizing, and interpreting sensations

Question 3

Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

Answer 3

principle that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain

Question 4

Absolute Threshold

Answer 4

smallest possible strength of a stimulus that can be detected half of the time

Question 5

Difference Threshold

Answer 5

(JND) the smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected half the time by an observer when two stimuli are compared

Question 6

Weber’s Law

Answer 6

principle of sensation that holds that the size of the and will vary depending on its relation to the strength of the original stimulus

Question 7

Sensory Adaptation

Answer 7

decline in sensitivity to a constant stimulus; constant stimulation decreases the number of messages sent to the brain

Question 8

Sensory attention

Answer 8

focusing of attention on selected aspects of the environment and the blocking out of others

Question 9

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 9

the failure to consciously perceive something you are looking at because you are not attending to it

Question 10

Change Blindness

Answer 10

phenomenon that occurs when a person viewing a scene apparently fails to detect large changes in the scene