Chapter 3: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

the activation of receptors in the various sense organs

Question 2

sensory receptors

Answer 2

specialized forms of neurons

Question 3

sense organs

Answer 3

• eyes
• ears
• nose
• skin
• taste buds

Question 4

subliminal stimuli

Answer 4

stimuli that are below the level of conscious awareness

• just strong enough to activate the sensory receptors but not strong enough for people to be consciously aware of them.

Question 5

habituation

Answer 5

tendency of the brain to stop attending to constant, unchanging information

Question 6

sensory adaption

Answer 6

tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging

Question 7

microsaccade

Answer 7

constant movement of the eyes, tiny little vibrations called that people do not notice consciously

Question 8

iris

Answer 8

round muscle (the colored part of the eye) in which the pupil is located; can change the size of the pupil, letting more or less light into the eye; helps focus the image

Question 9

lens

Answer 9

another clear structure behind the iris, suspended by muscles; finishes the focusing process begun by the cornea

Question 10

visual accommodation

Answer 10

the change in the thickness of the lens as the eye focuses on objects that are far away or close

Question 11

vitreous humor

Answer 11

jelly-like fluid called that also nourishes the eye and gives it shape

Question 12

retina

Answer 12

final stop for light in the eye
contains 3 layers:
* Ganglion cells
* Bipolar cells
* Photoreceptors (rods and cones) that respond to various light waves

Question 13

dark adaption

Answer 13

the recovery of the eye’s sensitivity to visual stimuli in darkness after exposure to bright lights

Question 14

light adaption

Answer 14

the recovery of the eye’s sensitivity to visual stimuli in light after exposure to darkness

Question 15

trichromatic theory

Answer 15

theory of color vision that proposes three types of cones:
* red
* blue
* green

Question 16

afterimages

Answer 16

images that occur when a visual sensation persists for a brief time even after the original stimulus is removed

Question 17

opponent-process theory

Answer 17

theory of color vision that proposes four primary colors with cones arranged in pairs:
* red and green
* blue and yellow

Question 18

monochrome colorblindness

Answer 18

either have no cones or have cones that are not working at all

Question 19

red-green colorblindness

Answer 19

either the red or the green cones are not working

Question 20

auditory canal

Answer 20

short tunnel that runs from the pinna to the eardrum

Question 21

eardrum

Answer 21

thin section of skin that tightly covers the opening into the middle part of the ear, just like a drum skin covers the opening in a drum
* when sound waves hit the eardrum, it vibrates and causes three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) in the middle ear to vibrate

Question 22

conduction hearing impairment can result from either…

Answer 22

• damaged eardrum (which would prevent sound waves from being carried into the middle ear properly)
• damage to the bones of the middle ear (sounds cannot be conducted from the eardrum to the cochlea)

Question 23

nerve hearing impairement can result from either…

Answer 23

• damage in the inner ear
• damage in the auditory pathways and cortical areas of the brain

Question 24

cochlear implant

Answer 24

• a surgery to help restore hearing
• a microphone implanted just behind the ear picks up sound from the surrounding environment.

Question 25

taste buds

Answer 25

• taste receptor cells in mouth
• responsible for sense of taste

Question 26

gustation

(taste)

Answer 26

the sensation of a taste

Question 27

5 basic tastes

Answer 27

• sweet
• sour
• salty
• bitter
• “brothy”

Question 28

olfaction (olfactory sense)

(smell)

Answer 28

sense of smell

Question 29

olfactory bulbs

(smell)

Answer 29

• areas of the brain located just above the sinus cavity and just below the frontal lobes that receive information from the olfactory receptor cells
• at least 1000 olfactory receptors

Question 30

kinesthetic sense

(somesethic sense)

Answer 30

**sense of the location of body parts ** in relation to the ground and each other

Question 31

vestibular senses

(somesthetic senses)

Answer 31

the sensations of movement, balance, and body position sensory conflict theory an explanation of motion sickness in which the information from the eyes conflicts with the information from the vestibular senses, resulting in dizziness, nausea, and other physical discomforts.

Question 32

figure-ground

(gestalt principles)

Answer 32

the tendency to perceive objects, or figures, as existing on a background

Question 33

reversible figures

(gestalt principles)

Answer 33

visual illusions in which the figure and ground can be reversed

Question 34

depth perception

(development of perception)

Answer 34

the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions
* visual cliff experiment

Question 35

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

(applying psychology)

Answer 35

claim of perception that occurs without the use of normal sensory channels such as sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell
* telepathy - claimed ability to read another person’s thoughts, or mind reading
* clairvoyance - supposed ability to “see” things that are not actually present
* precognition - supposed ability to know something in advance of its occurrence or to predict a future event.

Question 36

parapsychology

(applying psychology)

Answer 36

the study of ESP, ghosts, and other subjects that do not normally fall into the realm of ordinary psychology