Chapter 4 Flashcards
Illusion
Perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn’t match its physical reality
Sensation
Detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then sends information to the brain
Perception
The brain’s interpretation of raw sensory inputs
Transduction
The process of converting an external energy or substance into electrical activity within neurons
Sense receptor
Specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system
Sensory adaptation
Activation is greatest when stimulus is first detected
Psychophysics
The study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics
Absolute threshold
Lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time
Just noticeable difference
The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect
Weber’s law
There is a constant proportional relationship between the jnd and the original stimulus intensity
Signal detection theory
Theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions
Synesthesia
A condition in which people experience cross modal sensation
Selective attention
Process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimizing others
Inattentional blindness
Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere
Hue
Color of light
Retina
Membrane at the back of the eye responsible for converting light into neural activity
Fovea
Central portion of the retina
Acuity
Sharpness of vision
Rods
Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in the levels of light
Dark adaptation
Time in dark before rods regain maximum light sensitivity
Cones
Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in color
Optic nerve
Nerve that travels from the retina to the brain
Blind spot
Part of the visual field we can’t see because of an absence of rods and cones
Color blindness
Inability to see some or all colors
Opponent process theory
Siri that we perceive colors in terms of three pairs of opponent colors: either red or green, blue or yellow, or black or white
Audition
Our sense of hearing
Timbre
Complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices, or other sources sound unique
Cochlea
Boney, spiral shaped sense organ used for hearing
Organ of Corti
Tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing
Basilar membrane
Membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in the cochlea
Place theory
Specific place along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch
Frequency theory
Rate at which neurons fire the action potential reproduces the pitch
Olfaction
Our sense of smell
Gustation
Our sense of taste
Taste bud
Sense receptor in the tongue that responds to sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, and perhaps fat
Pheromones
Odorless chemical that serves as a social signal to members of one’s species
Somatosensory
Our sense of touch, temperature, and pain
Gate control model
Idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in the spinal cord
Phantom pain
Pain or discomfort felt in an amputated limb
Proprioception
Our sense of body position
Vestibular sense
Our sense of equilibrium or balance
Semicircular canals
3 fluid-filled canals and the inner ear responsible for a sense of balance
Parallel processing
The ability to attend to many sense modalities simultaneously
Bottom-up processing
Processing in which a hole is constructed from parts
Top down processing
Conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies
Perceptual set
Set formed when expectations influence perceptions
Perceptual constancy
The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions
Depth perception
Ability to judge distance in three-dimensional relations
Monocular depth cues
Stimuli that enables us to judge depth using only one eye
Binocular depth cues
Stimuli that enables us to judge the depth using both eyes
Subliminal perception
Perception below the limen or threshold of conscious awareness
Extra sensory perception
Perception of events outside the known channels of sensation
