Chapter 4 terminology Flashcards
Perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn’t match its physical reality
Illusion
Detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain
Sensation
perception
The brains interpretation of raw sensory inputs
Transduction
The process of converting an external energy or substance into electrical activity within neurons
Specialized cell which converts external stimuli into neural activity
Sense receptor
Sensory adaptation
First stimulus is the strongest
Lowest level of stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time
Absolute threshold
Just noticeable difference (JND)
The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect
There is a constant proportional relationship between the JND and original stimulus intensity
Webers law
Signal detection theory
Theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions
Inattentional blindness
Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere
Hue
Color of light
Circular hole through which light enters the eye
Pupil
Cornea
Focuses light on the retina
Part of the eye that changes curvature to keep focus
Lens
Changing shape if the lens to focus near or far
accommodation
Retina
Dark membrane, converts light into neural activity
Acuity
Sharpness of image
Optic nerve
Nerve that travels from the retina to the brain
Trichomatic theory
That three colors form the base of all colors
Opponent process theory
We see colors in terms of pairs of opponent colors
Bony, spiral shaped sense organ for hearing
Cochlea
Organ of corti
Contains the hair cells needed for hearing
Membrane supporting the organ of Corti
Basal Membrane
Place theory
Each sound has a region on the basliar membrane
Olfaction
Sense of smell
Our taste sense
gustation
Oderless chemical that serves as a social signal
Pheromone
Sense of touch, pain, or temperature
somatosensory
Gate control model
Idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in spinal cord
Phantom pain
Pain in an appendage that does not exist
Proprioception
Our sense of body position
Vestibular sense
Our sense of equilibrium or balance
Parallel processing
the ability to attend to many sense modalities at the same time
Bottom-up processing
Whole is built from parts
Top-down
Conceptual processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies
