Chapter 5 Sensation Flashcards
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Perception
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
Sensation
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information.
Bottom-Up Processing
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
Top-down processing
Prosopagnosia
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The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
Psychophysics
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus so percent of the time.
Absolute Threshold
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus “signal” amid background stimulation “noise.”
Signal Detection Theory
Below ones absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Subliminal
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing ones perception, memory, or response.
Priming
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 5o percent of the time.
Difference Threshold
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.
Webers Law
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
Sensory Adaptation
Conversion of one form of energy into another.
Transduction
The distance from the peak of one light or sound save to the peak of the next.
Wavelength
The dimension of color that is determined by a wave length of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, etc.
Hue
The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the waves amplitude.
Intensity
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
Pupil
A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.
Iris
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
Lens
The process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
Accommodation
The light sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.
Retina
Acuity
The sharpness of vision.
A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in the front of the retina.
Nearsightedness
A condition which far away objects are seen more clearly than near objects because the image of near objects is focused behind the retina.
Farsightedness
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.
Rods
Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or well lit conditions. Detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.
Cones
Ganglion Cells
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Receive messages from photoreceptors and transmit them to ganglion cells, which are for the optic nerve.
Bipolar Cells
The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.
Optic Nerve
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a ‘blind’ spot because no other receptor cells are located there.
Blind Spot
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eyes cones cluster.
Fovea
Nerve cells in the brain the respond to specific features of the stimulus such as shape, angle, and movement.
Feature Detectors
The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously, the brains natural mode of information processing for many functions including vision.
Parallel Processing
The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue - which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color.
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three color) theory
The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green) (yellow-blue) (white-black) enable color vision.
Opponent-process Theory
Blindness in part of the field of vision due to destruction in the visual cortex - from a stroke or surgery
Blindsight
Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wave lengths reflected by the object.
Color of an object remains the same under different illusion. However, when contexts changes the co
Color Constancy
Audition
The sense or act of hearing
The number of complete wave lengths that pass a point in giving time.
Example: per-second
Frequency
A tones experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.
Pitch
The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea, containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochleas oval window.
Middle ear
A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses.
Cochlea
The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semi-circular canals and vestibular sacs.
Inner Ear
Semicircular Canals and Balance
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Basilar Membrane
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In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochleas membrane is stimulated.
Place Theory
In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense ifs pitch.
Frequency Theory
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea receptor cells or the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.
Conduction Hearing Loss
A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through the electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
Cochlear Implant
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on the brain.
Gate-control Theory
McGurk Effect
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The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences taste.
Sensory Interaction
Sensory Compensation
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The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
Kinesthesis
The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance,
Vestibular sense
Transparent tissue where light enters the eye.
Cornea
