Chapter 6

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

The detection, by sense organs, of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects.

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

The process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information.

Question 3

Sense receptors

Answer 3

Specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environmental or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain.

Question 4

Doctrine of specific nerve energies

Answer 4

The 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 5

Synesthesia

Answer 5

A condition in which stimulation of one sense also envokes another.

Question 6

Absolute threshold

Answer 6

The smaller quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer.

Question 7

Difference threshold

Answer 7

The smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared.

Question 8

Signal-detection theory

Answer 8

A psychophysical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process.

Question 9

Sensory adaptation

Answer 9

The reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious.

Question 10

Sensory deprivation

Answer 10

The absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation.

Question 11

Selective attention

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Inattentional blindness

Answer 12

Failure to consciously perceive something you are looking at because you are not attending to it.

Question 13

Hue

Answer 13

The dimension of visual experience specified by color names and related to the amount (intensity) of light emitted from or reflected by an object.

Question 14

Saturation

Answer 14

Vividness or purity of color; the dimension of visual experience related to the complexity of light waves.

Question 15

Retina

Answer 15

Neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball’s interior, which contains the receptors for vision.

Question 16

Rods

Answer 16

Visual receptors that respond to dim light.

Question 17

Cones

Answer 17

Visual receptors involved in color vision.

Question 18

Dark adaption

Answer 18

A process by which visual receptors become maximally sensitive to dim light.

Question 19

Ganglion cells

Answer 19

Neurons in the retina of the eye, which gather information from receptor cells; their axons make up the optic nerve.

Question 20

Feature detectors

Answer 20

Cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific features of the environment.

Question 21

Trichromatic theory

Answer 21

A theory of color perception that proposes three mechanisms in the visual system, each sensitive to a certain range of wavelengths; their interaction is assumed to produce all the different experiences of hue.

Question 22

Opponent-process theory

Answer 22

A theory of color perception that assumes that the visual system treats pairs of colors as opposing or antagonistic.

Question 23

Perceptual set

Answer 23

A habitual way of perceiving, based on expectations.

Question 24

Kinesthesis

Answer 24

The sense of body position and movement of body parts.

Question 25

Equilibrium

Answer 25

The sense of balance.

Question 26

Semicircular canals

Answer 26

Sense organs in the inner ear that contribute to equilibrium by responding to rotation of the head.

Question 27

Phantom pain

Answer 27

The experience of pain in a missing limb or other body part.

Question 28

Gate-control theory

Answer 28

The theory that the experience of pain depends in part on whether pain impulses get past a neurological “gate” in the spinal cord and thus reach the brain.

Question 29

Gestalt principles

Answer 29

Principles that describe the brain’s organization of sensory information into meaningful units and patterns.

Question 30

Binocular Cues

Answer 30

Visual cues to depth or distance requiring two eyes.

Question 31

Convergence

Answer 31

The turning inward of the eyes, which occurs when they focus on a nearby object.

Question 32

Retinal disparity

Answer 32

The slight difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen by the left eye and the right eye.

Question 33

Monocular Cues

Answer 33

Visual cues to depth or distance, which can be used by one eye alone.

Question 34

Perceptual constancy

Answer 34

The accurate perception of objects as stable or unchanged despite changes in the sensory patterns they produce.

Question 35

Anatomical code

Answer 35

described by Johannes Muller in his doctrine of specific nerve energies; different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate differentnerve pathwaysleading to different areas of the brain.

Question 36

Functional codes

Answer 36

additional code that helps us discern between differences in firing codes in the brain

Question 37

Brightness

Answer 37

Lightness or luminance

Question 38

gestalt psychologists

Answer 38

psychologists who first studied how people organize the world visually into meaningful units and patterns