Modules 17 and 18 Flashcards
Brain receives input from sensory organs
Sensation
Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli
Sensory receptors
Brain makes sense out of the input from sensory organs
Perception
Taking sensory information and assembling and integrating it (what am I seeing ?)
Bottom-up processing
Using models, expectations, and ideas to interpret sensory information (is that something I’ve seen before?)
Top-down processing
stimulation of sensory receptor cells
Reception
transforming cell stimulation into neural impulses
Transduction
delivering neural information to the brain to be processed
Transmission
diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation (rock in shoe)
Sensory adaptation
mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
Perceptual set
minimum energy needed to detect a particular stimulus
Absolute threshold
predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise).
Signal detection theory
stimuli you cannot consciously detect, below absolute threshold
Subliminal
activation, often unconsciously, predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response
Priming
minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of time
Difference threshold
to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum
Weber’s law
distance from one wave peak to the next
Wavelength
color is determined by the wavelength of light
Hue
amount of energy in a light wave (influences brightness)
Intensity
part of eye that contains rods and cones and begins processing of visual information
Retina
when the lens changes shape to focus on near or far objects on the retina
Accommodation
Detects black and white and helps us see in the dark
Rods
Detects fine details and color and functions in daylight or bright light
Cones
Carries neural impulses from eye to brain
Optic Nerve
Where the optic nerve leaves the eye and no receptor cells are located
Blind Spot
Central focal point in the retina around the eye’s cones cluster
Fovea
Nerve cells that respond to specific features of stimulus (shape, angle, and movement)
Feature Detectors
Turning light into the mental act of seeing
Parallel processing
Organization of a visual field into objects (Figures) that stand out from surroundings (ground)
Figure ground
Perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
Grouping
Ability to see objects in three dimensions and allows use to judge distance
Depth Perception
Laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
Visual Cliff
Depth cue that depends on use of two eyes
Binocular Cue
Cue for perceiving depth, greater the distance between two images, the closer the object
Retinal Disparity
Depth cue available to one eye alone
Monocular cue
Illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
Phi Phenomemon
Perceiving objects as unchanged even as lighting and retinal images change
Perceptual Constancy
Ability to adjust to changed sensory input
Perceptual Adaptation
Myopia
Nearsightedness
There are three color receptor cones (red, green, blue) and the colors we perceive are created by light waves stimulating combinations of these cones (3 color theory)
Young-Hemholtz Trichromatic Theory
Color vision depends on three sets of opposing retinal processes, red-green, blue-yellow, white-black. It’s either this or that. (green and yellow to red and blue flag)
Opponent-process Theory
