psych 4

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

Simple stimulation of a sense organ

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

recognition and interpretation of sensory information

Question 3

transduction

Answer 3

the process that occurs when many sensors transfers physical signals to neural signals that are sent to the central nervous system

Question 4

absolute threshold

Answer 4

the minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus in 50% of the trials

Question 5

Just notable Difference

Answer 5

the minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected

Question 6

webers law

Answer 6

the just noticeable difference between two different stimulus

Question 7

signal detection theory

Answer 7

etection theory or signal detection theory is a means to measure the ability to differentiate between information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information.

Question 8

sensory adaptation

Answer 8

the decrease sensitivity to a stimulus with chronic exposure (living next to the train tracks and no longer noticing the noise)

Question 9

retina

Answer 9

a layer of light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball

Question 10

cones

Answer 10

photoreceptors that detect colors operate in daylight (see detail)

Question 11

rods

Answer 11

photoreceptors that become active in low light

Question 12

fovea

Answer 12

an area of the retina where vision is the clearest and no rods are used at all

Question 13

blind spot

Answer 13

a location in the visual field that produces no sensation on the retina

Question 14

area V1

Answer 14

part of the occipital lobe that contains primary visual cortex

Question 15

color operant system

Answer 15

theory stating that pairs of visual neurons work in opposition

Question 16

visual form agnosia

Answer 16

the inablitiy to recognize objects by sight

Question 17

binding problem

Answer 17

how the brain links features togeather so that we see unified objects rather than mismatched shapes

Question 18

illusionary conjunction

Answer 18

when the brain incorrectly take mismatched shapes

Question 19

feature integration theory

Answer 19

the idea that focused attention is not required to detect the individual features that make up a stimulus but is required to bind those individual features togeather

Question 20

perceptual constancy

Answer 20

the principle stating that even as aspects of sensory signals change, the perception remains contact (friend dyes hair but you still recognize her.

Question 21

apparent motion

Answer 21

the perception of movement as a result of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations

Question 22

change blindness

Answer 22

failure to detect changes to the visual details of a scene

Question 23

inattentional blindness

Answer 23

failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention

Question 24

pitch

Answer 24

how high or low a sound is

Question 25

loudness

Answer 25

a sounds intensity

Question 26

timbre

Answer 26

a listener’s experience of sound quality or resonance

Question 27

cochlea

Answer 27

a fluid-filled organ if auditory transduction

Question 28

basilar membrane

Answer 28

a structure in the inner ear that undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fluid

Question 29

hair cells

Answer 29

specialized auditory receptor neurons embedded in the basilar membrane

Question 30

place code

Answer 30

the process by which different frequencies stimulate neural signals at specific places along the basilar membrane from which the brain determines the pitch

Question 31

temporal code

Answer 31

the process whereby the cochlea registers low frequencies via the firing rate of action potentials entering the auditory nerve

Question 32

haptic perception

Answer 32

the active exploration of the environment by touching and grasping objects with our hands

Question 33

referred pain

Answer 33

feeling of pain when sensory information from internal and external areas converge on the same nerve cells in the spinal cord

Question 34

gate-control theory of pain

Answer 34

theory of pain perception based on the idea signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped or gated by interneurons in the spinal cord via feedback from two directions

Question 35

vestibular system

Answer 35

the three fluid-filled semicircular canals and adjacent organs located next to the chochlea in the inner ear