Psychology vocab exam 4

Question 1

The process by which receive, transform, and process stimuli from the outside world to create sensory experiences of vision, touch, hearing, taste, smell, and so on.

Answer 1

Sensation.

Question 2

The smallest amount of given stimulus a person can sense

Answer 2

Absolute threshold

Question 3

The minimal difference in the magnitude of energy needed for people to detect a difference between two stimuli

Answer 3

Difference threshold

Question 4

The principle that the amount of change in a stimulus needed to detect a difference is given by a constant ratio of fraction, called a constant, of the original stimulus

Answer 4

Weber’s law

Question 5

The belief that the detection of a stimulus depends on factors involving the intensity of the stimulus, the level of background stimulation, and the biological and psychological characteristics of the perceiver

Answer 5

Signal-detection theory

Question 6

The process by which sensory receptors adapt to constant stimuli by becoming less sensitive to them

Answer 6

Sensory adaptation

Question 7

Specialized cells that detect sensory stimuli and convert them into neural impulses

Answer 7

Sensory receptors

Question 8

Light- sensitive cells (rods and cones) in the eye upon which light registers

Answer 8

Photoreceptors

Question 9

Photoreceptors that are sensitive only to the intensity of light

Answer 9

Rods

Question 10

Photoreceptors that are sensitive to color

Answer 10

Cones

Question 11

The nerve that carries neural impulses generated by light stimulation from the eye to the brain

Answer 11

Optic nerve

Question 12

The area in the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye and that contains no photoreceptor cells

Answer 12

Blind spot

Question 13

The area near the center of the retina that contains only cones and that is the center of focus for clearest vision

Answer 13

Fovea

Question 14

The belief that pitch depends on the place along the basilar membrane that vibrates the most in response to a particular auditory stimulus

Answer 14

Place theory

Question 15

The belief that pitch depends on the frequency of vibration of the basilar membrane and the volley of neural impulses transmitted to the brain via auditory nerve

Answer 15

Frequency theory

Question 16

The principle that relates the experience of pitch to the alternating firing of groups of neurons along the basilar membane

Answer 16

Volley principle

Question 17

A form of deafness, usually involving damage to the middle ear, in which there is a loss of conduction of sound vibrations through the ear

Answer 17

Conduction deafness

Question 18

Deafness associated with nerve damage, usually involving damage to the hair cells or to the auditory nerve itself

Answer 18

Nerve deafness

Question 19

Chemical substances that are emitted by many species and that have various functions, including sexual attraction

Answer 19

Pheromones

Question 20

The belief that a neural gate in the spinal cord opens to allow pain messages to reach the brain and closes to shut them out

Answer 20

Gate-control theory of pain

Question 21

The sense that keeps us informed about balance and the position of our body in space

Answer 21

Vestibular sense

Question 22

The ability to perceive objects and events without using the known sense

Answer 22

Clairvoyance

Question 23

The study of paranormal phenomena

Answer 23

Parapsychology

Question 24

Communication of thought from one mind to another that occurs without using the known senses

Answer 24

Telepathy

Question 25

The ability to foretell the future

Answer 25

Precognition

Question 26

An attempt to explain the Muller-Lyer illusion in terms of the cultural experience of living in a carpentered, right-angled world like our own

Answer 26

Carpentered-world hypothesis

Question 27

The principles identified by Gestalt psychologists that describes the ways in which the brain groups bits of sensory stimulation into meaningful wholes or patterns

Answer 27

Laws of perceptual organization

Question 28

The sense of hearing

Answer 28

Audition

Question 29

The highness or lowerness of a sound that corresponds to the frequency of the sound wave

Answer 29

Pitch

Question 30

The theory of color vision that posits that the ability to see different colors depends on the relative activity of three types of color receptors in the eye(red, green, and blue-violet)

Answer 30

Trichromatic theory

Question 31

A theory of color vision that holds that the experience of color results from opposing processes involving to sets of color receptors and blue-yellow receptors, and that another set of opposing receptors, black-white, is responsible for detecting differences in brightness

Answer 31

Opponent-process theory

Question 32

The process by which the brain forms perceptions by piercing together bits and pieces of sensory data to form meaningful patterns

Answer 32

Bottom-up processing

Question 33

The process by which the brain forms perceptions by recognizing whole patterns without first piercing together their component parts

Answer 33

Top-down processing