sensation and perception

Question 1

sense

Answer 1

a system that translates data from outside the nervous system into neural activity

Question 2

sensations

Answer 2

raw information from the senses

Question 3

perception

Answer 3

the process through which people take raw sensations from the environment and give them meaning using knowledge, experience, and understanding of the world

Question 4

accessory structures

Answer 4

structures, such as the outer part of the earr, that modify a stimulus

Question 5

transduction

Answer 5

the process of converting incoming physical energy into neural activity

Question 6

neural receptors

Answer 6

cells that are specialized to detect certain types of energy and convert it into neural activity

Question 7

sensory adaptation

Answer 7

decreasing responsiveness to an unchanging stimulus

Question 8

encoding

Answer 8

translation of the physical properties of a stimulus into a specific pattern of neural activity

Question 9

specific energy doctrine

Answer 9

the discovery that stimulation of a particular sensory nerve provides codes for that sense, no matter how the stimulation takes place

Question 10

absolute threshold

Answer 10

the minimuum amount of stimulus energy that can be detectted 50 percent of the time

Question 11

noise

Answer 11

the spontaneous random firing of nerve cells that occurs because the nervouse system is always active

Question 12

response bias

Answer 12

the internal rule a person uses to decide whether or not to report a stimulus

Question 13

signal detection theory

Answer 13

a mathematical model of what determies a person’s report of a near-threshold stimulus

Question 14

sensitivity

Answer 14

the ability to detect a stimulus

Question 15

Weber’s law

Answer 15

a law stating that the smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy is a constant fraction of the intensity of the stimulus

Question 16

just-noticeable difference

Answer 16

the smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy

Question 17

wavelength

Answer 17

the distance between peaks in a wave of light or sound

Question 18

frequency

Answer 18

the number of complete waves, or cycles that pass a given point per unit of time

Question 19

amplitude

Answer 19

the distance between the peak and the baseline of a wave

Question 20

figure

Answer 20

the part of the visual field that has meaning

Question 21

ground

Answer 21

the contourless part of the visual field

Question 22

figure ground discrimination

Answer 22

the ability to organize a visual scene so that it contains meaningful figures set against a less relevant ground

Question 23

depth perception

Answer 23

perception of distance, allowing us to experience the world in three dimensions

Question 24

motion parallax

Answer 24

a depth cue whereby a difference in the apparent rate of movement of different objects provides information about the relative distance of those objects

Question 25

eye convergence

Answer 25

a depth cue that results when the eyes rotate to project the image of an object on each retina

Question 26

retina desparity

Answer 26

a depth cue based on the difference between the retinal images by each eye

Question 27

looming

Answer 27

a motion cue whereby rapid expansion in the size of an image fills the available space on the retina

Question 28

stroboscopic illusion

Answer 28

an illusion of motion that is created when we see slightly different images or slightly displaced lights flashed in rapid succession

Question 29

perceptual constancy

Answer 29

the perception that objects retain the same size, shape, color and other properties despite changes in their retinal image

Question 30

top-down processing

Answer 30

aspects of recognition guided by higher-level cognitive processes and by psychological factors such as expectations

Question 31

bottom-up processing

Answer 31

aspects of recognition that depend first on information about stimuli that come up to the brain from the sensory system

Question 32

schemas

Answer 32

mental representations of what we know and expect about the world