Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

The relationship between physical stimulation and its psychological effects

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

The way in which we recognize, interpret, and organize our sensations

Question 3

Psychophysics

Answer 3

The branch of psychology that deals with the effect of physical stimuli on sensory response

Question 4

Absolute threshold

Answer 4

The minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus and cause the neuron to fire 50% of the time

Question 5

Weber’s law

Answer 5

The greater the magnitude of the stimulus, the larger the differences must be to be noticed

Question 6

Difference threshold

Answer 6

The minimal amount of distance between two stimuli that can be detected as distinct

Question 7

Subliminal perception

Answer 7

A form of preconscious processing that occurs when we are presented with stimuli so rapidly that we are not consciously aware of them

Question 8

Transduction

Answer 8

Receptors convert the stimulus into neural impulses, which are sent to the brain

Question 9

Sensory coding

Answer 9

The process by which receptors convert a range of information to the brain

Question 10

Single-cell recording

Answer 10

A technique by which the firing rate and pattern of a single receptor cell can be measured in response to varying sensory input

Question 11

Visual sensation

Answer 11

The eye receives light input for the outside world

Question 12

Distal stimulus

Answer 12

The object as it exists in the environment

Question 13

Proximal stimulus

Answer 13

The image of the object on the retina

Question 14

Cornea

Answer 14

Where light passes through; protective layer on the outside of the eye

Question 15

Lens

Answer 15

Helps focus images on the retina

Question 16

Retina

Answer 16

The screen onto which the proximal radius (images) are projected

Question 17

Fovea

Answer 17

Center of the retina

Question 18

Rods

Answer 18

Help see in low light (black and white)

Question 19

Cones

Answer 19

Detects color in brighter light

Question 20

Serial processing

Answer 20

The brain computes information step-by-step in a methodical and linear matter

Question 21

parallel processing

Answer 21

The brain computes multiple pieces of information simultaneously

Question 22

Trichromatic theory

Answer 22

The cones in the retina of the eye are activated by light waves as associated with blue, red, and green

Question 23

Opponent theory

Answer 23

Cells within the thalamus respond to opponent pairs of receptor sets—black/white, red/green, and blue/yellow

Question 24

Dichromats

Answer 24

People who cannot distinguish along the red/green of blue/yellow continuums

Question 25

Monochromats

Answer 25

See only in shades of black and white

Question 26

Auditory input

Answer 26

Enters the ear by passing through the outer ear and into the ear canal

Question 27

Ossicles

Answer 27

The three tiny bones that comprise the middle ear

Question 28

Stapes

Answer 28

Vibrates against the cochlea

Question 29

Three parts of the middle ear

Answer 29

Malleus, incus, stapes

Question 30

Cochlea

Answer 30

Hair cells

Question 31

Place theory

Answer 31

Sound waves generate activity at different places along the basilar membrane

Question 32

Frequency theory

Answer 32

Sense pitch because the rate of neural impulses is equal to the frequency of a particular sound

Question 33

Conductive deafness

Answer 33

Injury of the outer or middle ear structures

Question 34

Sensorineural deafness

Answer 34

Damage to the hair cell receptors or associated nerves

Question 35

Vestibular sense

Answer 35

The sensation of balance

Question 36

Kinesthesis

Answer 36

The location and position of the limbs and body parts

Question 37

Adaption

Answer 37

Change in response to environmental stimuli

Question 38

Habituation

Answer 38

The process by which we become accustomed to a stimulus and notice it less and less over time

Question 39

Dishabitutation

Answer 39

A change in the stimulus, even a small change, causes us to notice it again

Question 40

Attention

Answer 40

The processing through cognition of a select portion of the massive amount of information income from the sense and contained in memory

Question 41

Selective attention

Answer 41

We try to attend to one thing while ignoring another

Question 42

Filter theories

Answer 42

Stimuli must pass through some form of screen or filter to enter into attention

Question 43

Attentional resource theories

Answer 43

We have only a fixed amount of attention, and this resource can be divided up as is required in a given situation

Question 44

Divided attention

Answer 44

Trying to focus on more than one task at a time

Question 45

Inattentional blindness

Answer 45

When people focus too intently on specific stimuli, they can miss the bigger picture going on around them

Question 46

Bottom-up processing

Answer 46

Sending information to the brain that has no prior experiences with it

Question 47

Top-down processing

Answer 47

Expectation/prior knowledge of income stimuli

Question 48

Texture gradient

Answer 48

Textures appear to grow more dense as distance increases

Question 49

Interposition

Answer 49

A near object partially blocks the view of an object behind it

Question 50

Steropsis

Answer 50

The three-dimensional image of the world resulting from binocular vision

Question 51

Proximity

Answer 51

The tendency to see objects near each other as forming groups

Question 52

Similarity

Answer 52

The tendency to prefer grouping like objects

Question 53

Symmetry

Answer 53

The tendency to perceive forms that make up mirror images

Question 54

Continuity

Answer 54

The tendency to perceive fluid or continuous forms, rather that jagged or irregular ones

Question 55

Closures

Answer 55

The tendency to see closed objects rather than those that are incomplete