Sensation and Perception

Question 0

Transduction

Answer 0

Conversion of one form of energy into another.
In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret.

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Question 2

Cornea

Answer 2

Light enters.

Protects eye and bends light to provide focus.

Question 3

Iris

Answer 3

A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.

Question 4

Pupil

Answer 4

The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.

Question 5

Lens

Answer 5

The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.

Question 6

Retina

Answer 6

The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

Question 7

Rods

Answer 7

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray.

Necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.

Question 8

Cones

Answer 8

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions.
The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

Question 9

Fovea

Answer 9

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.

Question 10

Accommodation

Answer 10

Process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

Question 11

Opponent-Process Theory

Answer 11

The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision.

Question 12

Trichromatic Theory

Answer 12

The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one must sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue - which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

Question 13

Feature detectors

Answer 13

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.

Question 14

Parts (hearing): outer, inner, middle

Answer 14

Outer: channels sound waves through the auditory canal to eardrum
Middle: transmits eardrum’s vibrations through a piston made of three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) to the cochlea
Inner: contains cochlea

Question 15

Sensorineural healing loss (deafness)

Answer 15

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.

Question 16

Conduction hearing loss (deafness)

Answer 16

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

Question 17

Place Theory

Answer 17

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated.

Question 18

Frequency theory

Answer 18

In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense it’s pitch.

Question 19

Taste (basic tastes)

Answer 19

Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami

Question 20

Kinesthesis

Answer 20

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

Question 21

Vestibular

Answer 21

The sense of body movement and position, including balance.

Question 22

Absolute threshold

Answer 22

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

Question 23

Difference threshold/JND

Answer 23

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time.

Question 24

Weber’s Law

Answer 24

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage.

Question 25

Sensory adaptation

Answer 25

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Question 26

Bottom-up processing

Answer 26

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.

Question 27

Top-down processing

Answer 27

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

Question 28

Perceptual set

Answer 28

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Question 29

Priming

Answer 29

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Question 30

Inattentional blindness

Answer 30

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Question 31

Selective Attention/Cocktail party phenomenon

Answer 31

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Question 32

Subliminal messages

Answer 32

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Question 33

Gestalt

Answer 33

An organized whole.
Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
Proximity, similarity, closure.

Question 34

Monocular cues

Answer 34

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.