Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Transduction
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.
Sensation
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
Cornea
Light enters.
Protects eye and bends light to provide focus.
Iris
A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.
Pupil
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
Lens
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
Retina
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
Rods
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray.
Necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.
Cones
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.
Fovea
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.
Accommodation
Process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
Opponent-Process Theory
The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision.
Trichromatic Theory
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.
Feature detectors
Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.
Parts (hearing): outer, inner, middle
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
Sensorineural healing loss (deafness)
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.
Conduction hearing loss (deafness)
Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.
Place Theory
In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated.
Frequency theory
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.
Taste (basic tastes)
Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami
Kinesthesis
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
Vestibular
The sense of body movement and position, including balance.
Absolute threshold
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.
Difference threshold/JND
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time.
Weber’s Law
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage.
Sensory adaptation
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
Bottom-up processing
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
Top-down processing
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
Perceptual set
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.
Inattentional blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Selective Attention/Cocktail party phenomenon
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
Subliminal messages
Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Gestalt
An organized whole.
Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
Proximity, similarity, closure.
Monocular cues
Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.
