Sensation and Perception Vocab Flashcards
the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
ex: feeling the wind on your face, hearing a car honking in the distance, etc
sensation
sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli
ex: rods and cones, hair cells, etc
sensory receptors
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
ex: utilizing memory to recognize a face or detecting a certain scent
perception
analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information; the brain is trying to make sense of things
ex: you see a long, slim, slithering creature on the ground. . . you process. . . ah! A snake!
bottom-up processing
information processing guided by higher level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations (we see what we expect to see)
ex: an experienced hiker, you expect to see snakes on your hike so windy stick, lizards, etc (all seem like snakes)
top-down processing
the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus (although we are surrounded by sights and sounds, smells and tastes, we tend to pay attention to only a few at a time)
ex: thinking we can fully attend to a conversation or lecture while checking and returning text messages (we can’t); texting while driving
*shifts back and forth while multitasking so you’re not actually focusing on multiple things at the same time
selective attention
failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
ex: video in which two groups in black and white shirts are playing basketballs; viewers must focus on only one group; in the middle of the video, a gorilla walks by; most people don’t even notice because they are focusing on the specific group
inattentional blindness
failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness
ex: a woman talks to a man on the street; another man passes carrying a large piece of wood; they swap places and the new man continues the conversation with the woman; she doesn’t even notice
change blindness
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
transduction
the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them
ex: the compressed waves of air that vibrate the bones in the ear send signals to the brain that is translated as sound
psychophysics
the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time
ex: a watch ticking 20 feet away, a drop of perfume in a 6-room house, a teaspoon of sugar in a gallon of water
absolute threshold
a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise); assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness
ex: have you ever been caught texting on your phone by a teacher in one class but can get away with it regularly in another class?; do you or your friends have different opinions about how much onion is too much onion on a burger?
*depends on the strength of the signal and our psychological state
signal detection theory
below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness
ex: if you are thirsty and see a commercial for Dr Pepper, you may then beginning craving that drink (you may not even know why, but its because your brain saw that on tv)
subliminal
the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time; we experience this as a just noticeable difference (or jnd)
ex: the smallest difference in sound for us to perceive a change in the radio’s volume; the minimum difference in weight for us to perceive a change between two piles of sand
difference threshold
the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response
ex: participant views slides of people and offers either favorable or unfavorable ratings of each person BUT an instant before each slide, the trickster researcher also subliminally flashes another image- either pleasant (ex: kittens) or unpleasant (ex: werewolf); this affects the ratings of the participants
priming
the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)
ex: two lights must differ in intensity by 8% for you to notice the change; two objects must differ in weight by 2%; two tones must differ in frequency by .3%
Weber’s law
diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
ex: going into a store and smelling vanilla, but after being in there for a while, you don’t smell it anymore
sensory adaptation
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
ex: illusion where you see either a young or old woman
perceptual set
the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition
extrasensory perception (ESP)
the study of paranormal phenomena
ex: ESP and psychokinesis
parapsychology
the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next; electromagnetic _______ vary from the short blips of gamma rays to the long pulses of radio transmission
ex: sound waves
wavelength
dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light
ex: blue, green, etc
hue
the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness; _____ is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height)
intensity
the eye’s clear, protective outer layer, covering the pupil and iris
cornea
the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters
pupil
a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening
*the iris responds to your cognitive and emotional states (imagining a sunny sky will make your pupils smaller while imagining a dark room will cause them to dilate)
iris
the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina
lens
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
retina
the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina
accommodation
retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond
-are located along the retina’s outer periphery
-have no hotline to the brain
rods
retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations
-have a hotline to the brain
cones
the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
optic nerve
the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a _______ _____ because no receptor cells are located there
ex: when you are driving a car, the area just behind your shoulders
blind spot
the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster
fovea
the theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors- one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue-which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory
the theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision
ex: some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green
(red-green, blue-yellow, white-black)
opponent-process theory
nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement
ex: being able to identify shapes in a room that is dark or dim
feature detectors
processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision
ex: when you see a bus and immediately take in its size, color, and the fact its a bus
parallel processing
an organized whole; Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes
ex: when we look straight ahead with both eyes open, we don’t separate the perceived scene into our left and right fields of view, our conscious perception is a seamless scene/integrated whole
gestalt
the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
figure-ground
the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
ex: -proximity-how close things are to each other
-similarity-similar shapes
-continuity-smooth patterns
-connectedness-perceive similar linked things as units
-closure-filling in the gaps
grouping
the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge differences
ex: experiment where 6 to 14 month old infants were placed on the edge of the “cliff” and coaxed by their mothers to crawl out onto the glass; most infants refused to do so, indicating that they could perceive depth
depth perception
a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
ex: used in an experiment to test infant’s depth perception
visual cliff
a depth cue that depends on the use of two eyes
ex: retinal disparity
binocular cue
a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes the distance- the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object
ex: hold your two index fingers about 5 inches in front of your eyes, with their tips half an inch apart; now, look beyond them and note the weird result
retinal disparity
a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone
ex: explains how we can judge whether a person is 1 or 100 meters away
monocular cue
an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
ex: blinking marquees or arrows; we perceive two adjacent lights blinking on and off as one single light moving back and forth
phi phenomenon
perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape and size) even as illumination and retinal images change
ex: two identical chairs are on opposite sides of the room; one may look smaller, but we perceive them as the same size because we know they are the same chair
perceptual constancy
perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object
ex: a picture of a basket of fruits is shown; the entire picture is gray but our brain automatically perceives the apples as red, the bananas as yellow and so on
color constancy
the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
ex: when we tried on the goggles and tried throwing the ball in class
perceptual adaptation
the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
ex: per second
frequency
a tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency
ex: dogs can hear extremely high _____
pitch
the chamber between eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window
middle ear
a coiled, bony, fluid filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses
cochlea
the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs
inner ear
hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; the most common form of hearing loss, also called nerve deafness
ex: people may hear sound but have trouble discerning what someone is saying
sensorineural hearing loss
a less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea
conduction hearing loss
a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
cochlear implant
in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated
ex: experiment where they cut holes in the cochleas of guinea pigs and looked inside with a microscope; they discovered high frequencies produce large vibrations near beginning of cochlea membrane whereas low frequencies vibrated more of the membrane and were not so easily localized
place 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 its pitch (also called temporal theory)
frequency theory
the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain; the “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain
ex: small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals; they theorized that when tissue is injured, the small fibers activate and open the gate
gate-control theory
the sense of smell
ex: these 20 million receptors, waving like sea anemones on a reef, respond selectively- to the aroma of a cake baking, to a wisp of smoke, to a friend’s fragrance
olfaction
our movement sense-our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
kinesthesia
our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance
- fluid-filled semicircular canals and a pair of calcium crystal filled vestibular sacs located in the ears monitors the head’s (and body’s) movements
vestibular sense
the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste
ex: think about how smell sticks its nose into the business of taste; hold your nose and eat an apple slice- it could be indistinguishable from a raw potato
sensory interaction
the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments
ex: after holding a warm drink rather than a cold one, people were more likely to rate someone more warmly, feel closer to them, and behave more generously; after being given the cold shoulder by others, people judged the room to be colder than did those who had been treated warmly
embodied cognition
the sense of hearing
audition
-taste (gustation): on the top and sides of your tongue are 200 or more taste buds, each containing a pore that catches food chemicals
-smell (olfaction): we smell something when molecules of a substance carried in the air reach a tiny cluster of receptor cells at the top of each nasal cavity
chemical senses
