Sensation and perception - Vocabulary Noba Flashcards
What is the absolute threshold?
The smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense.
What is agnosia?
Loss of the ability to perceive stimuli.
What is anosmia?
Loss of the ability to smell.
What is audition?
Ability to process auditory stimuli. Also called hearing.
What is the auditory canal?
Tube running from the outer ear to the middle ear.
What are auditory hair cells?
Receptors in the cochlea that transduce sound into electrical potentials.
What is binocular disparity?
Difference in images processed by the left and right eyes.
What is binocular vision?
Our ability to perceive 3D and depth because of the difference between the images on each of our retinas.
What is bottom-up processing?
Building up to perceptual experience from individual pieces.
What are chemical senses?
Our ability to process the environmental stimuli of smell and taste.
What is the cochlea?
Spiral bone structure in the inner ear containing auditory hair cells.
What are cones?
Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to color. Located primarily in the fovea.
What is dark adaptation?
Adjustment of eye to low levels of light.
What is the differential threshold?
The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli.
What is the dorsal pathway?
Pathway of visual processing. The ‘where’ pathway.
What is flavor?
The combination of smell and taste.
What is gustation?
Ability to process gustatory stimuli. Also called taste.
What is just noticeable difference (JND)?
The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli.
What is light adaptation?
Adjustment of eye to high levels of light.
What are mechanoreceptors?
Mechanical sensory receptors in the skin that respond to tactile stimulation.
What is multimodal perception?
The effects that concurrent stimulation in more than one sensory modality has on the perception of events and objects in the world.
What is nociception?
Our ability to sense pain.
What are odorants?
Chemicals transduced by olfactory receptors.
What is olfaction?
Ability to process olfactory stimuli. Also called smell.
What is the olfactory epithelium?
Organ containing olfactory receptors.
What is the opponent-process theory?
Theory proposing color vision as influenced by cells responsive to pairs of colors.
What are ossicles?
A collection of three small bones in the middle ear that vibrate against the tympanic membrane.
What is perception?
The psychological process of interpreting sensory information.
What is a phantom limb?
The perception that a missing limb still exists.
What is phantom limb pain?
Pain in a limb that no longer exists.
What is the pinna?
Outermost portion of the ear.
What is the primary auditory cortex?
Area of the cortex involved in processing auditory stimuli.
What is the primary somatosensory cortex?
Area of the cortex involved in processing somatosensory stimuli.
What is the primary visual cortex?
Area of the cortex involved in processing visual stimuli.
What is the principle of inverse effectiveness?
The finding that, in general, for a multimodal stimulus, if the response to each unimodal component (on its own) is weak, then the opportunity for multisensory enhancement is very large.
What is the retina?
Cell layer in the back of the eye containing photoreceptors.
What are rods?
Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to low levels of light. Located around the fovea.
What is sensation?
The physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs.
What is sensory adaptation?
Decrease in sensitivity of a receptor to a stimulus after constant stimulation.
What is the shape theory of olfaction?
Theory proposing that odorants of different size and shape correspond to different smells.
What is signal detection?
Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli.
What is somatosensation?
Ability to sense touch, pain, and temperature.
What is the somatotopic map?
Organization of the primary somatosensory cortex maintaining a representation of the arrangement of the body.
What are sound waves?
Changes in air pressure. The physical stimulus for audition.
What is the superadditive effect of multisensory integration?
The finding that responses to multimodal stimuli are typically greater than the sum of the independent responses to each unimodal component.
What are tastants?
Chemicals transduced by taste receptor cells.
What are taste receptor cells?
Receptors that transduce gustatory information.
What is top-down processing?
Experience influencing the perception of stimuli.
What is transduction?
The conversion of one form of energy into another.
What is the trichromatic theory?
Theory proposing color vision as influenced by three different cones responding preferentially to red, green, and blue.
What is the tympanic membrane?
Thin, stretched membrane in the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound. Also called the eardrum.
What is the ventral pathway?
Pathway of visual processing. The ‘what’ pathway.
What is the vestibular system?
Parts of the inner ear involved in balance.
What is Weber’s law?
States that just noticeable difference is proportional to the magnitude of the initial stimulus.
