Sensation & Perception

Question 1

Define Sensation

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Define Perception

Answer 2

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Question 3

Define Bottom-Up Processing

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Define Top-Down Processing

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Define Selective Attention

Answer 5

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. You only consciously process a small amount of what your senses take in.

Question 6

Define Inattentional Blindness

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Define Change Blindness

Answer 7

Failing to notice changes in the environment.

Question 8

Define Transduction

Answer 8

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 9

Define Psychophysics

Answer 9

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.

Question 10

Define Absolute Threshold

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Define Signal Detection Theory

Answer 11

A theory that predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

Question 12

Define Subliminal

Answer 12

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Question 13

Define Priming

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Define Difference Threshold

Answer 14

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference. The difference threshold increases with the size of the stimulus.

Question 15

Define Weber’s Law

Answer 15

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, not a constant amount. The exact proportion varies depending on the stimulus.

Question 16

Define Sensory Adaptation

Answer 16

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. Offers the benefit of freedom to focus on informative changes in our environment.

Question 17

Define Perceptual Set

Answer 17

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another that can influence what we hear, taste, feel, and see.

Question 18

Define Extrasensory Perception

Answer 18

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.

Question 19

Define Parapsychology

Answer 19

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.

Question 20

Define Wavelength

Answer 20

The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.

Question 21

Define Hue

Answer 21

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light. What we know as the color names.

Question 22

Define Intensity

Answer 22

The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude.

Question 23

Define Pupil

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Define Iris

Answer 24

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 25

Define Lens

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Define Retina

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Define Accommodation

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Define Rods

Answer 28

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey. Necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.

Question 29

Define Cones

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Define Optic Nerve

Answer 30

The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

Question 31

Define Blind Spot

Answer 31

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye. Creating a blind spot because no receptor cells are located there.

Question 32

Define Fovea

Answer 32

The central focal point in the retina.

Question 33

Define Feature Detectors

Answer 33

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, ore movement. Receive information from individual ganglion cells in the retina.

Question 34

Define Parallel Processing

Answer 34

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously. The brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

Question 35

Define Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Define Opponent-Process Theory

Answer 36

The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red and vice versa.

Question 37

Define Gestalt

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Define Figure-Ground

Answer 38

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.

Question 39

Define Grouping

Answer 39

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. Illustrate how the perceived whole differs from the sum of its parts.

Question 40

Define Depth Perception

Answer 40

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional. Allows us to judge distance.

Question 41

Define Visual Cliff

Answer 41

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

Question 42

Define Binocular Cues

Answer 42

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes.

Question 43

Define Retinal Disparity

Answer 43

A binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance. The greater the difference between the two images, the closer the object.

Question 44

Define Monocular Cues

Answer 44

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

Question 45

Define Phi Phenomenon

Answer 45

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

Question 46

Define Perceptual Constancy

Answer 46

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.

Question 47

Define Color Constancy

Answer 47

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even as illumination and retinal images change.

Question 48

Define Perceptual Adaptation

Answer 48

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

Question 49

Define Audition

Answer 49

The sense or act of hearing.

Question 50

Define Frequency

Answer 50

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time.

Question 51

Define Pitch

Answer 51

A tone’s experienced highness or lowness. Depends on frequency: long waves have low frequency and pitch, short waves have high frequency and pitch.

Question 52

Define Middle Ear

Answer 52

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea. Contains three tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window: the hammer, anvil, and stirrup.

Question 53

Define Cochlea

Answer 53

A coiled, boney, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear. Sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.

Question 54

Define Inner Ear

Answer 54

The innermost part of the ear. Contains the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.

Question 55

Define Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Answer 55

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves, also called nerve deafness. Occasionally caused by disease, but more often caused by biological changes linked with heredity, aging, and prolonged exposure to ear-splitting noise.

Question 56

Define Conduction Hearing Loss

Answer 56

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

Question 57

Define Cochlear Implant

Answer 57

A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea. They do not enable hearing in adults if their brain never learned to process sound during childhood.

Question 58

Define Place Theory

Answer 58

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

Problem: Place theory can explain how we hear high-pitched sounds but not low-pitched sounds. Neural signals generated by low-pitched sounds are not so neatly localized on the basilar membrane.

Question 59

Define Frequency Theory

Answer 59

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.

Problem: doesn’t explain how we can sense sounds with frequencies above 1000 waves per second. An individual neuron cannot fire faster than 1000 times per second.

Question 60

Define Gate-Control Theory

Answer 60

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.

Question 61

Define Kinesthesia

Answer 61

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

Question 62

Define Vestibular Sense

Answer 62

The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.

Question 63

Define Sensory Interaction

Answer 63

The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.

Question 64

Define Embodied Cognition

Answer 64

In psychological science, the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements.