SLS20 Chapter 4

Question 1

synesthesia

Answer 1

The perceptual experience of one sense that is evoked by another sense

Question 2

sensation

Answer 2

Simple stimulation of a sense organ

Question 3

perception

Answer 3

The organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation

Question 4

transduction

Answer 4

What takes place when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the central nervous system

Question 5

psychophysics

Answer 5

Methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observer’s sensitivity to that stimulus

Question 6

absolute threshold

Answer 6

The minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus

Question 7

just noticeable difference (JND)

Answer 7

The minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected

Question 8

Weber’s law

Answer 8

The just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity

Question 9

signal detection theory

Answer 9

An observation that the response to a stimulus depends both on a person’s sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise and on a person’s response criterion

Question 10

sensory adaptation

Answer 10

Sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions

Question 11

visual acuity

Answer 11

The ability to see fine detail

Question 12

retina

Answer 12

Light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball

Question 13

accommodation

Answer 13

The process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina

Question 14

cones

Answer 14

Photoreceptors that detect color, operate under normal daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail

Question 15

rods

Answer 15

Photoreceptors that become active under low-light conditions for night vision

Question 16

fovea

Answer 16

An area of the retina where vision is the clearest and there are no rods at all

Question 17

blind spot

Answer 17

A location in the visual field that produces no sensation on the retina because the corresponding area of the retina contains neither rods nor cones and therefore has no mechanism to sense light

Question 18

receptive field

Answer 18

The region of the sensory surface that, when stimulated, causes a change in the firing rate of that neuron

Question 19

trichromatic color representation

Answer 19

The pattern of responding across the three types of cones that provides a unique code for each color

Question 20

color-opponent system

Answer 20

Pairs of visual neurons that work in opposition

Question 21

area V1

Answer 21

The part of the occipital lobe that contains the primary visual cortex

Question 22

visual-form agnosia

Answer 22

The inability to recognize objects by sight

Question 23

binding problem

Answer 23

How features are linked together so that we see unified objects in our visual world rather than free-floating or miscombined features

Question 24

illusory conjunction

Answer 24

A perceptual mistake where features from multiple objects are incorrectly combined

Question 25

feature integration theory

Answer 25

The idea that focused attention is not required to detect the individual features that comprise a stimulus but is required to bind those individual features together

Question 26

perceptual constancy

Answer 26

A perceptual principle stating that even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains consistent

Question 27

template

Answer 27

A mental representation that can be directly compared to a viewed shape in the retinal image

Question 28

monocular depth cues

Answer 28

Aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye

Question 29

binocular disparity

Answer 29

The difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth

Question 30

apparent motion

Answer 30

The perception of movement as a result of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations

Question 31

change blindness

Answer 31

When people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene

Question 32

inattentional blindness

Answer 32

A failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention

Question 33

pitch

Answer 33

How high or low a sound is

Question 34

loudness

Answer 34

A sound's intensity

Question 35

timbre

Answer 35

A listener's experience of sound quality or resonance

Question 36

cochlea

Answer 36

A fluid filled tube that is the organ of auditory transduction

Question 37

basilar membrane

Answer 37

A structure in the inner ear that undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fulid

Question 38

hair cells

Answer 38

Specialized auditory receptor neurons embedded in the basilar membrane

Question 39

area A1

Answer 39

A portion of the temporal lobe that contains the primary auditory cortex

Question 40

place code

Answer 40

The cochlea encodes different frequencies at different locations along the basilar membrane

Question 41

temporal code

Answer 41

The cochlea registers low frequencies via the firing rate of action potentials entering the auditory nerve

Question 42

haptic perception

Answer 42

The active exploration of the environment by touching and grasping objects with our hands

Question 43

referred pain

Answer 43

Feeling of pain when sensory information from internal and external areas converges on the same nerve cells in the spinal cord

Question 44

gate-control theory

Answer 44

A theory of pain perception based on the idea that signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped, or gated, by interneurons in the spinal cord via feedback from two directions

Question 45

vestibular system

Answer 45

The three fluid-filled semicircular canals and adjacent organs located next to the cochlea in each inner ear

Question 46

olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs)

Answer 46

Receptor cells that initiate the sense of smell

Question 47

olfactory bulb

Answer 47

A brain structure located above the nasal cavity beneath the frontal lobes

Question 48

pheromones

Answer 48

Biochemical odorants emitted by other members of its species that can affect an animal's behavior or physiology

Question 49

taste buds

Answer 49

The organ of taste transduction