Test 2 Flashcards
1
Q
the process of converting an external energy or substance into electrical activity within neurons
A
transduction
2
Q
specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system
A
sense receptor
3
Q
activation is greatest when a stimulus is first detected
A
sensory adaptation
4
Q
the study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics
A
psychophysics
5
Q
lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50 percent of the time
A
absolute threshold
6
Q
the smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect
A
just noticeable difference
7
Q
there is a constant proportional relationship between the JND and original stimulus intensity
A
Weber’s Law
8
Q
perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn’t match its physical reality
A
illusion
9
Q
detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain
A
sensation
10
Q
the brain’s interpretation of raw sensory inputs
A
perception
11
Q
theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions
A
signal detection theory
12
Q
a condition in which people experience cross-modal sensations (like hearing words when they see colors)
A
synesthesia
13
Q
process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimizing others
A
selective attention
14
Q
failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere
A
inattentional blindness
15
Q
circular hole through which light enters the eye
A
pupil
16
Q
part of the eye containing transparent cells that focus light on the retina
A
cornea
17
Q
part of the eye that changes curvature to keep image in focus
A
lens
18
Q
changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far
A
accommodation
19
Q
membrane at the back of the eye responsible for converting light into neural activity
A
retina
20
Q
central portion of the retina
A
fovea
21
Q
sharpness of vision
A
acuity
22
Q
receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in low levels of light
A
rods
23
Q
time in dark before rods regain maximum light sensitivity
A
dark adaption
24
Q
receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in color
A
cones
25
nerve that travels from the retina to the brain
optic nerve
26
part of the visual field we can't see because of an absence of rods and cones
blind spot
27
cell that detects lines and edges
feature detector cell
28
idea that color vision is based on our sensitivity to three primary colors
trichromatic theory (HUber and Wiesel)
29
theory that we perceive colors in terms of three pairs of opponent colors; either red or green, blue or yellow, or black or white
opponent process theory
30
complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices or other sources sound unique
timbre
31
bony, spiral shaped sense organ used for hearing
cochlea
32
tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing
Corti
33
membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in cochlea
basilar membrane
34
specific place along the basilar membrane machos a tone with a specific pitch
place theory
35
rate at which neurons fire the action potential reproduces the pitch
frequency theory
36
sense of smell
olfaction
37
sense of taste
gustation
38
sense receptor in the tongue that responds to the sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami and fat
taste bud
39
odorless chemical that serves as a social signal to the members of one's species
pheromone
40
sense of touch, temperature and pain
somatosensory
41
idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in spinal cord
gate control model
42
sense of body position
proprioception
43
sense of equilibrium or balance
vestibular sense
44
three fluid-filled canals in the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance
semicircular canals
45
the ability to attend to many sense modalities simultaneously
parallel processing
46
processing in which a whole is constructed from parts
bottom-up processing
47
conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies
top-down processing
48
process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions
perceptual constancy
49
ability to judge distance and three-dimensional realtions
depth perception
50
stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye
monocular depth cues
51
stimuli that enable us to judge depth using both eyes
binocular depth cues
52
perception below the limen or threshold of conscious awareness
subliminal perception
53
perception of events outside the known channels of sensation
ESP
54
state of being unable to move just after falling asleep or right before waking up
sleep paralysis
55
our subjective experience of the world, our bodies and our mental perspectives
conciousness
56
cyclical changes that occur on a 24 hour basis in many biological processes
circadian rhythm
57
the area of the hypothalamus that is responsible for controlling our levels of alertness
biological clock
58
darting of eyes underneath closed eyelids during sleep
REM
59
stage of sleep during which the brain is most active and during which vivid dreaming occurrs
REM sleep
60
stages 1-4 of the sleep cycle during which REM do not occur and dreaming is less frequent
nonREM sleep
61
when are bodies are frozen during REM sleep
paradoxical sleep
62
experience of becoming aware that one is dreaming
lucid dreaming
63
difficulty fallling or staying asleep
insomnia
64
disorder characterized by the rapid and often unexpected onset of sleep
narcolepsy
65
complete loss of muscle tone
cataplexy
66
disorder caused by a blockage of the airway during sleep, resulting in daytime fatigue
sleep apnea
67
sudden waking episodes characterized by screaming, perspiring and confusion followed by a return to deep sleep
night terrors
68
theory that dreams reflect inputs from brain activation originating in the ons, which the forebrain then attempts to weave into a story
activation-synthesis theory (Hobson and McCarley)
69
theory that dreams are a meaningful product of our cognitive capacities, which shape what we dream about
neurocognitive theory
70
sense of our consciousness leaving our body
out of body experience
71
feelings of unity or oneness with the world, often with strong spiritual overtones
mystical experience
72
set of techniques that proves people with suggestions for alterations in their perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors
hypnosis
73
approach to explaining hypnosis based on people's attitudes, beliefs, expectations and responsiveness waking suggestions
sociocognitive theory
74
therapeutic approach that hypnotizes and supposedly age-regresses patients to a previous life to identify the source of a present day problem
past-life regression theory
75
approach to explaining hypnosis based on a separation between personality functions that are normally well integrated
dissociation theory
76
substance that contains chemicals similar to those found naturally in our brains that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons
psychoactive drug
77
retention of info over time
memory
78
false but subjectively compelling memory
memory illusion
79
three systems of memory
sensory memory, short term memory, long term memory
80
memory system that retains information for limited durations
short-term memory
81
fading of info from memory over time
decay
82
loss of info from memory because of competition from additional incoming informations
interference
83
interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information
retroactive interference
84
interference with acquisition of new information due to previous learning of information
proactive interference
85
the span of short-term memory, according to George Miller: seven plus or minus two pieces of information
Magic Number
86
organizing info into meaningful groupings allowing us to extend the span of short-term memory
chunking
87
repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory
maintence rehersal
88
linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way to improve retention of information in short-term memory
elaborative rehearsal
89
relatively enduring retention of info stored regarding our facts, experiences and skills
long-term memory
90
type of long-term memory that appears to be permanent
permastore
91
tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list
primacy effect
92
tendency to remember words at the end of a list
recency effect
93
graph depicting both primacy and recency effects on people's ability to recall items on a list
serial position curve
94
our knowledge of facts about the world
sematic memory
95
memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness
explicit memory
96
recollection of events in our lives
episodic memory
97
memories we don;t deliberately remember or reflect consciously
implicit memory
98
memory for how to do things, including motor skills and habits (subtype of implicit memory)
procedural memory
99
our ability to identify a stimulus more easily or more quickly after we've encountered similar stimuli (subtype of implicit memory)
priming
100
process of getting info into our memory banks
encoding
101
mnemonic method that relies on imagery of places
Loci
102
mnemonic rhyming method
Pegoword Method
103
process of keeping info in memory
storage
104
organized knowledge structure or metal model that we've stored in memory
schema
105
reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores
retrieval
106
hint that makes it easier for us to recall info
retrieval cue
107
selecting previously remembered info from an array of options
recognition
108
generating previously remembered info
recall
109
reacquiring knowledge that we'd previously learned but largely forgotten over time
relearning
110
studying info in small increments over time versus (distributed) in large increments over a brief amount of time (mass)
distributed versus massed practice
111
experience of knowing that we know something but being unable to access it
tip of tongue phenomenon
112
phenomenon of remembering something better when the conditions under which we retrieve info are similar to the conditions under which we encoded it
encoding specificity
113
superior retrieval of memories when the external content of original memories matches the retrieval context
context-dependent learning
114
superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding
state-dependent learning
115
current physiological state can distort memories of our past
retrospective bias
116
easier to recall and recognize unpleasant memories than pleasant ones
mood-dependent learning
117
gradual strengthening of the connections among neurons from repetitive stimulation
long-term potentiation
118
loss of memories from our past
retrograde amnesia
119
inability to encode new memories from our experiences
anterograde amnesia
120
severe memory loss
dementia
121
plaque and neurofibrillary tangles contribute to loss of synapses and death of cells in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex
Alzheimer's
122
knowledge about our own memory abilities and limitations
meta-memory
123
inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place before an early age
infantile amnesia
124
emotional memory that is extraordinarily vivid and detailed
flashbulb memory
125
lack of clarity about the origin of a memory
source monitoring confusion
126
failure to recognize that our ideas originated with someone else
cryptomnesia
127
procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place
suggestive memory technique
128
creation of fictions memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place
misinformation effect
129
system of communication that combines symbols in rule-based ways to create meaning
language
130
category of sounds our vocal apparatus produces
phoneme
131
smallest meaningful unit of speech
morpheme
132
grammatical rules that govern how words are composed into meaningful strings
syntax
133
elements of communication that aren't part of the content of language but are critical to interpreting its meaning
extralinguistic information
134
meaning derived from words and sentences
semantics
135
language variation used by group of people who share geographic proximity or ethic background
dialect
136
certain speech sounds tend to be associated with particular meanings
sound symbolism
137
intentional vocalization that lacks specific meaning
babbling
138
early period of language development when children use single-word phrases to convey an entire thought
one-word stage
139
system of signs invented by children who are deaf and born of hearing parents and therefore receive no language input
homesign
140
awareness of how language is structured and used
metalinguistic
141
allowing an infinite number of unique sentences to be created by combining words in a novel way
generative
142
language acquisition that suggests children are born with some basic knowledge of how language works
nativist
143
hypothetical organ in the brain in which nativists believe knowledge of syntax resides
language acquisition device
144
language acquisition that proposes that children infer what words and sentences mean from context and social clues
social pragmatics
145
view that all thought is represented verbally and that as a result our language defines our thinking
linguistic determinism
146
view that characteristics of language shape our thought processes
linguistic processes
147
reading strategy that involves identifying common words based on their appearance without having to sound them out
whole word recognition
148
reading strategy that involves sounding out words by drawing correspondences between printed letters and sounds
phonetic decomposition
