Unit 4: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

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

Question 3

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

Top-Down Processing

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Selective Attention

Answer 5

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Question 6

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Change Blindness

Answer 7

Failing to notice changes in the environment.

Question 8

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

Psychophysis

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Absolute Threshold

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Subliminal

Answer 12

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Question 13

Priming

Answer 13

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

Question 14

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 (or jnd).

Question 15

Weber’s Law

Answer 15

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).

Question 16

Sensory Adaptation

Answer 16

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Question 17

Perceptual Set

Answer 17

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Question 18

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

Answer 18

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input, includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

Question 19

Parapsychology

Answer 19

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokynesis.

Question 20

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 transmissions.

Question 21

Hue

Answer 21

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.

Question 22

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

Pupil

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Iris

Answer 24

A ring muscles tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.

Question 25

Lens

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Retina

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

Accommodation

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Rods

Answer 28

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.

Question 29

Cones

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Optic Nerve

Answer 30

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

Question 31

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

Fovea

Answer 32

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.

Question 33

Feature Detectors

Answer 33

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as the shape, angle, or movement.

Question 34

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. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.

Question 35

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Opponent-Process Theory

Answer 36

The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision.

Question 37

Gestalt

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Figure-Ground

Answer 38

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).

Question 39

Grouping

Answer 39

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Question 40

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

Visual Cliff

Answer 41

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

Question 42

Binocular Cues

Answer 42

Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes.

Question 43

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

Monocular Cues

Answer 44

Depth cues available to either eye.

Question 45

Phi Phenomenon

Answer 45

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

Question 46

Perceptual Constancy

Answer 46

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, brightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images have.

Question 47

Color Constancy

Answer 47

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

Question 48

Perceptual Adaptation

Answer 48

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

Question 49

Audition

Answer 49

The sense or act of hearing.

Question 50

Frequency

Answer 50

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

Question 51

Pitch

Answer 51

A tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

Question 52

Middle Ear

Answer 52

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

Question 53

Cochlea

Answer 53

A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.

Question 54

Inner Ear

Answer 54

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

Question 55

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Answer 55

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; nerve deafness.

Question 56

Conduction Hearing Loss

Answer 56

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

Question 57

Cochlear Implant

Answer 57

A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.

Question 58

Place Theory

Answer 58

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

Question 59

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.

Question 60

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

Kinesthesia

Answer 61

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

Question 62

Vestibular Sense

Answer 62

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

Question 63

Sensory Interaction

Answer 63

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

Question 64

Embodied Cognition

Answer 64

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

Question 65

Gustav Fechner

Question 66

Ernst Weber

Question 67

David Hubel

Question 68

Torsten Wiesel