Unit 4: Sensation & Perception Flashcards
Feature Detectors
Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus such as shape, angle, or movement.
Change Blindness
Failing to notice change in the environment.
Visual Cliff
A laboratory device for testing the depth perception in infants and young animals.
Lens
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
Kinesthesis
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
What is sensorineural hearing loss?
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.
What is the pupil?
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
Difference Threshold
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.
Pitch
A tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.
Color constancy
Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.
Bottom-up Processing
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
Cones
Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.
Gestalt
An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
Inattentional Blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Fovea
Central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.
