Unit 4 Vocab Flashcards
What is sensation?
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
What is perception?
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
What is bottom-up processing?
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
What is top-down processing?
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
What is selective attention?
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
What is inattentional blindness?
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
What is change blindness?
Failing to notice changes in the environment.
What is transduction?
Conversion of one form of energy into another; in sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses our brain can interpret.
What is psychophysics?
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them.
What is absolute threshold?
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.
What is signal detection theory?
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation; assumes detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.
What does subliminal mean?
Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
What is priming?
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.
What is difference threshold?
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time; experienced as a just noticeable difference (jnd).
What is Weber’s law?
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.
What is sensory adaptation?
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
What is perceptual set?
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
What is extrasensory perception (ESP)?
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.
What is parapsychology?
The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.
What is wavelength?
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.
What is hue?
The dimension of color determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.
What is intensity?
The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, perceived as brightness or loudness, determined by the wave’s amplitude.
What is the pupil?
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
What is the iris?
A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.
What is the lens?
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
What is the retina?
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.
What is accommodation?
The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
What are rods?
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision.
What are cones?
Retinal receptor cells concentrated near the center of the retina that function in daylight or well-lit conditions, detecting fine detail and color sensations.
What is the optic nerve?
The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.
What is a blind spot?
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a ‘blind’ spot because no receptor cells are located there.
What is the fovea?
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.
What are feature detectors?
Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.
What is parallel processing?
The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.
What is Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory?
The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue.
What is opponent-process theory?
The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision; some cells are stimulated by one color and inhibited by another.
What is gestalt?
An organized whole; gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
What is figure-ground?
The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).
What is grouping?
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.
What is depth perception?
The ability to see objects in three dimensions, allowing us to judge distance.
What is a visual cliff?
A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.
What are binocular cues?
Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes.
What is retinal disparity?
A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the greater the disparity between the two images, the closer the object.
What are monocular cues?
Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.
What is the phi phenomenon?
An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.
What is perceptual constancy?
Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.
What is color constancy?
Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.
What is perceptual adaptation?
In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or inverted visual field.
What is audition?
The sense or act of hearing.
What is frequency?
The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time.
What is pitch?
A tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.
What is the middle ear?
The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window.
What is the cochlea?
A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.
What is the inner ear?
The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.
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 conduction hearing loss?
Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.
What is a cochlear implant?
A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
What is place theory in hearing?
The theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated.
What is frequency theory 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.
What is gate-control theory?
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological ‘gate’ that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.
What is kinesthesia?
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
What is vestibular sense?
The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.
What is sensory interaction?
The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.
What is embodied cognition?
The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.
