Vocab Ch 5 Flashcards
Sensation
The detection of external stimuli and the transmission of this information to the brain.
Perception
The processing, organization, and interpretation of sensory signals.
Bottom-up processing
Perception based on the physical features of the stimulus
Top-Down processing
How knowledge, expectations, or past experiences shape the interpretation of sensory information.
Transduction
The process by which sensory stimuli are converted to signals the brain can interpret.
Absolute threshold
The minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before you experience a sensation.
Difference threshold
The minimum amount of change required for a person to detect a difference between two stimuli.
Signal Detection Theory (SDT)
A theory of perception based on the idea that the detection of a stimulus requires a judgement - it is not an all-or-nothing process.
Sensory adaption
A decrease in sensitivity to a constant level of stimulation.
Rods
Retinal cells that respond to low levels of light and result in black-and-White perception.
Cones
Retinal cells that respond to higher levels of light and result in color perception
Fovea
The center of the retina, where cones are densely packed.
Retina
The thin inner surface of the back of the eyeball; it contains the sensory receptors that transduce light into neural signals.
Binocular depth cues
Cues of depth perception that arise from the fact that people have two eyes.
Monocular depth cues
Cues of depth perception that are available to each eye alone.
Binocular disparity
A depth cue; because of the distance between the two eyes, each eye receives a slightly different retinal image.
Convergence
A cue of binocular depth perception; when a person views a nearby object, the eye muscle turns the eyes inward
Object constancy
Correctly perceiving objects as constant in their shape, size, color, and lightness, despite raw sensory data that could mislead perception.
Audition
Hearing; the sense of sound perception.
Sound wave
A pattern of changes in air pressure during a period of time; it produces the percept of a sound.
Eardrum
A thin membrane that marks the beginning of the middle war; sound waves cause it to vibrate.
Vestibular sense
Perception of balance determined by receptors in the inner ear.
Temporal coding
A mechanism for encoding low-frequency auditory stimuli in which the firing rate of cochlear hair cells match the frequency of the sound wave.
Place coding
A mechanism for encoding high-frequency auditory stimuli in which the frequency of the sound wave is encoded by the location of the hair cells along the basilar membrane.
Gustation
The sense of taste
Taste buds
Sensory organs in the mouth that contain the receptors for taste.
Olfaction
The sense of smell
Olfactory epithelium
A thin layer of tissue, within the nasal cavity, that contains the receptors for smell.
Olfactory bulb
The brain center for smell, located below the frontal lobes.
Haptic sense
The sense of touch
Kinisthetic sense
Perception of the positions in space and movements of our bodies and our limbs.
Occlusion
A bear object occludes (blocks) an object that is farther away.
Relative size
Far-off objects project a smaller retinal image than close objects do, if the far-off and close objects are the same physical size.
Familiar size
Because we know how large familiar objects are, we can tell how far away they are by the size of their retinal images.
Linear perspective
Seemingly parallel lines appear to converge in the distance.
Texture gradient
As s uniformly textures surface recedes, its texture continuously becomes denser.
Position relative to horizon
All else being equal, objects below the horizon that appear higher in visual field are perceived as being farther away. Objects above the horizon that appear lower in the visual field are perceived as being farther away.
