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Psych Ch. 4
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| psychophysics | branch of psychology that deals with the relationships between physical stimuli and mental phenomena |
| sense | a system that translates information from outside the nervous system into neural activity. (Ex. vision is the system through which the eyes convert light into nerve cell activity.) |
| sensation | Messages from the senses that make up the raw information that affects many kinds of behavior and mental processes. Provides a map of the world outside the brain. |
| sensation vs perception | Sensations are the initial message from the senses and perception is the process through which messages from the senses are given meaning. |
| accessory structure | structures, like the lens of an eye, that modify a stimulus. Reshape the light or sound or other energy that comes to us from the environment. Skin is the biggest accessory structure on the body. |
| transduction | the process of converting incoming energy into neural activity. |
| sensory receptor | specialized cells that detect certain forms of energy and convert them into nerve cell activity. (specialized cells that respond to certain forms of energy) Ex. eyes, skin |
| adaptation | The process through which responsiveness to an unchanging stimulus decreases over time. |
| Coding | translating the physical properties of a stimulus into a pattern of nerve cell activity that specifically identifies those properties. (go to a specific place) |
| Doctrine of specific nerve energies | The discovery that stimulation of a particular sensory nerve provides codes for that sense, no matter how the stimulation takes place. (there are sensory neurons for vision and only vision, sound and only sound, etc.) |
| Temporal coding | reflects changes in the timing pattern of nerve firing. The stronger the stimuli the higher the temporal code |
| Spatial coding | reflects the location of neurons that are firing and those that are not. (covers more area) |
| Sound | a repetitive fluctuation in the pressure of a medium, such as air. Represented in graphically by waveforms (can be measured) |
| Amplitude | the difference between the peak and the baseline of a waveform (difference in air pressure from the baseline to the peak) |
| Wavelength | the distance from one peak to the next in a waveform |
| Frequency | the number of complete waveforms, or cycles, that pass a given point in space every second. The longer the waveform, the lower the frequency; the shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency. |
| Loudness | A psychological dimension of sound determined by the amplitude of a sound wave. Waves with greater amplitude create sensations of louder sounds. (conceptual) |
| Pitch | how high or low a tone sounds. Depends on the frequency of sound waves. High frequency waves are sensed as sounds of high pitch. |
| Timbre | the mixture of frequencies and amplitudes that make up the quality of sound. (the quality of sound). Determined by complex wave patterns that are added onto the lowest, or fundamental, frequency of a sound. |
| Pinna | the crumpled part of the ear visible on the side of the head |
| Tympanic membrane | a membrane of frequencies and amplitudes that make up the quality of sound (eardrum), causes vibrations |
| Malleus, incus & stapes | (ossicles)- a chain of three tiny bones that amplify the vibrations coming from the tympanic membrane by focusing them onto a smaller membrane called the oval window. Conduction deafness is when the three bones fuse together (sound dies) |
| Oval window | (small membrane) a connective tissue membrane located at the end of the middle ear and the beginning of the inner ear |
| Cochlea | a fluid-filled spiral structure in the ear in which auditory transduction occurs. (transduction = the translation of a sensory signal in the sensory system to an electrical signal in the nervous system). Is wrapped in a coiled spiral. |
| Basilar membrane | (tiny hairs) - the floor of the fluid-filled duct that runs through the cochlea. Moves up and down whenever a sound wave passes through the fluid in the tube. |
| Auditory nerve | the bundle of axons that carries stimuli from the hair cells of the cochlea to the brain. (a bundle of axons that goes into the brain). |
| Auditory nerve | When the hair cells bend, they stimulate neurons in the acoustic nerve to fire, and the pattern of firing creates a coded message that tells the brain about the amplitude and frequency of the incoming sound waves. |
| Place Theory | a theory that hair cells at a particular place on the basilar membrane respond most to a particular frequency of sound. (Later called the traveling wave theory) The greatest response by hair cells occurs at the peak of the wave. |
| Place Theory | Because the location of the peak varies with the frequency of the sound, it follows that hair cells at a particular place on the basilar membrane respond most to a particular frequency of sound, characteristic frequency. |
| Frequency-Matching Theory (aka: Volley Theory) | The view that some sounds are coded by matching the frequency of neural firing. High sounds occur at the front, low sounds occur at the back of the cochlea. |
| Frequency-Matching Theory (aka: Volley Theory) | Heavy sounds move the hairs violently and soft sounds move them slightly. When the hairs stop moving they tell the auditory nerve to stop (ringing after a concert). Action potentials can’t keep up with the movement. |
| Neural plasticity | the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. |
| Visible light | electromagnetic radiation that has a wavelength of approximately 400-750 nm. |
| Light intensity | a physical dimension of light waves that refers to how much energy the light contains; it determines the brightness of light. (when lights are off but the sun is out the light intensity decreases and if the lights are on it increases) |
| Wavelength | the distance between peaks in light waves |
| Cornea | the curved, transparent, protective layer through which light rays enter the eye. |
| Pupil | an opening in the eye, just behind the cornea, through which light passes |
| Iris | the colorful part of the eye, which constricts or relaxes to adjust the amount of light entering the eye. Gives the eye its color, adjusts the amount of light allowed into the eye by constricting to reduce the size of the pupil or relaxing to enlarge it. |
| Lens | the part of the eye behind the pupil that bends light rays, focusing them on the retina |
| Retina | the surface at the back of the eye onto which the lens focuses light rays. Flips the image to be processed. Where transduction occurs. Physical energy is turned into neural energy. |
| Accommodation | the ability of the lens to change its shape and bend light rays so that objects are in focus. It has not changed for me. Over time the lens loses some of its flexibility, making accommodation more difficult. This is why older people become farsighted |
| Photoreceptors | specialized cells in the retina that code (convert) light energy into nerve cell activity. Receives/takes it in |
| Photo-pigments | chemicals in photoreceptors that respond to light and assist in converting light into nerve cell activity. (chemicals that respond to light) Color |
| Dark adaptation | the increasing ability to see in the dark as time in the dark increases. |
| Rods | Highly light sensitive but color insensitive photoreceptors in the retina that allow vision even in dim light.The photopigment in rods includes a substance called rhodopsin. |
| Cones | Photoreceptors in the retina that help us distinguish colors. Photopigment in cones includes one of three kinds of iodopsin. Each kind of iodopsin responds most strongly to a particular range of light wavelengths, provides basis for color vision. |
| Fovea | A region in the center of the retina where cones are highly concentrated. Where the eye focuses the light coming from objects you look at. Cones and rods are here. (center of the retina) Rods surround it. |
| Lateral inhibition | made possible by interneurons (cells that make sideways, or lateral, connections between photoreceptors). The brain is always receiving information about differences in the amount of light that is hitting neighboring photoreceptors. |
| Lateral inhibition | Lateral inhibition serves to exaggerate those differences, and this exaggeration helps us see more clearly. One photoreceptor suppresses the other. Shows you what is getting more light |
| Ganglion cells | cells in the retina that generate action potentials that are capable of traveling that distance along axons that extend out of the retina and into the brain. In the retina |
| Ganglion cells | Photoreceptors and photopigments feed them. Visual neurons. Sensory neurons. Takes the light and turns it into neural energy (transduction). Improper ganglion cells leads to blindness. |
| Receptive field | The portion of the retina, and the visual world, that affects a given ganglion cell. Receptor field. (shows colors). If you do not have the right ganglion cells you can be colorblind |
| optic nerve | a bundle of fibers composed of axons of ganglion cells that carries visual information to the brain. (the axons of the ganglion cells extend out of the eye and into the brain) |
| blind spot | the light insensitive point at which axons from all of the ganglion cells converge and exit the eyeball. (there can be no photoreceptors at the point where the optic nerve exits the eyeball so you have a blind spot at that point) |
| optic chiasm | part of the bottom surface of the brain where half of each optic nerve’s fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. Crosses over from the left/right over the corpus callosum. |
| LGN | the axons from most of the retina’s ganglion cells send their messages to a region of the thalamus called the lateral geniculate nucleus. Neurons then send this visual information to the visual cortex. Sends what the retina sees to the visual cortex. |
| visual cortex | an area at the back of the brain to which neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus relay visual input. (lies in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain) |
| Parallel processing | parallel streams of visual information and have separate kinds of analysis |
| Hierarchical processing | the thing that draws your attention, the thing you are looking for |
| Hue | the essential “color,” determined by the dominant wavelength of light. (ex. The wavelength of yellow is about 570 nm and that of red is about 700 nm. Black, white, and gray are not considered hues because no wavelength predominates in them.) |
| Saturation | the purity of color. (a color is more saturated (more pure) if just one wavelength is relatively more intense (contains more energy) than other wavelengths. |
| Saturation | If many wavelengths are added to a pure hue, the color is said to be desaturated. (ex. Pastels are colors that have been destaurated by adding whiteness) |
| Brightness | the overall intensity of all of the wavelengths that make up light. |
| Trichromatic Theory | a theory of color vision identifying three types of visual elements, each of which is most sensitive to different wavelengths of light. Red, green, and blue. |
| Trichromatic Theory | Red is the longest wavelength, then green, and blue is the shortest. Mixing wavelengths makes different colors (certain amounts for different shades). |
| Opponent-Process Theory | color-sensitive visual elements are grouped into red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white elements. After images. Red, Blue and White on one side and Green, Yellow, and Black on the other. Shifting back and forth between the two. |
| Color Blindness | a condition in which lack of certain photopigments leave a person unable to sense certain colors. People who are born with cones containing only two of the three possible color-sensitive pigments. They discriminate fewer colors than other people. |
| Synesthesia | a blending of sensory experience that causes some people to “see” sounds or “taste” colors. |
| Olfaction | olfactory perception is the sense of smell. accessory structures in the olfactory system shape sensations. These accessory structures include the nose, the mouth, and the upper part. |
| Pheromones | chemicals released by one animal and detected by another that shape the second animal’s behavior or physiology. |
| Vomeronasal system | A portion of the mammalian olfactory system that is sensitive to pheromones. |
| Gustation | the chemical sense system in the mouth (taste). |
| Papillae | structures on the tongue containing groups of taste receptors, or tastebuds. |
| elementary taste sensations that we can detect | Sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Sweet is in the front, salty is on the sides of sweet, sour is in the back corners, and bitter is directly in the back |
| Cutaneous senses | senses of touch, temperature, pain, and kinesthesia. Not located in a specific organ, such as the eye or ear. Spread throughout the body (skin). |
| Gate Control Theory | a functional “gate” in the spinal cord can either let pain impulses travel upward to the brain or block their progress. Small and large fibers: small fibers allow the pain to enter (open the gates), large fibers block the pain (close the gate) |
| Analgesia | The absence of pain sensations in the presence of a normally painful stimulus. Absence of pain |
| Analgesics | At least three substances play a role in the brain’s ability to block pain signals: (1) the neurotransmitter serotonin, (2) natural opiates called endorphins, and (3) endocannabinoids, all of which are chemicals released by the body during stress |
| Proprioceptive senses | The sensory systems that allow us to know about body position and what each part of our body is doing |
| Vestibular sense | The proprioceptive sense that provides information about the position of the head (and hence the body) in space and about its movements. It is a primary component of what people think of as the sense of balance. |
| Vestibular sacs | Organs in the inner ear that connect the semicircular canals and the cochlea and contribute to the body’s sense of balance. |
| Otoliths | Small crystals in the fluid-filled vestibular sacs of the inner ear that, when shifted by gravity, stimulate nerve cells that inform the brain of the position of the head. |
| Semicircular canals | Tubes in the inner ear whose fluid, when shifted by head movements, stimulates nerve cells that tell the brain about those movements. |
| Kinesthetic perception | The proprioceptive sense that tells you where the parts of your body are with respect to one another. |
| Proprioceptors | Receptors in muscles and joints that provide information to the brain about movement and body position |
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sross12
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