click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Psych Final Ch 6
Ch 6
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Sensation | detection and collection of information about physical energies and substances; when substances or physical energies in the environment or the body stimulate sense receptors |
Perception | organization and interpretation of sensory information |
Sense receptors | specialized cells that convert substances and physical energies into electrical energy that can be transmitted to the brain |
Anatomical coding | different sensory modalities exist because sensory receptors from different sense organs stimulate nerves leading to different brains areas |
Doctrine of specific nerve energies | Currently undefined |
Functional coding | further refined coding of sensory information within one sensory modality; which cells are firing, how many cells are firing, the rate at which cells are firing, and the pattern of each cell’s firing |
Synesthesia | sensory crossover occurs when activation of one sense pathway involuntarily causes another to be activated as well |
Psychophysics | a field concerned with measuring the relationship between physical stimuli and corresponding sensations and perceptions |
Sensory adaptation | reduction in sensory responsiveness when stimule is unchanging or repetitous |
Sensory deprivation | absence of normal levels of sensory stimuli |
Sensory overload | over-stimulation of the senses (without adaptation); can lead to fatigue and mental confusion |
Perceptual adaptation | adapting to distractions in your environment |
Selective attention | our ability to focus on selected stimule while ignoring others; usually a good thing |
Inattentional blindness | the failure to perceive objects that we are looking at |
Priming | a method used to encourage unconscious processing of information, where the impact of that information on later behavior or performance on another task or in another situation is then assessed |
Hue | our experience of the wavelength of light |
Bightness | our experience of the complexity of light |
Saturation | our experience of the amount of light |
Optic nerve | transmits signals from the retina to the brain |
Retina | neural tissues lining the back of the eye; contains photoreceptors |
Rods | photoreceptors that respond to dim light |
Cones | photoreceptors necessary for color vision |
Ganglion Cells | respond to synaptic input by creating action potentials which are then sent to the brain via the optic nerve |
Dark Adaptation | a process by which photoreceptors become maximally sensitive to dim light |
Gestalt principles | describe the brain’s organization of sensory building blocks into meaningful units and patterns |
Figure-ground segmentation | the figure stands out from the rest of the environment |
Proximity | grouping of closer items together, how close together things are |
Closure | filling in the gaps to complete forms; is the sound continuous or intermittent |
Similarity | group of similar items together; are there similar or dissimilar sounds |
Continuity | seeing lines as being continuous |
Gate-control theory | the theory that the experience of pain depends in part on whether pain impulses get past a neurological “gate” in the spinal cord and thus reach the brain |
Kinesthesis | the sense of body position and movement of body parts; also called kinesthsia |
Equilibrium | the sense of balance |