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Unit 4 Terms
Sensation and Perception
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Sensation | The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. |
| Perception | The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. |
| Bottom-Up Processing | Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information. |
| Top-Down Processing | Information processing guided by higher- level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. |
| Selective Attention | The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. |
| Inattentional Blindness | Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. |
| Change Blindness | Failing to notice changes in environment. |
| Psychophysics | The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. |
| Absolute Threshold | The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. |
| Signal Detection Theory | A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). |
| Subliminal | Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness. |
| Priming | The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. |
| Difference Threshold | The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. |
| Transduction | The transforming of stimuli energies such as sight and smell into neural impulses our brains can interpret |
| Wavelength | The distance from peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. |
| Hue | The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light. |
| Intensity | The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness as determined by the wave's amplitude. |
| Pupil | The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters. |
| 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. |
| Lens | The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina. |
| Retina | The light sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that being processing of visual information. |
| Accommodation | The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects. |
| Rods | Retinal receptors the detect black, white, gray and necessary peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond. |
| Cones | Retinal receptors cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. They also detect fine detail and color sensation. |
| Optic Nerve | The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. |
| Blind spot | The point at which the optic-nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there. |
| Fovea | The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster. |
| Feature Detectors | Nerve cells in the brain that respond to the specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. |
| Acuity | Sharpness or keenness of thought, vision, or hearing. |
| Nearsightedness | Eyesight abnormality resulting from the eye's faulty refractive ability; distant objects appear blurred. |
| Farsightedness | A reduced ability to focus on near objects caused by loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens. |
| Parallel Processing | The processing of many aspects of a problem at the same time; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. |
| Opponent-Process Theory | The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red. |
| Color Constancy | Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object. |
| Audition | The sense or act of hearing. |
| Frequency (Pitch) | The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time. |
| MIddle Ear | The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones, that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum. |
| Cochlea | A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses. |
| Inner Ear | The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular sacs. |
| Weber's Law | The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage. |
| Sensory Adaptation | Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. |
| Place Theory | In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place that the cochlea's membrane is stimulated. |
| 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 it's pitch. |
| Conduction Hearing Loss | Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. |
| Sensorineural Hearing Loss | Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness. |
| Cochlear Implant | A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea. |
| Kinethesis | The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. |
| Vestibular Sense | The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance. |
| Visual Cliff | A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. |
| Parapsychology | The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis. |
| Sensory Interaction | The principles that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste. |
| Gestalt | An organized whole. Emphasizes our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. |
| Figure-Ground | The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from from their surroundings. |
| Grouping | The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. |
| Depth Perception | The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional; allow us to judge distance. |
| Color Constancy | Perceiving familiar objects are having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the objects. |
| Binocular Cues | Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes. |
| Monocular cues | Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either alone. |
| Perceptual Adaptation | In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. |
| Perceptual Constancy | Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change. |
| Perceptual Set | A mental predisposition to perceive one things and not another. |
| Phi Phenomenon | An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession. |
| Retinal Disparity | A binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance--the greater the disparity between two images, the closer the object. |
| Telepathy | The supposed communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses. A type of ESP involving mind to mind communication |
| Taste Buds | Any of the clusters of bulbous nerve endings on the tongue and in the lining of the mouth that provide the sense of taste -- Sweet, Sour, Umami, Bitter, and Salty. |
| Relative Brightness | How bright one object is compared to another. If objects have the same intrinsic brightness then the relative brightness tells us the ratio of distances to the objects. |
| Linear Perspective* | A mathematical system for representing 3 dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point 2 points or several points on a horizon line. |
| Interposition | To place between; if one object partially blocks the view of another, we perceive it as closer. |
| Extrasensory Perception | The faculty of perceiving things by means other than the known senses, e.g., by telepathy or clairvoyance. |
| Similarity | Rule for grouping; tendency to group figures together that are similar. |
| Continuity (Connectedness) | Rule for grouping; tendency to perceive smooth, continuous patterns |
| Relative Clarity | A monocular cue; light from distant objects passes through more atmosphere therefore they are perceived as hazy and farther away than sharp, clear objects |
| Texture Gradient | A monocular cue; a gradual change from course, distinct texture to fine, indistinct textures signals increasing distance. |
| Relative Motion | As we move, objects that are stationary appear to move; the closer the object, the faster it appears to move |
| Relative Height | Objects higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away; causes the illusion that taller objects are longer than shorter objects. |
| Cocktail Party Effect | The ability to attend to one of several speech streams while ignoring others, just as one is able to attend to one conversation among others at a cocktail party. |
| Amplitude (loudness) | The maximum variation in an acoustic variable. |
| Auditory Canal | Either of the passages in the outer ear. |
| Eardrum | The thin, semi-transparent, oval shaped membrane that separates the middle ear from the external ear. |
| Semicircular Canals | 3 looped tubes of the inner ear that together with the vestibules makes up the organs that maintain equilibrium in vertebrates. |
| Hammer, Anvil, and Stirrup | Ossicles. The small bones behind the eardrum that vibrate. |
| Nerve Deafness | Hearing loss due to failure of the auditory nerve. |
| Phantom Limb Sensation | The feeling that an amputated limb is still present, often manifested as a tingling or, occasionally painful sensation in the area of the missing limb. |
| Umami | A taste that is characteristic of monosodium glutamate and is associated with meats and other high-protein foods. |
| Just Noticeable Difference | The smallest perceptible difference between two stimuli that can be consistently and accurately detected on 75% of trials. |
| Closure | A tendency to complete a figure so that it has a consistent overall form. |
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APPsychology
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