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MrsVanDyke Chapter 4
Sensation and Perception
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Sensation | Process by which stimulation of a sensory preceptor produces neural impulses that the brain intercepts as a sound, visual image, odor, taste, pain etc... |
| Perception | Process that makes sensory patterns meaninful |
| Transduction | Transformation of one form of energy into another--especially the transformation of stimulus information into nerve signals by the sense organs |
| Sensory Adaptation | Loss of responsiveness in receptor cells after stimulation has remained unchanged for a while, as when a swimmer becomes adapted to temperature of the water |
| Absolute Threshold | Amount of stimulation necessary for a stimulus to be detected |
| Difference Threshold | Smallest amount by which a stimulus can be changed and the difference be detected half the time |
| Just Noticeable Difference (JND) | Same as the difference threshold |
| Weber's Law | Concept that says the size of JND is proportional to the intensity of the stiumlus; JND is large when the stimulus intensity is high and is small when the stimulus intensity is low |
| Fechner's Law | The magnitude of a stimulus can be estimated by the formula S=k log R, where S = sensation, R = Stimulus, and k = a constant that differs for each sensory modality (sight, touch, temperture, etc...) |
| Steven's Power Law | Law of magnitude estimation that is more accurate than Fechner's law and covers a wider variety of stimuli |
| Signal Detection Theory | Explains how we detech "signals" consisting of stimulation affecting our eyes, ears, nose, skin, and other sense organs |
| Retina | The thin, light-sensitive layer at the back of the eyeball. Contains millions of photoreceptors and other nerve cells |
| Photoreceptors | Light-sensitive cells (neurons) in the retna that convert light energy to neural impulses |
| Rods | Photoreceptors in the retina that are especially sensitive to dim light but not to colors |
| Cones | Photoreceptors in the retina that are especially sensitive to colors but not to dim light |
| Fovea | The tiny area of sharpest vision in the retina |
| Optic Nerve | the bundle of neurons that carries visual information from the retina to the brain |
| Blind Spot | The point where the optic nerve exits in the eye and where there are no photoreceptors. Any stimulus that falls on this area cannot be seen |
| Brightness | Psychological sensation caused by the intensity of light waves |
| Color | AKA hue. It is not a property of things in the external world but a psychological sensation created in the brain from information obtained by the eyes from the wavelengths of visible light |
| Electromagnetic Spectrum | The entire range of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves, X rays, microaves, and visible light |
| Visible Spectrum | The tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum to which our eye are sensitive |
| Trichromatic Theory | Idea that colors are sensed by three different types of cones sensitive to light in the red, blue, and green wavelengths |
| Opponent-Process Theory | Idea that cells in the visual system process colors in complementary pairs, such as red or green or as yellow or blue |
| Afterimages | Sensations that linger after the stimulus is removed |
| Color Blindness | Typically a genetic disorder that prevents an individual from discriminating certain colors |
| Frequency | The number of cycles completed by a wave in a given amount of time, usually a second |
| Amplitude | the physical strength of a wave; usually measured from peak (top) to valley (bottom) on a graph of a wave |
| Tympanic Membrane | The eardrum |
| Cochlea | The primary organ of hearing; a coiled tube in the inner ear, where sound waes are transduced into nerve messages |
| Basilar Membrane | A thin strip of tissue sensitive to vibrations in the cochlea; contains hair cells connected to neurons; sound waves cause the hair cells to vibrate and the neurons become exited thus converting the sound waves into nerve activity |
| Pitch | A sensory characteristic of sound produced by the frequency of the sound wave |
| Loudness | A sensory characteristic of sound produced by the amplitude (intensity) of the sound wave |
| Timbre | The quality of a sound wave that derives from the wave's complexity (combination of pure tones) |
| Conduction Deafness | An inability to hear resulting from damage to structrues of the middle or inner ear |
| Nerve Deafness (Sensorineural Deafness) | An inability to hear, linked to a deficit in the body's ability to transmit impulses from the cochlea to the brain, usually involvign the auditory nerve or higher auditory processing centers |
| Vestibular Sense | The sense of body orientation with respect to gravity; associated with inner ear |
| Kinesthetic Sense | The sense of body position and movement of body parts relative to each other. AKA Kinesthesis |
| Olfaction | The sense of smell |
| Pheromones | Chemical signals released by organisms to communicate with other members of their species |
| Gustation | The sense of taste |
| Skin Senses | Sensory systems for processing touch, warmth, cold, texture, and pain |
| Gate-Control Theory | An explanation for pain control that proposes we have a neural "gate" that can , under some circumstances, block incoming pain signals |
| Placebo Effect | A response to a placebo ( a fake drug), caused by subjects belief that they are taking the real drug |
| Percept | The meaningful product of perception--often an image that has been associated with concepts, memories of events, emotions, and motives |
| Feature Detectors | Cells in the cortex that specialize in extracting certain features of a stimulus |
| Binding Problem | Refers to the process used by the brain to combine the results of many sensory operations into a single percept |
| Bottom-Up Processing | Perceptual analysis that emphasizes characteristics of the stimulus, rather than our concepts and expectations |
| Top-Down Processing | Perceptual analysis that emphasizes the perceiver's expectations, concept memories, and other cognitive factors, rather than beign driven by the characteristic of the stimulus |
| Perceptual Constancy | The ability to recognize the same object as remaining "constant" under different conditions, such as changes in illumination, distance or location |
| Illusion | An incorrect perception of a stimulus pattern |
| Ambiguous Figures | Images that are capable of more than one interpretation |
| Gestalt Psychology | Means "whole" or "form" or "configuration"; believed much of perception is shaped by innate factors built into the brain |
| Figure | The part of a pattern that commands attention; it stands out against the ground |
| Ground | The part of a pattern that does not command attention; the background |
| Closure | The Gestalt principle that identifies the tendency to fill in gaps in figures and to see incomplete figures as complete |
| Law of Perceptual Grouping | The Gestalt principles of similarity, proximity, continuity, and common fate. These laws suggest how our brains prefer to group stimulus elements together to form a percept |
| Law of Similarity | The Gestalt principle that we tend to group similar objects together in our perceptions |
| Law of Proximity | The Gestalt principle that we tend to group objects together when they are near each other |
| Law of Continuity | The Gestalt principle that we prefer perceptions of connected and continuous figures to disconnected and disjointed ones |
| Law of Common Fate | The Gestalt principle that we tend to group similar objects together that share a common motion or destination |
| Law of Pragnanz | Most general Gestalt principle, which states that the simplest organization, requiring the least cognitive effort, will emerge as the figure |
| Binocular Cues | Information taken in by both eyes that aids in depth perception, including binocular convergence and retinal disparity |
| Monocular Cues | Information about depth that relies on input of just one eye, including relatie size, light and shadow, interposition, relative motion and atmospheric perspective |
| Learning-Based Reference | The view that perception is primarily shaped by learning (or experience), rather than by innate factors |
| Perceptual Set-Readiness | To detect a paricular stimulus in a given context--as when a person who is afrain interprets an unfamiliar sound in the night as a threat |
Created by:
MrsVanDyke
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