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Unit 3 Psychology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sensation | The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment |
| Sensory Receptors | Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli |
| Bottom-Up Processing | Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information |
| Top-Down Processing | Information processing guided by higher-level mental process, 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 the environment, a form of inattentional blindness |
| Transduction | Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energy; such as sights, sounds and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret |
| Psychophysics | The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimulus; such as their intensity and our psychological experience of them |
| Signal Detection Theory | Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background noise. Assumes their is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a persons experience, expectations, motivation and alertness |
| 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 |
| Sensory Adaptation | Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation |
| Perceptual Set | A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
| Extrasensory Perception (ESP) | The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition |
| Parapsychology | The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis |
| Wavelength | The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of gamma rays to the long pulses of radio transmission |
| Hue | The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green and so forth |
| Intensity | The amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness |
| Cornea | The eye's clear protective outer layer, covering the pupil and iris |
| 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 begin the processing of visual information |
| Accommodation | The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina |
| Rods | Retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray, and are sensitive to movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond |
| Cones | Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or well-lit conditions. They detect fine details and give rise to color sensations |
| 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 |
| Fovea | The central focal point in the retina around which the eye's cones cluster |
| Young Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory | The theory that the retina contains 3 different types of color receptors - 1 most sensitive to red, 1 most sensitive to green, 1 most sensitive to blue which when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color |
| Opponent-Process Theory | The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. |
| Feature Detectors | Nerve cells in the brain's visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle or movement |
| Parallel Processing | Processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brains natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision |
| Gestalt | An organized whole... our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes |
| Figure-Ground | The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings |
| Grouping | The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent group |
| Depth-Perception | The ability to see objects in 3 dimensions although the images that strike the retina are 2 dimensional; allows us to judge distance |
| Visual Cliff | A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals |
| Binocular Cue | A depth cue such as retinal disparity that depends on the use of 2 eyes |
| Monocular Cue | A depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone |
| Retinal Disparity | A binocular cue perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the 2 eyes the brain computes distance |
| Phi Phenomenon | An illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession |
| Perceptual Constancy | Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, size) even as illumination and retinal images change |
| Color Constancy | Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alerts the wavelengths reflected by the object |
| Perception | The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events |
| Weber's Law | The principle that, that be perceived as different, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) |
| Absolute Threshold | The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time |
| Different Threshold | The minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. |
| Stimulus | A thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organ or tissue |
| Near Sightedness | When the lens focuses the image in the front of the retina |
| Far Sightedness | When the lens focuses the image behind the retina |
| Perceptual Adaptation | The ability to adjust to changed sensory input including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field |
| Embodied Cognition | The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements |
| Sensory Interaction | The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste (tasting lab) |
| Vestibular Sense | Our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance |
| Kinesthesia | Our movement sense - our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts |
| Olfaction | The sense of smell |
| Gate Control Theory | The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain |
| 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 its pitch - temporal theory |
| Place Theory | In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we can hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated |
| Cochlear Implant | A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea |
| Conduction Hearing Loss | A less common form of 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; the most common form of hearing loss - nerve deafness |
| Inner Ear | The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals and vestibular sacs |
| Cochlea | A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses |
| Pitch | A tones experienced highness or lowness depends on frequency |
| Middle Ear | The chamber between eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) that concentrate vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window |
| Frequency | The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (per second) |
| Audition | The sense of act or hearing |
| Synethesia | When the brain connections that dissolve in average people don't... making someone's senses much more connected |
| Cocktail Party Phenomenon | The brains ability to focus one's auditory attention while filtering out a range of other stimuli |
| Supertasters | When one has a greater intensity of taste then the average person |
| Basilar Membrane | A thin strip of tissue within the cochlea that contains hair cells |
| Proximity | Grouping nearby figures together |
| Closure | We will in the gaps to see a whole object |
| Continuity | Perceiving smooth/continuous patterns rather then discontinuous ones |
| David Hubel | Studied how the brain processed information in the visual system |
| Torsten Wiesel | Studied visual information processing |
| Hubel and Wiesel | Showed that our visual processing deconstructs visual images and then reassembles them... received Nobel Prize for work on feature detectors, nerve cells and occipital lobe |
Created by:
AmeliaaaB
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