Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
PSYC Ch.5
PSYC Ch.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. | sensation |
| Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli. | sensory receptors |
| The process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, transforming it into meaningful objects and events. | perception |
| Information processing that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information. | bottom-up processing |
| Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. | top-down processing |
| Changing one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of physical energy (such as sights, sounds, and smells) into neural impulses our brain can interpret. | transduction |
| The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. | absolute threshold |
| Presenting something below a person’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness. | subliminal |
| The activation, often unconsciously, of associations in our mind, thus setting us up to perceive, remember, or respond to objects or events in certain ways. | priming |
| The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (or jnd). | difference threshold |
| The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount). | Weber's law |
| Reduced sensitivity in response to constant stimulation. | sensory adaptation |
| Mental tendencies and assumptions that set us up to perceive one thing and not another. | perceptual set |
| The distance from the peak of one light wave or sound wave to the peak of the next. | wavelength |
| The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth. | hue |
| The amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences the perception of brightness or loudness. Intensity is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height). | intensity |
| The light-sensitive back inner surface of the eye. Contains the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information. | retina |
| Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray and are sensitive to movement. Rods are necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond. | rods |
| Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. | cones |
| The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. | optic nerve |
| The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye; this part of the retina is “blind” because it has no receptor cells. | blind spot |
| The theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors — one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue. When stimulated in combination, these receptors can perceive any color. | Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory |
| The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are turned “on” by green and turned “off” by red; others are turned on by red and off by green. | opponent-process theory |
| Nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of a stimulus, such as shape, angles, or movement. | feature detectors |
| Processing multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem at the same time. | parallel processing |
| An organized whole. The Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. | gestalt |
| The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground). | figure-ground |
| The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into meaningful groups. | grouping |
| The ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows people to judge distance. | depth perception |
| A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. | visual cliff |
| A depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes. | binocular cue |
| A binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance — the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object. | retinal disparity |
| A depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone. | monocular cue |
| Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change. | perceptual constancy |
| The ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. | perceptual adaptation |
| The sense or act of hearing. | audition |
| The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second). | frequency |
| A tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency. | pitch |
| The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window. | middle ear |
| A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses. | cochlea [KOHK-lee-uh] |
| The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs. | inner ear |
| Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerve. The most common form of hearing loss (also called nerve deafness). | sensorineural hearing loss |
| A less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. | conduction hearing loss |
| A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea. | cochlear implant |
| A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another person (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur. | hypnosis |
| A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors. | posthypnotic suggestion |
| Our sense of taste. | gustation |
| The movement sense—a system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. | kinesthesia [kin-ehs-THEE-zhuh] |
| The balance sense—the sense of body movement and position that enables a sense of balance. | vestibular sense |
| The principle that one sense can influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste. | sensory interaction |
| The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments. | embodied cognition |
| The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. | extrasensory perception (ESP) |
Created by:
PSYC