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Sensation 26-27
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sensation | The process of detecting information (stimuli) from the environment that meets a certain threshold and transducing those stimuli into neurochemical messages for processing in the brain. |
| Threshold | The minimum intensity or magnitude a stimulus must possess to be detected by a sensory system. |
| Transduction | The process by which sensory organs convert physical, chemical, or electromagnetic stimuli into neurochemical messages (nerve impulses) that the brain can understand. The universal translator step between environment and brain for every sense. |
| Neurochemical Messages | Chemical and electrical signals transmitted by neurons that carry sensory and other information through the nervous system. |
| Absolute Threshold | The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus at least 50% of the time. |
| Just-Noticeable Difference (JND) | The smallest amount by which two sensory stimuli must differ for an individual to perceive them as different; also known as the difference threshold. |
| Weber's Law | States that the just-noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus's intensity rather than a constant amount. |
| Sensory Adaptation | Diminished sensitivity to a constant, unchanging stimulus due to continuous exposure. Happens at the receptor level when eyes or skin stop firing signals in response to a constant smell or texture. |
| Sensory Systems | The specialized structures responsible for detecting and processing specific types of environmental information. |
| Sensory Interaction | The principle that one sense may influence another, demonstrating that the sensory systems constantly work together. Ex: the smell of food heavily influences its taste, so a stuffy nose causes your taste sensations to be muted or absent. |
| Synesthesia | An experience of sensation where stimulation of one sensory system triggers an experience in another sensory system. |
| Visual Sensory System | The structures and processes responsible for detecting and interpreting light stimuli. |
| Wavelength / Amplitude | Wavelength describes the distance from one wave peak to the next and determines hue (color); amplitude describes the height of the wave and determines brightness. |
| Retina | The photosensitive surface at the back of the eye that contains the photoreceptor cells that capture visual information. |
| Photosensitive | Sensitive to light or other forms of radiant energy. |
| Blind Spot | Where the optic nerve exits the eye there are no photoreceptor cells, so visual information cannot be captured. Brain fills in the gaps of the incomplete retinal image, which is why we do not consciously perceive a hole in our vision. |
| Visual Nerve / Optic Nerve | The nerve that transmits impulses from the retina to the brain. |
| Lens | The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus visual stimuli onto the retina. |
| Accommodation | The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus images of objects at different distances onto the retina. |
| Nearsightedness | A condition resulting when the accommodation process is altered, causing objects up close to be seen clearly, but distant objects to be blurry. |
| Farsightedness | A condition resulting when the accommodation process is altered, causing distant objects to be seen clearly, but close objects to be blurry. |
| Rods | Photoreceptor cells lying in the periphery of the retina that detect shapes and movement, but not color, and are primarily activated in low-light environments. |
| Light and Dark Adaptation | The process by which the eyes adjust to changes in light intensity, primarily involving the chemical changes and activity of rods in low-light conditions. |
| Color Vision | The ability of the eye and brain to distinguish between light of different wavelengths. |
| Trichromatic Theory | A theory of color vision stating that the retina contains three different types of color cones (red, green, and blue) that produce the perception of any color when stimulated in combination. |
| Opponent-Process Theory | A theory of color vision stating that certain ganglion cells in the retina are activated or repressed by opposing pairs of colors, leading to the experience of afterimages. |
| Afterimages | Visual impressions that persist after the original stimulus has been removed, resulting when certain ganglion cells are activated while their opposing cells are fatigued (Opponent-Process Theory). |
| Photoreceptor Cells | The specialized nerve cells in the retina (rods and cones) that convert light energy into neural signals. |
| Fovea | The central focal point in the retina around which the eye's cones cluster, providing the sharpest and most detailed visual images. |
| Cones | Photoreceptor cells located mainly in the fovea that process color and fine detail, classified as blue (short wavelengths), green (medium wavelengths), and red (long wavelengths). |
| Ganglion Cells | Specialized cells in the retina involved in the opponent process (red/green, blue/yellow, black/white) that transmit signals from the photoreceptors to the brain. |
| Color Vision Deficiency | A condition involving damage or irregularities to one or more cones |
| Dichromatism | A form of color vision deficiency involving the inability to distinguish between colors due to damage or irregularity to two of the three cone types. |
| Monochromatism | A severe form of color vision deficiency involving the inability to distinguish any colors, often due to damage or irregularity to all three cone types. |
| Occipital Lobes | The primary visual processing centers located at the back of the brain. |
| Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness) | A neurological disorder resulting from damage to parts of the brain responsible for vision that causes an inability to recognize faces while basic visual processing remains intact. |
| Blindsight | A condition resulting from damage to the visual cortex so a person can respond to visual stimuli without consciously experiencing sight. Patient will say they can't see an object in front of them, yet can reach out and grab it. |
| Auditory Sensory System | The structures and processes responsible for detecting and interpreting sound waves. |
| Wavelengths (Pitch) | The property of sound that describes the frequency of air molecule movement, perceived as the highness or lowness of a tone. |
| Amplitudes (Loudness) | The property of sound that describes the physical force or intensity of air molecule movement, perceived as volume. |
| Pitch Perception | The ability to determine the highness or lowness of a sound, explained by place, volley, and frequency theories. |
| Place Theory | A theory of pitch perception suggesting that different frequencies excite different hair cells along specific places of the cochlea's basilar membrane. Best explains high pitches. |
| Volley Theory | A theory of pitch perception suggesting that groups of auditory neurons fire in rapid alternation ("volleying") to encode frequencies above 1,000 Hz. |
| Frequency Theory | A theory of pitch perception suggesting that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the exact frequency of a sound wave. Best explains low pitches. |
| Sound Localization | We identify where sounds in our environment originate by relying on timing and loudness differences detected between the two ears. A sound coming from the right will hit the right ear sooner and louder than it hits the left ear. |
| Hearing Difficulties | Problems with the auditory system that result in the impaired ability to hear, often resulting from aging or prolonged structural exposure to loud noises. |
| Hearing Loss | Reduced ability to hear, categorized by the specific structural location of the damage. |
| Conduction Deafness | A type of hearing loss resulting from damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea (a punctured eardrum or fluid/damage blocking the tiny bones/ossicles). Can often be treated with mechanical hearing aids. |
| Sensorineural Deafness | A type of hearing loss resulting from damage to the cochlea's receptor hair cells or to the auditory nerve; also called nerve deafness. A cochlear implant is typically required for treatment. |
| Chemical Sensory Systems | The sensory systems responsible for processing chemical stimuli: olfaction (smell) and gustation (taste). |
| Olfactory System | The sensory system responsible for sense of smell; only sense not routed through the thalamus. Nerves project into the olfactory bulb, which connects to the limbic system (amygdala and hippocampus), explaining why smells trigger vivid, emotional memories. |
| Thalamus | The brain's sensory control center (relay station) that directs sensory messages to the cortex for all senses except smell. |
| Pheromones | Chemical messages produced by an organism that are processed by the olfactory system and affect the behavior or physiology of others within the same species. |
| Gustation | The sense of taste. Sweet signals energy, sour signals potential spoilage, salty signals vital minerals, bitter warns against toxins, umami signals savory amino acids/glutamate, and oleogustus describes the distinct taste of fatty acids. |
| Taste Receptors | Specialized cells located on the tongue and mouth structures that detect chemical taste stimuli. |
| Supertasters, Medium Tasters, and Nontasters | Classifications of individuals based on the absolute density of taste receptors on their tongue, which directly dictates their physiological sensitivity to taste intensities. |
| Touch Sensory System | The sensory system responsible for processing touch stimuli, including pressure, pain, temperature, and texture, using specialized structures within the skin. |
| Pain Sensory System | The biological system responsible for processing nociceptive and painful signals throughout the body and brain. |
| Gate Control Theory | Suggests that the spinal cord contains a gate that either blocks pain signals or allows them to pass. The gate can be closed by stimulating competing fast-conducting touch fibers (like rubbing a stubbed toe). |
| Phantom Limb Sensation | A phenomenon where individuals who have lost a limb report feeling sensations or pain where the limb used to be, demonstrating that pain is ultimately constructed in the brain. |
| Vestibular Sense | The sensory system that monitors balance, spatial orientation, and head position. Deals with the whole head and body orientation relative to gravity (balance); its receptors are in the inner ear. |
| Kinesthetic Sense | The sense of the position and movement of limbs (knowing where your arm is without looking at it); receptors in your muscles, tendons, and joints. |
| Semicircular Canals | Fluid-filled canals located in the inner ear that detect rotational movement of the head and serve as the primary structures maintaining the vestibular sense. |
| Perception | The cognitive process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting neurochemical messages into meaningful objects and events. |
| Bottom-Up Processing | Perception driven by external sensory information, starting with raw data received by receptors and moving up to the brain for analysis. Occurs when you encounter a stimulus for the first time because you have no expectations. |
| Top-Down Processing | Perception influenced by internal prior expectations, experiences, context, and existing schemas to construct a subjective interpretation. Brain uses prior knowledge to fill in the blanks. |
| Schemas | Mental frameworks or concepts built from past experiences that organize, filter, and interpret new environmental information. |
| Cultural Schema | Internal mental frameworks shaped by an individual's culture that help them categorize and interpret the world based on cultural norms and expectations. |
| Perceptual Hypotheses | Initial inferences or educated guesses the brain automatically makes about a sensory stimulus based on past personal life experiences. |
| Perceptual Sets | A temporary mental predisposition or readiness to perceive one specific thing and not another, heavily dictated by immediate expectations and context. |
| Framing | An effect where the specific context or presentation surrounding a stimulus influences how that stimulus is subjectively perceived. |
| Perceptual Organization | The structural processes used by the human mind to group smaller visual elements into cohesive, identifiable objects. |
| Gestalt Psychology | A school of psychology proposing that humans naturally organize isolated sensations into meaningful wholes, summarized by the rule "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Includes closure, figure / ground, proximity, and similarity. |
| Selective Attention | The cognitive focusing of conscious awareness on a single, limited range of environmental stimuli while filtering out competing inputs. |
| Multitasking | The attempt to execute multiple attention-demanding tasks simultaneously. Brain rapidly switches attention back and forth from task to task, creating brief gaps where critical information from the non-attended task is entirely missed. |
| Divided Attention | Allocating mental focus to more than one task simultaneously, requiring automatic processing of at least one task. Succeeds if at least one of the tasks is well-learned (ex: driving a familiar route while having a conversation). |
| Dichotic Listening Experiments | Presenting different auditory stimuli to each ear simultaneously through headphones. Participants recall almost nothing from the unattended ear. Participants will instantly shift attention to the unattended channel if it mentions their own name. |
| Cocktail Party Effect | A phenomenon of selective attention where an individual can tune out loud ambient noise to focus on a single conversation, yet immediately register highly personally relevant words like their name from across a room. |
| Inattentional Blindness | A psychological failure to notice a highly visible object or event within the visual field because conscious attention is directed elsewhere. |
| Change Blindness | A specific type of inattentional blindness where a physical alteration to an environmental setting goes completely unnoticed due to a lack of focal attention during the moment of transition. |
| Visual Perceptual Processes | The neurological methods the brain uses to correctly or incorrectly interpret visual input, including depth and constancy. |
| Stroboscopic Movement | A perception of movement created when a series of slightly varied still images are presented in rapid succession. This is the mechanism behind flip-books, animation, and movies. |
| Binocular Depth Cues | Depth cues that require integrated visual images from both eyes to perceive three-dimensional distance. |
| Retinal Disparity | Binocular depth cue computed by measuring the difference between the images projected onto the retinas. Objects close to the face have high disparity (large differences between what each eye sees), while far away objects look identical to both eyes. |
| Convergence | Binocular depth cue based on the physical muscle feedback from the eyes turning inward to focus on a nearby object. The more the eyes cross inward to focus on an object, the closer the brain perceives that object to be. |
| Monocular Depth Cues | Artists' depth cues that allow the perception of three-dimensional depth on a flat, two-dimensional surface using input from only one eye. |
| Relative Clarity | A monocular cue where cleaner, sharper objects are perceived as closer, while hazy, blurry objects are perceived as farther away. |
| Relative Size | A monocular cue where objects casting smaller retinal images are perceived as farther away than objects casting larger images, assuming they are equal in real life. |
| Texture Gradient | A monocular cue where a distinct, coarse texture indicates closeness, and a gradual shift to a dense, fine, indistinct pattern indicates increasing distance. |
| Linear Perspective | A monocular cue where two parallel lines appear to converge and meet at a distant vanishing point, signaling depth. |
| Interposition | A monocular cue where an object that partially blocks or overlaps another object is perceived as being closer. |
| Visual Perceptual Constancies | The cognitive ability to maintain a stable, unchanging perception of an object's size, shape, or brightness even when its actual image on the retina alters radically due to distance or angle changes. |
| Apparent Movement | The psychological perception of motion when the underlying stimulus objects are completely stationary. |
Created by:
lcurty100