| Question | Answer |
| Sensation | process in which we detect physical energy from the environment and then encode it as neural signals (sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment) |
| Perception | process of organizing and interpreting our sensations (sensory info), enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events |
| Bottom-up processing | begins with sensory receptors and works up to brains integration of sensory info |
| Top-down processing | info processing guided by higher level mental processes (when we draw perception from our experience or expectations) |
| Psychophysics | study of relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological explanation to them. |
| Absolute threshold | the minimum stimulation necessary to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste or odor 50% of the time |
| Subliminal | below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness |
| Prime | the often unconscious activation of certain associations, predisposing ones perception, memory or response. |
| Difference Threshold | the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time (Just Noticeable Difference) |
| Webers Law | for stimuli to be perceived as different, they must differ by a constant percent rather than amount |
| Sensory Adaption | diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation |
| Wavelength | distance from one wave peak to the next |
| Hue | dimensions of color determined by wave length |
| Intensity | amount of energy in light waves- determines brightness, determined by wave height |
| Retina | the light sensitive inner surface of the eye. Contains receptor rods and cones |
| Accommodation | the process of eyes lenses changes shape o focus near or far objects in the retina |
| Rods | retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision |
| Cones | retinal receptors that are in the center of the retina and function in daylight or well lit conditions that detect fine detail and color |
| Optic Nerve | nerve that carries neural impulses from eye to brain |
| Blind Spot | the pint that optic nerve leaves the eye, creating blind spot with no receptors |
| Fovea | Central focal point in the retina, around which eyes cones cluster |
| Feature Detectors | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of stimulus (movement, shape, angle.) ie. Frog and fly |
| Parallel Processing | processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously, the brains neural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision |
| Young-Helmhotz trichromatic theory | States that the retina has 3 types of color receptors, each especially sensitive to red, green or blue |
| Opponent process theory | theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, black-white) enable color vision. |
