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Psychology Ch.4

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Question
Answer
perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn't match its physical reality   illusion  
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detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain   sensation  
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the brain's interpretation of raw sensory inputs   perception  
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the first step in sensation; converting external energies or substances into a "language" the nervous system understands, such as electrical signals within neurons   transduction  
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specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system   sense receptor  
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for all senses, activation is greatest when we first detect a stimulus, after which our response declines in strength   sensory adaptation  
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study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics   psychophysics  
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the lowest level of a stimulus that we can detect on 50 percent of the trials when no other stimuli of that type are present   absolute threshold  
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the smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect   JND just noticeable difference  
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there is a constant proportional relationship between the JND and the original stimulus intensity. (stronger the stimulus, the bigger change needed for it to be noticed)   Weber's law  
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describes how we detect stimuli under uncertain conditions   signal detection theory  
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tendencies to make one type of guess over another when we're in doubt about whether a weak signal is present or absent under noisy conditions   response biases  
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the sensation we experience is determined by the nature of the sense receptor, not the stimulus   specific nerve energies  
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vivid sensations of light caused by pressure on your eye's receptor cells   phosphenes  
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rare condition in which people experience cross-modal sensations   synesthesia  
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the ability to attend to many sense modalities simultaneously (bottom up and top down)   parallel processing  
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set formed when expectations influence perceptions   perceptual set  
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the process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions (3 kinds, shape, size, color)   perceptual constancy  
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allows us to select one sensory channel and turn off the others   selective attention  
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views attention as a bottleneck through which info passes   filter theory of attention  
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ability to pick out an important message   cocktail party effect  
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failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere   inattentional blindness  
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failure to detect obvious changes in one's environment   change blindness  
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problem describing how our brains connect info together to perceive a whole   binding problem  
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colored part of the eye - controls how much light enters the eye   iris  
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circular hole through which light enters the eye   pupil  
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curved, transparent layer covering the iris and pupil - bends light to focus incoming visual image at back of the eye   cornea  
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bends light, but changes curvature to fine tune the image; accomodation, allows you to judge distances   lens  
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thin membrane at the back of the eye. "movie screen"   retina  
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central part of retina which is responsible for acuity (sharpness); if it is damaged we can't see straight on   fovea  
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long and narrow cells in the fovea that allow us to see in the dark   rods  
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give us color vision   cones  
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the time it takes rods to gain their maximum sensitivity to light   dark adaptation  
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nerve that travels from the retina to the brain   optic nerve  
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place where the optic nerve connects to the retina   blind spot  
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our ability to use certain minimal patterns to identify objects using feature detection cells to see lines and edges   feature detection  
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Gestalt principles   proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, symmetry, figure-ground  
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Gestalt: objects physically close to each other tend to be perceived as unified wholes   proximity  
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Gestalt: we see similar objects as comprising a whole, much more so than dissimilar objects   similarity  
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Gestalt: we still perceive objects as wholes, even if other objects block part of them   continuity  
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Gestalt: when partial visual info is present, our brains fill in what's missing   closure  
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Gestalt: we perceive objects that are symmetrically arranged as whole more often than those that aren't   symmetry  
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Gestalt: we usually focus our attention on what we believe to be the central figure, and ignore the background   figure-ground  
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an image we can perceive two ways   bistable image  
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the ability to see spatial relations in 3 dimensions   depth perception  
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depth cue that relies on one eye alone   monocular depth cues (relative size, texture gradient, interposition, light and shadow)  
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depth cue that relies on two eyes   binocular depth cues (disparity, convergence)  
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our sense of hearing   audition  
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corresponds to the frequency of a wave (hertz)   pitch  
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the amplitude (height) of the sound wave (decibels)   loudness  
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the quality/complexity o the sound   timbre  
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funnels sound waves onto the eardrum; comprised of pinna   outer ear  
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transmits sound from eardrum to inner ear; comprised of ossicles - hammer, anvil, stirrup   middle ear  
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sound is converted from vibrations to neural activity   innner ear  
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spiral shaped organ in ear; filled with a thick fluid - balance   cochlea  
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tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing   organ of Corti  
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membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in cochlea   basilar membrane  
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specific place along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch   place theory  
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airborne chemicals that interact with receptors in the lining of our nasal passages   odors  
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tastes we can detect:   sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami  
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sense receptor in the tongue that responds to tastes   taste buds  
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odorless chemicals that serve as social signals of members of one's species that alter our sexual behavior   pheromones  
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system we use for touch and pain   somatosensory  
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