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Psych 367 M1

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Term
Definition
Absolute threshold   smallest stimulus level that can just be detected  
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Action   motor activities in response to the stimulus  
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Bottom-up processing (data-based processing)   processing that is based on the stimuli reaching the receptor  
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Categorize   to place objects into categories  
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Cerebral cortex   2-mm-thick layer that contains the machinery for creating perceptions  
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Classical psychophysical methods   the method of limits, the method of constant stimuli, and the method of adjustment  
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Difference threshold   the smallest difference between two stimuli that enables us to tell the difference between them  
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Distal stimulus   out there in the environment  
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Frontal lobe   receives signals from all of the senses, plays an important role in perceptions that involve the coordination of information received through two or more senses  
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Grating acuity   thee smallest width of lines that participants can detect  
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Knowledge   any information that the perceiver brings to a situation, such as prior experience or expectations  
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Magnitude estimation   measuring judgements of sensory stimuli in a mathematical way (bright, dim; big, small)  
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Method of adjustment   adjusts the stimulus intensity continuously until he or she can just barely detect the stimulus  
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Method of constant stimuli   different stimulus intensities are presented one at a time, and the participant must respond whether they perceive it (“yes” or “no”) on each trial  
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Method of limits   stimuli are presented in a graduated scale, and participants must judge whether they detected the stimulus or not  
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Neural processing   changes in signals that occur as they are transmitted through the brain  
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Oblique effect   that people see vertical or horizontal lines better than lines oriented obliquely  
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Occipital lobe   primary receiving area for vision  
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Parietal lobe   area for the skin senses—touch, temperature, and pain  
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Perceived magnitude   number for “loudness”  
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Perception   experience that results from the stimulation of the senses  
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Perceptual process   journey from stimuli to responses  
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Phenomenological report   Describing what is out there  
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Physiology–behavior relationship   relates physiological responses and behavioral responses  
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Primary receiving area   the lobe of the brain for each type of sensation  
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Principle of representation   everything a person perceives is based not on direct contact with stimuli but on representations of stimuli that are formed on the receptors and the resulting activity in the person’s nervous system.  
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Principle of transformation   stimuli and responses created by stimuli are transformed, or changed, between the distal stimulus and perception.  
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Proximal stimulus   representation of the distal stimulus on the receptors (electron, photons, vibrations)  
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Psychophysics   measures the relationships between the physical (the stimulus) and the psychological (the behavioral response)  
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Rat–man demonstration   the image that you either interpret as a rat or a man depending on what you were primed for  
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Reaction time   speed with which we react to something  
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Recognition   placing an object in a category  
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Sensation   the stimulation of the sensory organs/ receptors  
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Sensory receptors   neurons specialized to respond to environmental stimuli  
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Stimulus–behavior relationship   relates stimuli to behavioral responses, such as perception, recognition, and action  
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Stimulus–physiology relationship   relationship between stimuli (Steps 1–2) and physiological responses  
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Temporal lobe   hearing  
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Thresholds   measure the limits of sensory systems; they are measures of minimums  
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Top-down processing (knowledge based processing)   processing that is based on knowledge  
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Transduction   transformation of environmental energy (such as light, sound, or thermal energy) to electrical energy  
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Visual form agnosia   an inability to recognize objects  
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Action potential   predictable rise and fall of the charge inside the axon relative to the outside  
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Axon   conducts electrical signals (long)  
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Brain imaging   recording brain responses in neurologically normal humans  
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Broca’s area   speech production area  
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Cell body   provides for cell  
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Dendrites   receive signals from other cells. Connected to cell body  
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Depolarization   increase in positive charge inside the neuron (-70 to +40)  
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Distributed representation   brain represents information in patterns distributed across the cortex, rather than in one single brain area  
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Excitatory response   when the neuron becomes depolarized, and thus the inside of the neuron becomes more positive  
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Falling phase of the action potential   +40 mV back to –70  
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Functional connectivity   neural activity associated with a particular function that is flowing through this structural network  
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Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)   3D scan of brian using the oxygen polarity in brain according to concentration  
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Grandmother cell   neuron in your brain that fires only in response to one person  
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Hyperpolarization   increase in negative charge inside the neuron  
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Inhibitory response   when the charge inside the axon becomes more negative so that firing is harder  
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Ions   molecules that carry an electrical charge  
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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)   2D image of brain according to oxygen polarity and concentration  
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Mind–body problem   How do physical processes like nerve impulses (the body part of the problem) become transformed into the richness of perceptual experience (the mind part of the problem)?  
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Modularity   specific brain areas are specialized to respond to specific types of stimuli or functions  
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Module   each specific area in modularity theory  
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Nerve fiber   axon  
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Neurons   cells specialized to carry electrical signals  
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Neuropsychology   the study of the behavioral effects of brain damage in humans  
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Neurotransmitters   chemical messengers  
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Permeability   This opening of sodium channels  
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Phrenology   mental faculties that could be mapped onto different brain areas based on the bumps and contours on the person’s skull  
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Population coding   our experiences are represented by the pattern of firing across a large number of neurons  
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Propagated response   once the response is triggered, it travels all the way down the axon without decreasing in size.  
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Receptor sites   small areas on the receiving neuron  
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Refractory period   the interval between the time one nerve impulse occurs and the next one can be generated in the axon  
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Resting potential   -70 mV  
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Resting-state fMRI   record fMRI when the brain is not involved in a specific task  
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Resting-state functional connectivity    
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Rising phase of the action potential   quick and steep depolarization from –70 mV to +40 mV during an action potential  
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Seed location   brain location associated with carrying out a specific task  
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Sensory coding   how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment  
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Sparse coding   particular stimulus is represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons  
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Specificity coding   specialized neuron that responds only to one concept or stimulus  
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Spontaneous activity   Action potentials that occur in the absence of stimuli from the environment  
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Structural connectivity   “road map” of fibers connecting different areas of the brain  
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Synapse   small space between axon and dendrite  
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Task-related fMRI   fMRI measured as a person is engaged in a specific task  
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Test location   measure the resting-state fMRI at another location  
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Wernicke’s area   understanding speech  
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Absorption spectrum   plot of the amount of light absorbed versus the wavelength of the light  
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Accommodation   change in the lens’s shape that occurs when the ciliary muscles at the front of the eye tighten and increase the curvature of the lens so that it gets thicker  
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Amacrine cells   lateral inhibition  
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Axial myopia   eyeball is too long  
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Bipolar cells    
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Blind spot   the spot where you optic nerve concerts to eye ball  
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Center-surround antagonism   antagonistic interactions between center and surround regions of the receptive fields of photoreceptor cells in the retina.  
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Center-surround receptive field    
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Chevreul illusion   how placing colors side by side could alter their appearance  
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Cone spectral sensitivity    
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Cones   color  
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Convergence   when a number of neurons synapse onto a single neuron  
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Cornea   film on eye  
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Dark adaptation   when our rods are activated and become sensitive to low light environments  
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Dark adaptation curve (p. 46)    
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Dark-adapted sensitivity   sensitivity at the end of dark adaptation  
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Detached retina   when a person’s retina becomes detached from the pigment epithelium, a layer that contains enzymes necessary for pigment regeneration  
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Edge enhancement   an increase in perceived contrast at borders between regions of the visual field  
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Excitatory area   presenting a spot of light increases firing  
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Excitatory-center, inhibitory-surround receptive field (p. 56)    
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Eyes (p. 40)    
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Farsightedness/ hyperopia   can see distant objects clearly but have trouble seeing nearby objects  
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Fovea   contains only cones  
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Ganglion cells   output neurons that encode and transmit information from the eye to the brain  
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Horizontal cells   GABAergic interneurons that receive information from cones and rods  
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Inhibitory area   presenting a spot of light decreases firing  
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Inhibitory-center, excitatory-surround receptive field (p. 56)    
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Isomerization   activates thousands of charged molecules to create electrical signals in receptors  
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Lateral inhibition   inhibition that is transmitted across the retina (laterally)  
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Lens   the blob that does the focusing. The thing that doesn't work in my eye  
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Light-adapted sensitivity   sensitivity measured in the light  
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Mach bands   Light and dark bands created at fuzzy borders  
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Macular degeneration   destroys the cone-rich fovea and a small area that surrounds it  
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Monochromatic light   Light of a single wavelength  
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Myopia/ Nearsightedness   an inability to see distant objects clearly  
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Neural circuits   interconnected groups of neuron  
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Neural convergence   when a number of neurons synapse onto a single neuron  
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Ommatidia   large structures inside the horseshoe crabs eyes that made it easy to study lateral inhibition  
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Optic nerve   nerve that goes from eye to brain  
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Outer segments   part of the receptor that contains light-sensitive chemicals called visual pigments  
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Peripheral retina   there are about 120 million rods and only 6 million cones in the retina  
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Photoreceptors   cells in eye that can detect light  
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Preferential looking technique    
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Presbyopia   hardening of the lens and weakening of the ciliary muscles  
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Pupil   pretty muscle  
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Purkinje shift   as intensity dims, the rods take over, and before color disappears completely, it shifts towards the rods' top sensitivity.  
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Receptive field   the region of the retina that must receive illumination in order to obtain a response in any given fiber  
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Refractive errors   f errors that can affect the ability of the cornea and/or lens to focus the visual input onto the retina  
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Refractive myopia   cornea and/or the lens bends the light too much  
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Retina (p. 40)    
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Retinitis pigmentosa   genetic disorder that results in total blindness  
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Rod monochromats   no cones because of a rare genetic defect  
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Rod–cone break   The place where the rods begin to determine the dark adaptation curve instead of the cones  
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Rod spectral sensitivity curve   measuring sensitivity after the eye is dark adapted  
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Rods   dark vision  
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Spectral sensitivity   rods are more sensitive to short-wavelength light than are the cones  
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Spectral sensitivity curve (p. 49)    
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Transduction   transformation of environmental energy (such as light, sound, or thermal energy) to electrical energy  
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Visual acuity   ability to see detail (better in cones)  
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Visual evoked potential    
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Visual pigment bleaching   change in shape and separation from the opsin causes the photoreceptor molecule to become lighter in color  
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Visual pigment regeneration   the retinal needs to return to its bent shape and become reattached to the opsin reforming the visual pigment molecule  
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Visual pigments   part of the receptor that contains light-sensitive chemicals  
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