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59 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Sensation |
the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent physical energy from the environment |
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Perception |
the process by which we organize and interpret sensory information |
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Bottom-up processing |
analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
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Top-down processing |
information processing guided by higher-level processes |
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Psychophysics |
the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them |
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Absolute Threshold |
the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time |
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Signal detection theory |
explains precisely how when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus. Detection depends partly on experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. |
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Subliminal |
a stimulus that is below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness |
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Priming |
the activation, often unconsciously, of an association by an imperceptible stimulus, the effect of which is to predispose a perception, memory, or response |
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Difference threshold |
the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time |
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Weber's law |
states that the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is a constant minimum proportion of the stimulus |
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Sensory adaptation |
refers to the decreased sensitivity that occurs with continued exposure to an unchanging stimulus |
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Transduction |
refers to the process by which receptor cells in the eyes, ears, skin, and nose convert stimulus energies into neural impulses |
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Wavelength |
refers to the distance from the peak of one light wave to the next, gives rise to the perceptual experiences of hue, or color, in vision |
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Intensity of light and sound |
determined by the amplitude of the waves and is experienced as brightness and loudness, respectively |
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Pupil |
the adjustable opening in the eye through which light enters |
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Iris |
a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored part of the eye that controls the diameter of the pupil |
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Lens |
the transparent structure of the eye behind the pupil that changes shape to focus images on the retina |
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Retina |
the light-sensitive, multilayered inner surface of the eye that contains the rods and cones as well as neurons that form the beginning of the optic nerve |
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Accomodation |
the process by which the lens of the eye changes shape to focus near objects on the retina |
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Rods and cones |
visual receptors that convert light energy into neural impulses. The rods are concentrated in the periphery of the retina, the cones in the foves. The rods have poor sensitivity; detect black, white, and gray; function well in dim light; and are needed for peripheral vision. The cones have excellent sensitivity, enable color vision, and function best in daylight or bright light. |
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Optic nerve |
comprised of the axons of the retinal ganglion cells, carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain |
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Blind spot |
the region of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye. Because there are no rods or cones in this area, there is no vision here |
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Fovea |
the retina's point of central focus. it contains only cones; therefore, images focused on the fovea are the clearest |
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Feature detectors |
located in the visual cortex of the brain, are nerve cells that selectively respond to specific visual features, such as movement, shape, or angle. Feature detectors are evidently the basis of visual information processing. |
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Parallel processing |
information processing in which several aspects of a stimulus, such as light or sound, are processed simultaneously. |
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Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory |
maintains that the retina contains red-, green-, and blue-sensitive color receptors that in combination can produce the perception of any color. This theory explains the first stage of color processing. |
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Opponent-process theory |
states that color vision depends on pairs of opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black). This theory explains the second stage of color processing. |
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Audition |
refers to the sense of hearing |
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Frequency |
directly related to wavelength: longer waves produce lower pitch; shorter waves produce higher pitch. |
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Pitch |
determined by its frequency, that is, the number of complete wavelengths that can pass a point in a given time |
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Middle ear |
the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the eardrum's vibrations on the cochlea's oval window |
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Cochlea |
the coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube of the inner ear through which sound waves trigger neural impulses |
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Inner ear |
contains the semicircular canals and the cochlea, which includes the receptors that transform sound energy into neural impulses. Because it also contains the vestibular sac, the inner ear plays an important role in balance, as well as in audition |
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Place theory |
states that we hear different pitches because sound waves of various frequencies trigger activity at different places on the cochlea's basilar membrane |
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Frequency theory |
presumes that the rate, or frequency, of nerve impulses in the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tune, thus enabling us to sense its pitch |
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Conduction hearing loss |
refers to the hearing loss that results from damage in the mechanics of the outer or middle ear, which impairs the conduction of sound waves to the cochlea |
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Sensorineural hearing loss |
hearing loss caused by damage to the auditory receptors of the cochlea or to the auditory nerve due to disease, aging, or prolonged exposure to ear-splitting noise |
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Cochlear implant |
an electronic device that converts sounds into electrical signals that stimulate the auditory merve |
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Kinesthesis |
the sense of the position and movement of the parts of the body |
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Vestibular sense |
the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance |
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Melzack and Wall's gate-control theory |
states that a "gate" in the spinal cord determines whether pain signals are permitted to reach the brain. Neural activity in small nerve fibers opens the gates; activity in large fibers or information from the brain closes the gate |
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Sensory interaction |
the principle that one sense may influence another |
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Gestalt |
"organized whole" The Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes |
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Figure-ground |
the organization of the visual field into two parts: the figure, which stands out from its surroundings, and the surroundings, or background |
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Grouping |
the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. Gestalt psychologists identified various principles of grouping |
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Depth perception |
the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; it allows us to judge distance |
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Visual cliff |
a laboratory device for testing depth perception, especially in infants and young animals. In their experiments with the visual cliff, Gibson and Walk found strong evidence that depth perception is at least in part innate |
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Binocular cues |
depth cues that depend on information from both eyes |
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Retinal disparity |
refers to the differences between the images received by the left eye and the right eye as a result of viewing the world from slightly different angles. It is a binocular depth cue, since the greater the difference between the two images, the nearer the object. |
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Monocular cues |
depth cues that depend on information from either eye alone |
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Phi phenomenon |
an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession |
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Perceptual constancy |
the perception that objects have consistent lightness, color, shape, and size, even as illumination and retinal images change |
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Color constancy |
the perception that familiar objects have consistent color despite changes in illumination that shift the wavelengths they reflect |
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Perceptual adaptation |
our ability to adjust to an artificially displaces or even inverted visual field. Given distorting lenses, we perceive things accordingly but soon adjust by learning the relationship between out distorted perceptions and the reality |
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Perceptual set |
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
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Human factors psychology |
explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use |
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Extrasensory perception (ESP) |
refers to the controversial claim that perception can occur without sensory input. Supposed ESP powers include telepathy, clairvoyancy, and precognition |
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Parapsychology |
the study of ESP, psychokineses, and other paranormal forms of interaction between the individual and the envrionment |