Terms : Hide Images
| 15385794 | sensation | process where we must detect physical energy from the environment and encode it as neural signals | 0 | |
| 15385795 | perception | process where we must select, organize, and interpret our sensations | 1 | |
| 15385796 | bottom-up processing | sensory analysis that starts at sensory receptors and works up to the brains sensory information | 2 | |
| 15385797 | top-down processing | information processing guided by the upper-level mental processes, as we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations | 3 | |
| 15385798 | psychophysics | study of relationships between physical characteristics of stimuli | 4 | |
| 15385799 | absolute threshold | minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time | 5 | |
| 15385800 | difference threshold | the minimum difference between 2 stimuli, required for detection 50% of the time. we experience the difference threshold as a noticeable difference | 6 | |
| 15385801 | signal detection theory | predicts when we will detect weak signals, measured as our ratio of "hits" to "false alarms" | 7 | |
| 15386509 | subliminal stimulation | below ones absolute threshold for conscious awareness (stimuli detectable less than 50% of the time) | 8 | |
| 15386510 | priming | the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing ones perception, memory, or response | 9 | |
| 15386511 | Weber's law | principle that, to be perceived as different, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum % | 10 | |
| 15386512 | sensory adaptation | diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation | 11 | |
| 15386513 | sensory transduction | process where our sensory systems encode stimulus energy as neural messages | 12 | |
| 15386514 | cornea | potects eye and bends light to provide focus | 13 | |
| 15386515 | pupil | the small adjustable opening in the center of the eye | 14 | |
| 15386516 | iris | colored muscle tissue surrounding the pupil, controls the size of pupil opening | 15 | |
| 15386517 | lens | transparent structure behind the pupil, changes shape to help focus images on the retina | 16 | |
| 15390161 | retina | the eyeballs light-sensitive inner surface where the rays focus is a multilayered tissue | 17 | |
| 15390162 | rods | retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey | 18 | |
| 15390163 | cones | retinal receptor cells that function well in daylight and well lit situations | 19 | |
| 15390164 | fovea | the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster | 20 | |
| 15390165 | optic nerve | nerve that carries neural impulses form the eye to the brain | 21 | |
| 15390166 | feature detectors | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus | 22 | |
| 15390167 | trichromatic theory | the theory that the retina has 3 types of color receptors, each especially sensitive to one of three colors (red, green, and blue) | 23 | |
| 15390168 | subtractive color mixing | subtracts wavelength from the reflected light (making black) | 24 | |
| 15390169 | additive color mixing | process adds wavelength and increases light (makes white) | 25 | |
| 15390170 | opponent- process theory | theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) | 26 | |
| 15390171 | blind spot | point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye creating a "blind spot" because no receptor cells are located there | 27 | |
| 15390172 | parallel processing | processing several things at once | 28 | |
| 15390173 | frequency | the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time | 29 | |
| 15390174 | pitch | a tones experienced highness/lowness, depends on frequency | 30 | |
| 15390175 | decibels | a unit of measurement of loudness | 31 | |
| 15390176 | middle ear | chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window | 32 | |
| 15390177 | inner ear | the innermost part of the ear | 33 | |
| 15390178 | cochlea | a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses | 34 | |
| 15390179 | place theory | the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated | 35 | |
| 15390180 | frequency theory | the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone (enabling us to sense its pitch) | 36 | |
| 15390181 | conduction-hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea | 37 | |
| 15390182 | sensorineural-hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves | 38 | |
| 15390183 | cochlear implant | a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea | 39 | |
| 15390184 | phantom limb sensations | sensations that indicate that with pain the brain can misinterpret the spontaneous CNS activity | 40 | |
| 15390185 | gate-control theory | the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals and allows them to pass on to the brain | 41 | |
| 15390186 | sensory interaction | principle that one sense may influence another | 42 | |
| 15390187 | sweet, sour, salty, bitter | what are the four basic taste sensations?? | 43 | |
| 15861899 | transduction | conversion of one form of energy into another | 44 | |
| 15861900 | bipolar/ganglion cells | cells that form an optic nerve | 45 | |
| 15861901 | afterimages | if you stare at a color for a while, when you look at white paper you ses its opponent color | 46 | |
| 15861902 | color constancy | perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color | 47 | |
| 15861903 | audition | the act/sense of hearing | 48 | |
| 15861904 | oval window | the membrane of the cochlea (vibrates, which jostles fluid in the basilar membrane) | 49 | |
| 15861905 | umami | flavor enhancer | 50 | |
| 15861906 | olfactory receptor cells | receptor cells at top of nasal cavity (pick up smell) | 51 | |
| 15861907 | kinesthesis | system for sense of position of body (when can see body) | 52 | |
| 15869621 | gestalt | an organized whole that we perceive of many individual pieces | 53 | |
| 15869622 | inattentional blindness | failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere (also called change blindness) ie. the giving directions/door situation | 54 | |
| 15870722 | figure-ground | organization of visual field into objects (figures) and their surroundings (ground) | 55 | |
| 15870723 | selective attention | focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus (can only attend one voice at a time) | 56 | |
| 15870724 | depth perception | ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are 2D | 57 | |
| 15870725 | Ponzo illusion | if two bricks of equal size were on a railroad track, the brick further away from you would appear larger, although logically it should appear smaller (cross between relative size and linear perspective) | 58 | |
| 15870726 | phi phenomenon | illusion of movement created when two or more lights blink on and off in quick succession (brain plays tricks) | 59 | |
| 15870727 | binocular cues | depth cues that depend on the use of 2 eyes | 60 | |
| 15870728 | monocular cues | depth cues that depend on the use of 1 eye | 61 | |
| 15870729 | visual cliff | laboratory device for testing depth perception of infants (glass table that appears to dip down) | 62 | |
| 15870730 | convergence | why your eyes converge inward when looking at an object (cross-eyedness) | 63 | |
| 15870731 | retinal disparity | why your eyes create a "floating finger sausage" as you look further away from your fingers | 64 | |
| 15870732 | perceptual set | mental predisposition (illusions of man/saxophone, old/young woman, etc.) | 65 | |
| 15870733 | perceptual adaptation | ability to adjust to artificially displaced visual field (when blinded, the football player in the movie learned to throw differently) | 66 | |
| 15870734 | relative size | when see 2 similar objects, the smaller one seems farther away | 67 | |
| 15870735 | interposition | when blocked by another object, an object seems farther away (horse photo) | 68 | |
| 15870736 | relative clarity | hazy objects seem further away | 69 | |
| 15870737 | texture gradient | gradual change from coarse to fine | 70 | |
| 15870738 | relative height | higher object in field of vision = further away (airplane seems further away than a stop sign, even if they're both a mile away) | 71 | |
| 15870739 | relative motion | as we move, stable objects appear to move too (when in car) | 72 | |
| 15870740 | linear perspective | parallel lines converge with distance (think railroad tracks) | 73 | |
| 15870741 | light & shadow | nearby objects reflect more light to eyes | 74 | |
| 15870742 | proximity | nearby figures grouped together | 75 | |
| 15870743 | similarity | similar figures grouped together | 76 | |
| 15870744 | visual capture | tendency for vision to dominate other senses | 77 | |
| 15870745 | continuity | perceive smooth, continuous patterns instead of separate parts connected | 78 | |
| 15870746 | connectedness | when something is linked, perceive it as a single unit or whole | 79 | |
| 15870747 | closure | our brain fills in gaps to create a whole object (invisible triangle) | 80 | |
| 15870748 | accomodation | process by which eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on retina | 81 | |
| 15870749 | prosopagnosia | can see faces but can't recognize them (no top-down processing) | 82 | |
| 16217336 | ESP | controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input | 83 | |
| 16217337 | parapsychology | study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis | 84 | |
| 16217338 | telepathy | mind-to-mind communication | 85 | |
| 16217339 | clairvoyance | perceiving remote events | 86 | |
| 16217340 | precognition | perceiving future events | 87 | |
| 16217341 | psychokinesis | "mind over matter" (control with mind) | 88 |
