Terms : Hide Images
| 5222578308 | sensation | the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment | 0 | |
| 5222578309 | perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events | 1 | |
| 5222578310 | bottom-up processing | analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information | 2 | |
| 5222578311 | top-up processing | information processing guided by higher-level mental process, as when we constructing perception drawing on our experience and expectations | 3 | |
| 5222578312 | sensation and perception: one continuous process |  | 4 | |
| 5222578313 | psychophysics | the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli (i.e. intensity), and our psychological experience of them | 5 | |
| 5222578314 | absolute thresholds | the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time | 6 | |
| 5222578315 | signal detection theory | predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation; assumes there is no single absolute treshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue | 7 | |
| 5222578316 | subliminal | When stimuli are detectable less than 50 percent of the time, they are "subliminal." | 8 | |
| 5222578317 | prime | the activation of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response | 9 | |
| 5222578318 | difference threshold | the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time; we experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference | 10 | |
| 5222578319 | Weber's Law | the principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different | 11 | |
| 5222578320 | sensory adaptation | diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation | 12 | |
| 5222578321 | For 9/10 people, this eye flutter turns off when the eye is following a moving target. | 13 | ||
| 5222578322 | transduction | conversion of one form of energy into another; in sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses our brains can interpret | 14 | |
| 5222578323 | wavelength | the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next; electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission | 15 | |
| 5222578324 | Spectrum of Electromagnetic Energy |  | 16 | |
| 5222578325 | Physical Properties of Waves |  | 17 | |
| 5222578326 | hue | the dimension of color determined by the wavelength of light (blue, green, etc.) | 18 | |
| 5222578327 | intensity | the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, determined by the wave's amplitude | 19 | |
| 5222578328 | pupil | the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters | 20 | |
| 5222578329 | iris | a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening | 21 | |
| 5222578330 | lens | the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina | 22 | |
| 5222578331 | accomodation | the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina | 23 | |
| 5222578332 | retina | the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information | 24 | |
| 5222578333 | Eye Diagram |  | 25 | |
| 5222578334 | acuity | sharpness of vision | 26 | |
| 5222578335 | nearsightedness | a condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in front of the retina | 27 | |
| 5222578336 | Types of Vision |  | 28 | |
| 5222578337 | farsightedness | opposite of nearsightedness | 29 | |
| 5222578338 | rods | retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond | 30 | |
| 5222578339 | cones | retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; the cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations | 31 | |
| 5222578340 | optic nerve | the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain | 32 | |
| 5222578341 | blind spot | the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there | 33 | |
| 5222578342 | fovea | the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster | 34 | |
| 5222578343 | Retina's Reaction to Light |  | 35 | |
| 5222578344 | Receptors in the Human Eye | Cones: 6 million located in the center low sensitivity in dim light color sensitive detail sensitive Rods: 120 million located in the periphery high sensitivity in dim light no color sensitive no detail sensitive | 36 | |
| 5222578345 | Pathway from Eyes to Visual Cortex | Ganglion axons forming the optic nerve run to the thalamus, where they synapse with neurons that run to the visual cortex. |  | 37 |
| 5222578346 | Hubel and Wiesel | won a Nobel prize for their discovery that most cells in the visual cortex respond only to particular features | 38 | |
| 5222578347 | feature detector | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement | 39 | |
| 5222578348 | parallel processing | processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision; contrasts with the step-by-step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving | 40 | |
| 5222578349 | Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory | the retina contains three different color receptors--one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue--which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color | 41 | |
| 5222578350 | opponent-process theory | opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision | 42 | |
| 5222578351 | color constancy | perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object | 43 | |
| 5222578352 | audition | sense or act of hearing | 44 | |
| 5222578353 | frequency | the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time | 45 | |
| 5222578354 | pitch | a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency | 46 | |
| 5222578355 | Intensity of Some Common Sounds |  | 47 | |
| 5222578356 | middle ear | the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window | 48 | |
| 5222578357 | cochlea | a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses | 49 | |
| 5222578358 | inner ear | the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs | 50 | |
| 5222578359 | Hear here: How we transform sound waves into nerve impulses that our brain interprets | a) The outer ear funnels sound waves to the eardrum. The bones of the middle ear amplify ad relay the eardrum's vibrations through the oval window into the fluid-filled cochlea. b) The resulting pressure changes in the cochlear fluid cause the basilar membrane to ripple, bending the hair cells on the surface. Hair cell movements trigger impulses at the base of the nerve cells, whose fibers converge to form the auditory nerve, which sends neural messages to the thalamus and on to the auditory cortex. |  | 51 |
| 5222578360 | place theory | links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane stimulated | 52 | |
| 5222578361 | frequency theory | the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch | 53 | |
| 5222578362 | conduction hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea | 54 | |
| 5222578363 | sensorineural hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or the auditory nerves called nerve deafness | 55 | |
| 5222578364 | Older people tend to hear low frequencies well but suffer hearing loss for high frequencies. | 56 | ||
| 5222578365 | cochlear implant | a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea | 57 | |
| 5222578366 | Evelyn Glennie | profoundly deaf since 12 years old; full-time percussion soloist | 58 | |
| 5222578367 | William James | He wrote in his Principles of Psychology, "Touch is both the alpha and omega of affection." | 59 | |
| 5222578368 | Biopsychosocial Perspective on Pain |  | 60 | |
| 5222578369 | gate-control theory | the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals and allows them to pass on the brain; the "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain | 61 | |
| 5222578370 | acupuncturist | attempts to help this woman gain relief from back pain by using needles on points of the patient's hand | 62 | |
| 5222578371 | David Willey | used eight cords of wood to construct the world's longest firewalk | 63 | |
| 5222578372 | Lamaze | Most Lamaze patients request a local anesthetic during labor. Some--having expected a "natural, painless birth"--feel needless guilt and failure. | 64 | |
| 5222578373 | sensory interaction | the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste | 65 | |
| 5222578374 | The Olfactory Brain | Information from the taste buds travels to an area of the temporal lobe not far from where the brain receives olfactory information, which interacts with taste. The brain's circuitry for smell also connects with areas involved in memory storage, which helps explain why a smell can trigger a memory explosion. |  | 66 |
| 5222578375 | kinesthesis | the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts | 67 | |
| 5222578376 | vestibular sense | the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance | 68 | |
| 5222578377 | cochlea | 69 |
