Terms : Hide Images
| 269263230 | sensation | the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment | |
| 269263231 | perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events | |
| 269266714 | bottom-up processing | analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information | |
| 269266715 | top-down processing | information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations | |
| 269266716 | psychophysics | the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them | |
| 269266717 | absolute threshold | the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time | |
| 269266718 | difference threshold | the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience this as a just noticeable difference | |
| 269266719 | Weber's law | the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) | |
| 269266720 | signal detection theory | a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise"). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue. | |
| 269266721 | subliminal | below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness | |
| 269266722 | priming | the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response | |
| 269266723 | sensory adaptation | diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation | |
| 269277916 | transduction | conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret. | |
| 269277917 | wavelength | the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next | |
| 269277918 | hue | the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth. | |
| 269277919 | intensity | the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude | |
| 269277920 | cornea | the transparent outer covering of the eye where light enters | |
| 269277921 | pupil | the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters | |
| 269277922 | 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 | |
| 269277923 | lens | the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina | |
| 269277924 | accommodation | the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina | |
| 269277925 | 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 | |
| 269277926 | acuity | sharpness of vision | |
| 269277927 | nearsightedness | a condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in front of the retina | |
| 269277928 | farsightedness | a condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly than near objects because the image of near objects is focused behind the retina | |
| 269277929 | rods | retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond | |
| 269277930 | cones | retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. | |
| 269277931 | fovea | the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster (contains only cones, not rods) | |
| 269277932 | bipolar cells | eye neurons that receive information from the retinal cells and distribute information to the ganglion cells | |
| 269277933 | ganglion cells | the specialized cells which lie behind the bipolar cells whose axons form the optic nerve which takes the information to the brain | |
| 269277934 | optic nerve | the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain | |
| 269277935 | blind spot | the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there | |
| 269277936 | feature detectors | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement | |
| 269277937 | parallel processing | the processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision | |
| 269277938 | Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory | the theory that 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 | |
| 269277939 | color blindness | lacking functioning of red and/or green sensitive cones. Dichromatic or monochromatic color vision exists for these people | |
| 269277940 | afterimages | sensations that linger after the stimulus is removed. Most are negative (appear in reversed colors) | |
| 269277941 | opponent-process theory | the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision | |
| 269277942 | color consistency | perciveing familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illusion alters the wavelength reflected by the object | |
| 269287222 | audition | the sense or act of hearing | |
| 269287223 | amplitude | the strength of a sound wave which determines loudness | |
| 269287224 | frequency | the number of complete waves that pass a given point in a certain amount of time (ex. per second) | |
| 269287225 | pitch | a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency | |
| 269287226 | decibels | measuring unit for sound energy | |
| 269287227 | ear canal | the narrow, tubelike passage through which sound enters the ear | |
| 269287228 | eardrum | tightly stretched membrane located at the end of the ear canal that vibrates when struck by sound waves | |
| 269287229 | 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 | |
| 269287230 | inner ear | part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs | |
| 269287231 | cochlea | a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses | |
| 269287232 | oval window | cochlea's membrane | |
| 269287233 | basilar membrane | a membrane in the cochlea that supports the Organ of Corti | |
| 269287234 | hair cells | tiny hairlike projections that line the basilar membrane | |
| 269287235 | place theory | in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated | |
| 269287236 | frequency theory | in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch | |
| 269287237 | conduction hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea | |
| 269287238 | sensorineural hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness | |
| 269287239 | cochlear implant | a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea | |
| 269294098 | pain | body's way of telling you something has gone wrong | |
| 269294099 | gate-control theory | the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to 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. | |
| 269294100 | four basic taste sensations | sweet, sour, salty, bitter, (umami) | |
| 269294101 | sensory interaction | the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste (also works with vision and touch, vision and hearing, etc.) | |
| 269294102 | chemical sense | attractedness to smells depends on learned knowledge | |
| 269294103 | olfactory receptor cells | allow us to distingusih 10,000 aromas | |
| 269294104 | kinesthesis | the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts | |
| 269294105 | vestibular sense | the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance | |
| 269635711 | selective attention | the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect | |
| 269635712 | inattentional blindness | failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere | |
| 269635713 | visual capture | the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses | |
| 269635714 | gestalt | an organized whole | |
| 269635715 | grouping, proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, closure | six gestalt principles | |
| 269635716 | grouping | the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups | |
| 269635717 | proximity | grouping nearby figures together | |
| 269635718 | similarity | grouping figures that are alike together | |
| 269635719 | continuity | perceiving smooth, continuous patterns instead of discontinuous ones | |
| 269635720 | connectedness | perceiving things as connected because they are uniform and linked | |
| 269635721 | closure | filling gaps to create a complete, whole object | |
| 269635722 | depth perception | the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance | |
| 269635723 | visual cliff | a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals | |
| 269635724 | binocular cues | depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes | |
| 269635725 | retinal disparity | a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance - the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the close the object | |
| 269635726 | convergence | a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object | |
| 269635727 | monocular cues | depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone | |
| 269635728 | relative size | a monocular cue for perceiving depth; the smaller retinal image is farther away | |
| 269635729 | interposition | if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer | |
| 269635730 | relative clarity | a monocular cue for perceiving depth; hazy objects are farther away than sharp, clear objects | |
| 269635731 | texture gradient | a monocular cue for perceiving depth; a gradual change from a coarse distinct texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance. objects far away appear smaller and more densely packed | |
| 269635732 | relative height | a monocular cue for perceiving depth; objects higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away | |
| 269635733 | relative motion (motion parallax) | as we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move | |
| 269635734 | linear perspective | parallel lines appear to converge with distance | |
| 269635735 | light and shadow | a monocular cue for perceiving depth; a dimmer object seems farther away | |
| 269635736 | phi phenomenon | an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession | |
| 269635737 | perceptual constancy | perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change | |
| 269635738 | perceptual adaptation | in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field | |
| 269635739 | perceptual set | a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another | |
| 269635740 | human factors psychology | a branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use | |
| 269635741 | extrasensory perception (ESP) | the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition | |
| 269635742 | parapsychology | the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis | |
| 269635743 | telepathy | part of ESP: mind-to-mind communication | |
| 269635744 | clairvoyance | part of ESP: perceiving remote events | |
| 269635745 | precognition | part of ESP: perceiving future events | |
| 269635746 | Psychokinesis | "mind over matter" i.e. levitating a table or influencing the roll of a die |
