Terms : Hide Images
| 9796336667 | Sensation | The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment | 0 | |
| 9796336668 | Perception | The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events | 1 | |
| 9796345714 | Bottom-Up Processing | Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information | 2 | |
| 9796345715 | Top-Down Processing | Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations | 3 | |
| 9796358075 | Selective Attention | The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus | 4 | |
| 9796360567 | Inattentional Blindness | Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere | 5 | |
| 9796363513 | Change Blindness | Failing to notice changes in the environment | 6 | |
| 9796366845 | Psychophysics | The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them | 7 | |
| 9796369851 | Absolute Threshold | The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus | 8 | |
| 9796391615 | 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 that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivations, and alertness | 9 | |
| 9796408557 | Subliminal | Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness | 10 | |
| 9796415564 | Priming | The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response | 11 | |
| 9796418431 | Difference Threshold | The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection | 12 | |
| 9796421653 | Sensory Adaptation | Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation | 13 | |
| 9796435542 | Transduction | Conversion of one form of energy into another; the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret | 14 | |
| 9796438989 | Wavelength | The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next | 15 | |
| 9796450365 | Hue | The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light | 16 | |
| 9796462377 | 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 | 17 | |
| 9796465639 | Pupil | The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters | 18 | |
| 9796484050 | 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 | 19 | |
| 9796489089 | Lens | The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina | 20 | |
| 9796489090 | Retina | The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information | 21 | |
| 9796495180 | Accommodation | The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina | 22 | |
| 9796499509 | Rods | Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision when cones don't response | 23 | |
| 9796515952 | Cones | Retinal receptors that detect color and fine detail | 24 | |
| 9796532537 | Optic Nerve | The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain | 25 | |
| 9796540639 | Blind Spot | The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there | 26 | |
| 9796543442 | Fovea | The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster | 27 | |
| 9796546958 | Feature Detectors | Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement | 28 | |
| 9796551276 | Parallel Processing | The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously | 29 | |
| 9796561925 | Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory | Theory that the retina contains three different color receptors (red, green, blue), which can produce the perception of any color when stimulated in combination | 30 | |
| 9796571756 | Opponent-Process Theory | The theory that the opposing retinal processes enable color vision (for example, some are stimulated by green and inhibited by red, black vs. white, etc.) | 31 | |
| 9796576178 | Blindness | To lack complete ability to see | 32 | |
| 9796583560 | Color Blindness | Inability to perceive certain colors | 33 | |
| 9796592589 | Audition | The sense or act of hearing | 34 | |
| 9796600986 | Frequency | The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time | 35 | |
| 9796603956 | Pitch | A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency | 36 | |
| 9796607403 | Middle Ear | The chamber between the eardrum and the cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window | 37 | |
| 9796610615 | Cochlea | Coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses | 38 | |
| 9796613682 | Inner Ear | The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs | 39 | |
| 9796616535 | Place Theory | The theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated | 40 | |
| 9796619086 | Frequency Theory | 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 | 41 | |
| 9796625182 | Conduction Hearing Loss | Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea | 42 | |
| 9796629052 | Sensorineural Hearing Loss | Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; AKA "nerve deafness" | 43 | |
| 9796635054 | Cochlear Implant | A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea | 44 | |
| 9796638348 | Cutaneous Receptors | Nerve receptors in the skin that respond to pressure, temperature, or pain | 45 | |
| 9796641025 | Kinesthesis | The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts | 46 | |
| 9796645195 | Vestibular Sense | The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance | 47 | |
| 9796649224 | 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 | 48 | |
| 9796652332 | Sensory Interaction | The principal that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste | 49 | |
| 9796656380 | Olfaction | Sense of smell | 50 | |
| 9796656381 | Olfactory Bulbs | Units that receive odor molecules and communicate their nature to the brain | 51 | |
| 9796656382 | Pheromones | Odor chemicals that communicate a message of smell to the brain | 52 | |
| 9796666786 | Figure-Ground | Organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground) | 53 | |
| 9796669584 | Grouping | The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups | 54 | |
| 9796669585 | Similarity | Grouping like objects together | 55 | |
| 9796671800 | Proximity | Grouping objects together based on their location toward one another | 56 | |
| 9796671801 | Closure | Filling in the gaps to account for what is missing | 57 | |
| 9796680685 | Depth Perception | The ability to see objects in three dimensions even though objects strike the retina as two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance | 58 | |
| 9796684783 | Binocular Cues | Depth cues, such a retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes | 59 | |
| 9796687368 | Retinal Disparity | A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the idea that each eye can see something differently; the greater the disparity (difference) the closer the object | 60 | |
| 9796691401 | Visual Cliff | A lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals, devised by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk; helps to determine depth perception | 61 | |
| 9796694869 | Perceptual Constancy | Perceiving objects as unchanging* even as illumination and retinal images change | 62 | |
| 9796698217 | Size Constancy | The ability to retain the size of an object regardless of its location | 63 | |
| 9796698218 | Color Constancy | The ability to perceive an object as the same color regardless of its environment | 64 | |
| 9796700493 | Shape Constancy | The ability to perceive an object as having the same shape, no matter at what angle it is viewed | 65 | |
| 9796700494 | Brightness Constancy | The ability to keep an object's brightness constant, regardless of environment | 66 | |
| 9796710566 | Space Constancy | The ability to keep objects in the environment steady by perceiving either ourselves or outside objects as moving | 67 | |
| 9796720859 | Perceptual Adaptation | In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field | 68 | |
| 9796720860 | Perceptual Set | A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another | 69 | |
| 9796723582 | Extrasensory Perception | The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition | 70 |
