Summer Psychology Kalat Vocab Chp 4 (4.1-4.3) Flashcards

1639868622	Absolute sensory threshold	intensity at which a given individual can detect a sensory stimulus 50% of the time; a low threshold indicates the ability to detect faint stimuli	0
1639868623	Accommodation of the lens	adjustment of the thickness of the lens to focus on objects at different distances	1
1639868624	Action potential	excitation that travels along an axon at a constant strength, no matter how far it must travel	2
1639868625	Binocular cues	visual cues that depend on the action of both eyes	3
1639868626	Blind spot	area where the optic nerve exits the retina	4
1639868627	Bottom-up-process	sensory activity in which tiny elements combine to produce larger items	5
1639868628	Brightness contrast	increase or decrease in an object's apparent brightness because of the effects of objects around it	6
1639868629	Capsaicin	chemical that stimulates the release of substance P	7
1639868630	Cerebral cortex	outer surface of the forebrain	8
1639868631	Closure	in Gestalt psychology, tendency to imagine the rest of an incomplete, familiar figure	9
1639868632	Cochlea	snail-shaped, fluid-filled structure that contains the receptors for hearing	10
1639868633	Color constancy	tendency of an object to appear nearly the same color under a variety of lighting conditions	11
1639868634	Common fate	tendency to perceive objects as part of the same group if they change or move in similar ways at the same time	12
1639868635	Conduction deafness	hearing loss that results when the bones connected to the eardrum fail to transmit sound waves properly to the cochlea	13
1639868636	Cones	visual receptors that are adapted for color vision, daytime vision, and detailed vision	14
1639868637	Continuation	in Gestalt psychology, the tendency to fill in the gaps in an interrupted line	15
1639868638	Convergence	degree to which the eyes turn in to focus on a close object	16
1639868639	Cornea	rigid, transparent structure on the surface of the eyeball	17
1639868640	Cutaneous senses	skin senses, including pressure on the skin, warmth, cold, pain, vibration, movement across the skin, and stretch of the skin	18
1639868641	Dark adaptation	gradual improvement in the ability to see in dim light	19
1639868642	Depth perception	perception of distance, which enables us to experience the world in three dimensions,	20
1639868643	Electromagnetic spectrum	continuum of all the frequencies of radiated energy	21
1639868644	Endorphins	chemicals produced by the brain that have effects resembling those of opiates, such as inhibiting pain	22
1639868645	Feature detector	neuron in the visual system of the brain that responds to the presence of a certain simple feature, such as a horizontal line	23
1639868646	Figure and ground	object and its background	24
1639868647	Fovea	central part of the retina that has a greater density of receptors, especially cones, than any other part of the retina	25
1639868648	Frequency principle	identification of pitch by the frequency of action potentials in neurons along the basilar membrane of the cochlea, synchronized with the frequency of sound waves	26
1639868649	Ganglion cells	neurons in the eye that receive input from bipolar cells, which in turn receive their input from the visual receptors	27
1639868650	Gate theory	proposal that pain messages must pass through a gate, probably in the spinal cord, that can block these messages	28
1639868651	Gestalt psychology	approach to psychology that seeks to explain how we perceive overall patterns	29
1639868652	Good figure	in Gestalt psychology, the tendency to perceive simple, symmetrical figures	30
1639868653	Hertz (Hz)	unit of frequency representing one cycle (vibration) per second	31
1639868654	Induced movement	perception that an object is moving and the background is stationary when in fact the object is stationary and the background is moving	32
1639868655	Iris	colored structure on the surface of the eye surrounding the pupil	33
1639868656	Lens	flexible structure that can vary its thickness to enable the eye to focus on objects at different distances	34
1639868657	Loudness	perception that depends on the amplitude of a sound wave	35
1639868658	Monocular cues	visual cues to distance that are just as effective with one eye as with both	36
1639868659	Moon illusion	apparent difference between the size of the moon at the horizon and its size when viewed higher in the sky	37
1639868660	Motion parallax	apparently swift motion of objects close to a moving observer and the apparently slow motion of objects farther away	38
1639868661	Nerve deafness	hearing loss that results from damage to the cochlea, the hair cells, or the auditory nerve	39
1639868662	Olfaction	sense of smell; the detection of chemicals in contact with the membranes inside the nose	40
1639868663	Opponent-process theory	theory that we perceive color in terms of a system of paired opposites: red versus green, yellow versus blue, and white versus black	41
1639868664	Optic nerve	set of axons that extend from the ganglion cells of the eye to the thalamus and several other areas of the brain	42
1639868665	Perception	interpretation of sensory information	43
1639868666	Phantom limb	continuing sensation of an amputated body part	44
1639868667	Pheromone	odorous chemical, released by an animal, that changes how other members of the species respond to that animal socially	45
1639868668	Pitch	perception closely related to the frequency of sound waves	46
1639868669	Place principle	identification of pitch by determining which auditory neurons, coming from which part of the basilar membrane, are most active	47
1639868670	Placebo	inactive pill that has no known pharmacological effect on the subjects in an experiment	48
1639868671	Proximity	(a) in Gestalt psychology, the tendency to perceive objects that are close together as belonging to a group; (b) in social psychology, the tendency to choose as friends people with whom we come in frequent contact	49
1639868672	Pupil	adjustable opening in the eye through which light enters	50
1639868673	Receptor	specialized cell that converts environmental energies into signals for the nervous system	51
1639868674	Retina	layer of visual receptors covering the back surface of the eyeball	52
1639868675	Retinal disparity	difference in the apparent position of an object as seen by the left and right retinas	53
1639868676	Retinex theory	concept that color perception results from the cerebral cortex's comparison of various retinal patterns	54
1639868677	Reversible figure	stimulus that you can perceive in more than one way	55
1639868678	Rods	visual receptors that are adapted for vision in dim light	56
1639868679	Signal-detection theory	study of people's tendencies to make hits, correct rejections, misses, and false alarms	57
1639868680	Similarity	in Gestalt psychology, the tendency to perceive objects that resemble each other as belonging to a group	58
1639868681	Sound waves	vibrations of the air or of another medium	59
1639868682	Stimulus	energy in the environment that affects what we do	60
1639868683	Stroboscopic movement	illusion of movement created by a rapid succession of stationary images	61
1639868684	Subliminal perception	ability of a stimulus to influence our behavior even when it is presented so faintly or briefly or along with such strong distracters that we do not perceive it consciously	62
1639868685	Substance P	neurotransmitter responsible for much of the transmission of pain information in the nervous system	63
1639868686	Synesthesia	a condition in which a stimulus of one type, such as sound, also gives rise to another experience, such as color	64
1639868687	Taste	sensory system that responds to chemicals on the tongue	65
1639868688	Taste bud	site of the taste receptors, located in one of the folds on the surface of the tongue	66
1639868689	Top-down process	activity in which someone applies experience and expectations to interpret what each item must be in context	67
1639868690	Trichromatic theory (or Young-Helmholtz theory)	theory that color vision depends on the relative rate of response of three types of cones	68
1639868691	Vestibular sense	specialized sense that detects the direction of tilt and amount of acceleration of the head and the position of the head with respect to gravity	69
1639868692	Visual constancy	tendency to perceive objects as unchanging in shape, size, and color despite variations in what actually reaches the retina	70
1639868693	Volley principle	identification of pitch by groups of hair cells responding to each vibration by producing an action potential	71
1639868694	Waterfall illusion	phenomenon in which prolonged staring at a waterfall and then looking at nearby cliffs causes those cliffs to appear to flow upward	72
1639868695	Young-Helmholtz theory (or trichromatic theory)	theory that color vision depends on the relative rate of response of three types of cones	73