Chapter 4 Part 2 Psychology

Front 1

frequency theory

Back 1

The idea that pitch perception is determined partly by the frequency of neural impulses travelling up the auditory pathway

Front 2

gate-control theory

Back 2

The idea that neural impulses generated by pain receptors can be blocked, or gated, in the spinal cord by signals produced in the brain

Front 3

Gestalt principles of organization

Back 3

The organizing principles of perception proposed by the Gestalt psychologists, which are the laws of proximity, similarity, closure, continuation, and common fate

Front 4

gustation

Back 4

The sense of taste

Front 5

hue

Back 5

The dimension of light that produces colour; hue is typically determined by the wavelength of light reflecting from an object

Front 6

iris

Back 6

The ring of coloured tissue surrounding the pupil; if you have brown eyes, your irises are (mostly) brown

Front 7

kinesthesia

Back 7

In perception, the ability to sense the position and movement of one’s body parts

Front 8

lens

Back 8

The flexible, transparent disk of tissue that helps focus light toward the back of the eye

Front 9

light

Back 9

The small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is processed by the visual system; light is typically classified in terms of wavelength (the physical distance from one energy cycle to the next) and intensity (the amount of light falling on an object)

Front 10

loudness

Back 10

The psychological experience that results from the auditory processing of a particular amplitude of sound

Front 11

lower region

Back 11

Bias to perceive the lower part of a visual scene as the “figure” (meaningful object of perception) rather than “ground” (background)

Front 12

middle ear

Back 12

The portion of the ear between the eardrum and the cochlea containing three small bones (the malleus, incus, and stapes) that intensify and prepare the sound vibrations for passage into the inner ear

Front 13

monocular depth cues

Back 13

Cues for depth for which input from one eye is sufficient

Front 14

olfaction

Back 14

sense of smell

Front 15

opponent process theory

Back 15

A theory of colour vision proposing that certain cells in the visual pathway increase their activation levels to one colour and decrease their activation levels to another colour (e.g., increasing to red and decreasing to green)

Front 16

pain

Back 16

An adaptive response by the body to any stimulus that is intense enough to cause tissue damage

Front 17

parallel processing

Back 17

Processing that occurs in many different brain regions at the same time, in parallel

Front 18

perception

Back 18

The processes used to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of sensations; through perception, the simple component sensations are organized and interpreted into meaningful, recognizable forms, such as the appearance of a boulder or the taste of lime

Front 19

perceptual constancy

Back 19

Perceiving the properties of an object as remaining the same even though the physical properties of the sensory input from that object are changing

Front 20

perceptual illusions

Back 20

Inappropriate interpretations of physical reality; perceptual illusions often occur as a result of the brain’s use of otherwise adaptive organizing principles