Chapter 6

Front 1

absolute threshold

Back 1

smallest amount of physical energy that can be readily detected

Front 2

sensation

Back 2

detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects

Front 3

perception

Back 3

process b which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information

Front 4

sense receptors

Back 4

specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain "scouts"

Front 5

sensory nerves

Back 5

in perhipheral nervous system tramit what the receptors detect

"field officers" those impulses go to brain

Front 6

doctrine of specific nerve energies

Back 6

the principle that different senory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate differenet nerve pathways lead to different areas of the brain

Front 7

psychophysicists study ______

Back 7

how strength and intensity of a stimulus affects the strength of sensation in an observer

Front 8

difference threshold

Back 8

smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared

Front 9

signal-detection theory

Back 9

psychological theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process

Front 10

sensory adaptation

Back 10

reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious

Front 11

sensory deprivation

Back 11

the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation

Front 12

synesthia

Back 12

condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes another (letter b--->brown color)

Front 13

selective attention

Back 13

the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the environment and blocking out others (cocktail party)