General Psychology Ch.4 Terms, Key People

Front 1

For a specific type of sensory input, it is the minimum stimulus intensity that an organism can detect.

Back 1

Absolute Threshold

Front 2

Works by superimposing lights, putting more light in the mixture than exists in any one light by itself.

Back 2

Additive Color Mixing

Front 3

A visual image that persists after a stimulus is removed.

Back 3

After Image

Front 4

Locating the source of sound in space.

Back 4

Auditory Localization

Front 5

Runs the length of the spiraled cochlea, holds the auditory receptors.

Back 5

Basilar Membrane

Front 6

Clues about distance based on the differing views of the two eyes.

Back 6

Binocular Depth Cues

Front 7

A progression from individual elements to the whole.

Back 7

Bottom-up Processing

Front 8

A fluid filled coiled tunnel that contains the receptors for hearing.

Back 8

Cochlea

Front 9

Encompasses a variety of deficiencies in the ability to distinguish among colors.

Back 9

Color Blindness

Front 10

Are pairs of colors that produce gray tones when mixed together.

Back 10

Contemporary Colors

Front 11

Specialized visual receptors that play a key role in daylight vision and color vision.

Back 11

Cones

Front 12

Involves sensing the eyes converging toward each other as they focus on closer objects.

Back 12

Convergence

Front 13

The process in which the eyes become more sensitive in low light stimulation.

Back 13

Dark Adaptation

Front 14

Involves interpretation of visual cues that indicate how near or far away objects are.

Back 14

Depth Perception

Front 15

Stimuli that lie in the distance.

Back 15

Distal Stimuli

Front 16

Distant objects are seen clearly but close objects appear blurry. (focus of light falls short of the retina.)

Back 16

Farsightedness

Front 17

The process of detecting specific elements in visual input and assembling them into a more complex form.

Back 17

Feature Analysis

Front 18

Neurons that respond selectively to very specific or more complex stimuli.

Back 18

Feature Detectors

Front 19

A tiny spot in the center of the retina that contains only cones; visual acuity is greatest at this spot.

Back 19

Fovea

Front 20

Holds that perception of pitch corresponds to the rate, or frequency, at which the entire basilar membrane vibrates.

Back 20

Frequency Theory

Front 21

Holds that incoming pain sensations must pass through a 'gate' in the spinal cord that can be closed, thus blocking ascending pain signals.

Back 21

Gate Control Theory

Front 22

Sensory system for taste.

Back 22

Gustatory System

Front 23

Objects that can be represented in two dimensional pictures but cannot exist in three dimensional space.

Back 23

Impossible Figures

Front 24

The failure to see visible objects or events because one's attention is focused elsewhere.

Back 24

Inattentional Blindness

Front 25

Is the smallest difference in stimulus intensity that a specific sense can detect.

Back 25

Just Noticeable Difference

Front 26

Occurs when neural acuity in a cell opposes activity in surrounding cells.

Back 26

Lateral Antagonism

Front 27

The transparent eye structure that focuses the light rays falling on the retina.

Back 27

Lens

Front 28

the process whereby the eyes become less sensitive to light in high illumination.

Back 28

Light Adaptation

Front 29

Clues about distance based on the image in either eyes alone.

Back 29

Monocular Depth Cues

Front 30

Involves images of objects at different distances moving across the retina at different rates.

Back 30

Motion Parallax

Front 31

Close objects are seen clearly, but distant objects appear blurry. (focus of light falls short of the retina.)

Back 31

Nearsightedness

Front 32

Sensory system for smell.

Back 32

Olfactory System

Front 33

Holds that color perception depends on receptors that make antagonistic responses to three pairs of colors.

Back 33

Opponent Process Theory

Front 34

The point at which the optic nerves from the inside half of each eye cross over and then project to the opposite half of the brain.

Back 34

Optic Chiasm

Front 35

A hole in the retina where the optic nerve fibers exit the eye.

Back 35

Optic Disk

Front 36

Involves simultaneously extracting different information from the same input.

Back 36

Parallel Processing

Front 37

The selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input.

Back 37

Perception

Front 38

A tendency to experience a stable perception in the face of continually changing sensory input.

Back 38

Perceptual Constancy

Front 39

An inference about which distal stimuli could be responsible for the proximal stimuli sensed.

Back 39

Perceptual Hypothesis

Front 40

A readiness to perceive a stimulus in a particular way.

Back 40

Perceptual Set

Front 41

The illusion of movement created by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession.

Back 41

Phi Phenomenon

Front 42

Clues about distance that can be given in a flat picture.

Back 42

Pictoral Depth Cues

Front 43

Stimulus energies that impinge directly on sensory receptors.

Back 43

Proximal Stimuli

Front 44

The study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience.

Back 44

Psychophysics

Front 45

The opening at the center of the iris that permits light to pass into the rear chamber of the eye.

Back 45

Pupil

Front 46

Is the retinal area that when stimulated, affects the firing of that cell.

Back 46

Receptive Field of a Visual Cell

Front 47

The neural tissue lining the inside back surface of the eye; it absorbs light, processes images, and sends visual information to the brain.

Back 47

Retina

Front 48

Refers to the fact that the objects within 25 feet project images to slightly different locations on the right and left retinas, so the right and left eyes see slightly different views of the object.

Back 48

Retinal Disparity

Front 49

A drawing that is compatible with two interpretations that can shift back and forth.

Back 49

Reversible Figure

Front 50

Specialized visual receptors that play a key role in night vision and peripheral vision.

Back 50

Rods

Front 51

Is the stimulation of sense organs.

Back 51

Sensation

Front 52

A gradual decline in sensitivity to prolonged stimulation.

Back 52

Sensory Adaptation

Front 53

Proposes that the detection of stimuli involves decision processes as well as sensory processes, which are both influenced by a variety of factors besides stimulus intensity.

Back 53

Signal Detection Theory

Front 54

Involves the perception of contours where none are actually present.

Back 54

Subjective Contours

Front 55

The registration of sensory input without conscious awareness.

Back 55

Subliminal Perception

Front 56

Works by removing some wavelengths of light, leaving less than was originally there.

Back 56

Subtractive Color Mixing

Front 57

A progression from the whole to the elements.

Back 57

Top-Down Processing

Front 58

Holds that the human eye has three types of receptors with different sensitivities to different light wavelengths.

Back 58

Trichromatic Color Theory

Front 59

Involves an apparently inexplicable discrepancy between the appearance of visual stimulus and its physical reality.

Back 59

Visual Illusion

Front 60

Her research shows that a persons individual taste sensitivities vary considerably. Non-tasters, Medium-tasters, Super-tasters.

Back 60

Linda Bartoshuk

Front 61

Important contributor to psychophysics. He laid foundation for Wilhelm Wundt. He studied humans Absolute Threshold for light.

Back 61

Gustav Fechnar

Front 62

Modified Trichromatic Color Theory. Theorized that the eye has specialized receptors for Red, Green, Blue. Proposed Place Theory.

Back 62

Herman von Helmholtz

Front 63

Awarded Nobel Prize in 1981 for their research on Feature Detectors.

Back 63

David Hubel and Torstein Wiesel

Front 64

Devised Gate Control Theory.

Back 64

Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall

Front 65

Explained Phi Phenomenon in 1912.

Back 65

Max Wertheimer