Psy Chapter 5

Front 1

sensation

Back 1

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system recieve and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Front 2

bottom- up processing

Back 2

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Front 3

perception

Back 3

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Front 4

top- down processing

Back 4

information processing guided by higher level mental processes as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

Front 5

psychophysics

Back 5

the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli such as their intensity and our psychological experience of them.

Front 6

absolute threshold

Back 6

the minimum stimuluation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Front 7

subliminal

Back 7

below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Front 8

priming

Back 8

the activation often unconsciously of certain associations thus predisposing one's perception memory or response.

Front 9

difference threshold

Back 9

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time

Front 10

Weber's Law

Back 10

the principle that, to be percieved as different two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.

Front 11

sensory adaptation

Back 11

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Front 12

wavelength

Back 12

the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.

Front 13

hue

Back 13

the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light.

Front 14

intensity

Back 14

the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we percieve as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude.

Front 15

retina

Back 15

the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.

Front 16

accommodation

Back 16

the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

Front 17

rods

Back 17

retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray; neccessary for peripheral and twighlight vision, when cones don't respond.

Front 18

cones

Back 18

retinal receptors cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well- lit conditions. detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

Front 19

optic nerve

Back 19

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

Front 20

blind spot

Back 20

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there.

Front 21

fovea

Back 21

the cental focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster

Front 22

feature detectors

Back 22

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle or movement.

Front 23

parallel processing

Back 23

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions including vision.

Front 24

young- helmholtz trichromatic theory

Back 24

the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue, which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color.

Front 25

opponent-process theory

Back 25

the theory that opposing retinal processes(red- green, yellow- blue, white- black) enable color vision.

Front 26

audition

Back 26

the sense or act of hearing

Front 27

frequency

Back 27

the number of complete wave-lengths that pass a point in a given time

Front 28

pitch

Back 28

a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Front 29

middle ear

Back 29

the chamber's between the eardrum and cochela containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochela's oval window.

Front 30

cochela

Back 30

a coiled, bony fluid- filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

Front 31

inner ear

Back 31

the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochela, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

Front 32

gate- control theory

Back 32

the theory that the spinal cord contains neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. the "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.

Front 33

sensory interaction

Back 33

the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste

Front 34

vestibular sense

Back 34

the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance

Front 35

gestalt

Back 35

an organized whole

Front 36

figure- ground

Back 36

the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Front 37

grouping

Back 37

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Front 38

depth perception

Back 38

the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two- dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

Front 39

visual cliff

Back 39

a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

Front 40

binocular cues

Back 40

depth cues, such as retinal disparity that depend on the use of two eyes.

Front 41

retinal disparity

Back 41

a binocular cue for percieving depth: by comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance- the greater the disparity between the two images the closer the object

Front 42

monocular cues

Back 42

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective

Front 43

perceptual constancy

Back 43

percieving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Front 44

color constancy

Back 44

percieving familiar objects as having constant color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

Front 45

perceptual adaptation

Back 45

in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

Front 46

perceptual set

Back 46

a mental predisposition to percieve one thing and not another.