Psych Ch 4 & 15

Front 1

describes the process through which we detect physical energy from the env. and code that energy as neural signals

Back 1

sensation

Front 2

describes the way a person selects, organizes, and interprets sensory info.

Back 2

perception

Front 3

study of the relationship between physical characteristics of stimuli and the sensory experiences that accompany them

Back 3

psyhophysics

Front 4

the smallest amount of energy needed for a person to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

Back 4

absolute threshold

Front 5

predicts how and when we detect the presence of faint stimuli amid background stimulation

Back 5

signal detection theory

Front 6

minimum difference between two stimuli needed to detect the difference 50% of the time

Back 6

difference threshold or just noticeable difference (jnd)

Front 7

states that regardless of size, two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion for the difference to be noticeable

Back 7

Weber's Law

Front 8

specialized cell that responds to a particular type of energy; fires when energy level exceeds absolute threshold

Back 8

receptor cell

Front 9

neuron that carries info from the sensory receptors to the brain as a coded signal

Back 9

sensory neuron

Front 10

process through which physical energy such as light or sound is converted into an electrical charge

Back 10

transduction

Front 11

process in which sensory receptor celss become less responsive to an unchanging stimulus; like not noticing the smell of dogs in your house after you've been living with them for a while...only when you leave and come back home

Back 11

sensory adaptation

Front 12

process in which lens of eye adjusts in shape from thick to thin to enable a person to focus on objects close by and far away

Back 12

visual accommodation

Front 13

multilayered tissue at back of eye responsible for visual transduction

Back 13

retina

Front 14

photoreceptor cell in retina that resonds to varying degrees of light and dark; found outside of fovea

Back 14

rod

Front 15

depressed spot in retina that occupies the center of a person's visual field

Back 15

fovea

Front 16

photoreceptor cells in retina that enable us to see color

Back 16

cones

Front 17

refers to sharpness of vision

Back 17

acuity

Front 18

one of several neurons that connect the bipolar neurons in the eyes to the brain

Back 18

Ganglion cell

Front 19

bundle of axons of ganglion cells that carries neural messages from each eye to the brain

Back 19

optic nerve

Front 20

point near the base of the brain where some fibers in the optic nerve from each eye cross to the opposite side of the brain

Back 20

optic chasm

Front 21

specialized brain cell that only responds to particular elements in the visual field

Back 21

feature detector

Front 22

feature detector that only responds to a single feature of a stimulus

Back 22

simple cell

Front 23

feature detector that only responds to two features of a stimulus

Back 23

complex cell

Front 24

feature detector that resonds to multiple features of a stimulus

Back 24

hypercomplex cell

Front 25

area of the visual cortex that specifically responds to and recognizes faces

Back 25

Fusiform face area

Front 26

describes the process of doing several things at the same time

Back 26

parallel processing

Front 27

condition in which a person experiences blindness in part of his or her field of vision

Back 27

blindsight

Front 28

a particular color

Back 28

hue

Front 29

intensity of color

Back 29

saturation

Front 30

intensity of light waves

Back 30

brightness

Front 31

inclination to perceive familiar objects as retaining their color despite changes in senory info.

Back 31

color constancy

Front 32

change in air pressure caused by molecules of air or fluid colliding and moving apart

Back 32

sound wave

Front 33

number of cycles per second in a wave

Back 33

frequency (pitch)

Front 34

height of a wave

Back 34

amplitude (volume)

Front 35

quality and purity of the tone of a sound

Back 35

Timbre

Front 36

biological clock that regulates body functions on a 24-hour cycle

Back 36

circadian rhythm

Front 37

part of the hypothalamous that controls the circadian clock

Back 37

suprachiasmatic nucleus

Front 38

period of transition between wakefullness and sleep

Back 38

hypagogia

Front 39

learning while asleep

Back 39

hypnopaedia

Front 40

person that requires much less than the eight hours of sleep each day

Back 40

nonsomniac

Front 41

means "directed by a person's internal decisions"

Back 41

endogenous

Front 42

means "directed by external stimuli"

Back 42

exogenous

Front 43

describes the failure to to perceive a given stimulus

Back 43

inattentional blindness

Front 44

describes the failure to detect drastic visual changes in a scene

Back 44

change blindness

Front 45

describes the failure to detect drastic auditory changes

Back 45

change deafness

Front 46

describes the failure to detect alterations to choices a person has made

Back 46

choice blindness

Front 47

complex processing of info. that occurs without a person's conscious awareness

Back 47

preattentive processing

Front 48

refers to our use of beliefs, experiences, expectations, and other concepts to shape our view of the world

Back 48

top-down processing

Front 49

phenomenon in which a person's visual systems use sensory info. to draw conclusions aout what he or she sees

Back 49

unconscious inference

Front 50

mental disposition bases on previous experiences and expectations that influences the way a person perceives things

Back 50

perceptual set

Front 51

a law that states that a person organizes a stimulus into the simplest possible form

Back 51

Law or pragnanz

Front 52

suggests that people organize stimuli based on knowledge of how their features should be combined

Back 52

feature integration theory

Front 53

results from mistakenly combining features of two different stimuli

Back 53

illusory conjunctions

Front 54

process in which a person adjusts to changes in the environment by adjusting sensory input

Back 54

perceptual adaptation