Psychology

Front 1

Absolute Threshold

Back 1

The minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory signal is detected half the time.

Front 2

Amplitude

Back 2

Verticle range of waves (sound or light)
Sound - loudness
Light - Brightness

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Attention

Back 3

A state of focused awareness on a subset of the available perceptual information

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Basilar membrane

Back 4

A membrane in the cochlea (the primary organ of hearing; a fluid-filled coiled tube located in the inner ear) that, when set into motion, stimulates hair cells that produce neural effects of auditory stimulation.

Front 5

Binocular depth cues

Back 5

Retinal disparity (displacement between horizontal positions of corresponding images in two eyes), convergence (brain using information from eye muslce tension to make judgements of depth), and relative motion parallax (provides info about depth because, as you move, the relative distances of objects in the world determine the amount and direction of their relative motion in your retinal image of the scene)

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Blindspot

Back 6

Optic disk, no receptor cells, where optic nerve leaves eye

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Bottom-up processing

Back 7

Perceptual analyses based on the sensory data available in the environment; results of analysis are passed upward toward more abstract representations

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Brightness

Back 8

The dimension of color space that captures the intensity of light (amplitude)

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Color blindness

Back 9

Inability to discriminate certain colors. Color blindness comes in pairs because the color system was actually built from pairs of opposites (red and green, blue and yellow)

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Complementary Color

Back 10

Colors opposite each other on the color circle; when additively mixed, they create the sensation of white light

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Complex cell

Back 11

Cells in receptive field that respond most strongly to moving stimulus

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Cone

Back 12

Photoreceptors concentrated in the center of the retina that are responsible for visual experiene under normal viewing conditions for all experiences of color

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Visual cortex

Back 13

The region of the occipital lobes in which visual information is processed

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Dark adaptation

Back 14

The gradual improvement of the eyes' sensitivity after a shift in illumination from light to near darkness (cones to rods)

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Empiricism

Back 15

The human infant is born without knowledge or skills and that experience, in the form of human learning, etches messages on the blank tablet of the infant's unformed mind

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Excitation

Back 16

Information entering a neuron and signaling it to fire

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Fovea

Back 17

Area of the retina that contains densely packed cones and forms the point of sharpest vision

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Frequency (Hz)

Back 18

The number of cycles in a fixed unit - Determines highness or lowness of sound

Front 19

Frequency theory

Back 19

The theory that a tone produces a rate of vibration in the basilar membrane equal to its frequency, with the result that pitch can be coded by the frequency of the neural response

Front 20

Hue

Back 20

The dimension of color space that captures the qualitative experience of the color of light

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Illusion

Back 21

An experience of a stimulus pattern in a manner that is demonstrably incorrect but shared by others in the same perceptual environment

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Inhibition

Back 22

Information entering a nuron and signaling it not to fire

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Interposition

Back 23

When an opaque object blocks out part of a second object, used as a pictorial clue for vision. Gives depth information indicating that the occluded object is farther away than the one occluding it.

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Just Noticable Difference (JND)

Back 24

The smallest difference between two sensations that allows them to be discriminated

Front 25

Law of Good Continuation

Back 25

People experience lines as continuous even when they are interupted

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Law of proximity

Back 26

People group together nearest elements

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Law of similarity

Back 27

People group together most similar elements

Front 28

Lens

Back 28

Crystalline lens changes shapes and amount of light entering the eye. Light passing through pupil is focused by the lens of the retina, lens reverses and inverts light pattern. Ciliary muslces can change thickness of lens and hence its optical properties (near and far objects) in a process called accommodation

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Nativism

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View that nature, or the evolutionary legacy that each child brings into the world, is the mold that shapes development

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Opponent Pairs

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Red Green
Blue Yellow

Front 31

Photoreceptor

Back 31

Receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light

Front 32

Pitch

Back 32

Sound quality of highness or lowness; primarily dependent on the frequency of the sound wave

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Place Theory

Back 33

The theory that different frequency tones produce maximum activation at different locations along the basilar membrane, with the result that pitch can be coded by the place at which activation occurs

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Proximal Stimulus

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The optical image on the retina; contrasted with the distal stimulus, the physical object in the world

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Psychophysics

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The study of the relationshiop between physical stimulation and the behavior or mental experiences the stimuli evoke

Front 36

Receptor Molecules

Back 36

What neurotransmitters attach to to complete synaptic transmission (embedded in the postsynaptic membrane)

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Receptive Field

Back 37

The area of the visual field to which a neuron in the visual system responds

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Rod

Back 38

Photoreceptor concentrated in the periphery of the retina that are most active in dim illumination; rods do not produce sensation of color

Front 39

Saturation

Back 39

The dimension of color space that captures the purity and vividness of color sensations

Front 40

Sensation

Back 40

The process by which stimulation of a sensory receptor gives rise to neutral impulses that result in an experience, or awareness, of conditions inside or outside the body

Front 41

Shape constancy

Back 41

The ability to perceive the true shape of an object despite variations in the size of the retinal image

Front 42

Simple Cell

Back 42

Cell in receptive field that responds most strongly to bars of light in their "favorite" orientation

Front 43

Size constancy

Back 43

The ability to perceive the true size of an object despite variations in the size of its retinal image

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Timbre

Back 44

The dimension of auditory sensation that reflects the complexity of a sound wave

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Threshold

Back 45

What determines whether a neuron fires or not

Front 46

Transduction

Back 46

Transformation or one form of energy into another; for example, light is transformed into neutral impulses

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Top-down processing

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Perceptual processes in which inofrmation from an individual's past experience, knowledge, expectations, motivations, and background influence the way a perceived object is interpreted and classified

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Unconscious inference

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Unconscious - the domain of the psyche that stores repressed urges and primitive impulses.... An unconscious urge or feeling

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Weber's Law

Back 49

An assertion that the size of a difference threshold (smallest physical difference between two stimuli that can still be recognized as two stimuli) is proportional to the intensity of the standard stimulus (K = constant)
Change in I/I = K