Psychology Chapter 4 Terms

Front 1

Illusion

Back 1

Perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn't match it's physical reality

Front 2

Sensation

Back 2

Detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain

Front 3

Perception

Back 3

The brain's interpretation of raw sensory inputs

Front 4

Transduction

Back 4

The process of converting an external energy or substance into electrical activity within neurons

Front 5

Sense receptor

Back 5

Specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system

Front 6

Sensory adaption

Back 6

Activation is greatest when a stimulus is first detected

Front 7

Psychophysics

Back 7

The study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics

Front 8

Absolute threshold

Back 8

Lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a charge 50 percent of the time

Front 9

Just noticeable difference

Back 9

The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect

Front 10

Weber's law

Back 10

There is a constant proportional relationship between the jnd and original stimulus intensity

Front 11

Signal detection theory

Back 11

Theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions

Front 12

Synesthesia

Back 12

A condition in which people experience cross - modal sensations

Front 13

Parallel processing

Back 13

The ability to attend to many sense modalities simultaneously

Front 14

Bottom up processing

Back 14

Processing in which a whole is constructed from parts

Front 15

Top down processing

Back 15

Conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies

Front 16

Perceptual set

Back 16

Set formed when expectations influence perceptions

Front 17

Perceptual constancy

Back 17

The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions

Front 18

Selective attention

Back 18

Process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimizing others

Front 19

Inattentional blindness

Back 19

Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere

Front 20

Subliminal perception

Back 20

Perception below the limen or threshold of conscious awareness

Front 21

Pupil

Back 21

Circular hole through which light enters the eye

Front 22

Cornea

Back 22

Part of the eye containing transparent cells that focus light on the retina

Front 23

Lens

Back 23

Part of the eye that changes curvature to keep images in focus

Front 24

Accommodation

Back 24

Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far

Front 25

Retina

Back 25

Membrane at the back of the eye responsible for converting light into neural activity

Front 26

Fovea

Back 26

Central portion of the retina

Front 27

Acuity

Back 27

Sharpness of vision

Front 28

Rods

Back 28

Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in low levels of light

Front 29

Dark adaption

Back 29

Time in dark before rods regain maximum light sensitivity

Front 30

Cones

Back 30

Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in colour

Front 31

Optic nerve

Back 31

Nerve that travels from the retina to the brain

Front 32

Blind spot

Back 32

Region of the retina containing no rods and completely devoid of sense receptors

Front 33

Feature detector cell

Back 33

Cell that detects lines and edges

Front 34

Trichromatic theory

Back 34

Idea that colour vision is based on our sensitivity to three primary colours

Front 35

Colour blindness

Back 35

Inability to see some or all colours

Front 36

Depth perception

Back 36

Ability to judge distance and 3D relations

Front 37

Monocular depth cues

Back 37

Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye

Front 38

Binocular depth cues

Back 38

Stimuli that enables us to judge depth using both eyes

Front 39

Audition

Back 39

Our sense of hearing

Front 40

Timbre

Back 40

Complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices, or other sources sound unique

Front 41

Cochlea

Back 41

Bony, spiral - shaped sense organ used for hearing

Front 42

Organ of Corti

Back 42

Tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing

Front 43

Basilar membrane

Back 43

Membrane supporting the organ of corti and hair cells in the cochlea

Front 44

Place theory

Back 44

A specific place along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch

Front 45

Frequency theory

Back 45

Rate at which neurons fire action potentials faithfully reproduce the pitch

Front 46

Olfaction

Back 46

Our sense of smell

Front 47

Gustation

Back 47

Our sense of taste

Front 48

Taste bud

Back 48

Sense receptor in the tongue that responds to sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami and perhaps fat

Front 49

Somatosensory

Back 49

Our sense of touch, temperature, and pain

Front 50

Gate control model

Back 50

Idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in spinal cord

Front 51

Phantom pain

Back 51

Pain or discomfort felt in an amputated limb

Front 52

Proprioception

Back 52

Our sense of body position

Front 53

Vestibular sense

Back 53

Our sense of equilibrium or balance

Front 54

Semicircular canals

Back 54

Three fluid - filled canals in the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance