• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/52

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

52 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Sensation
the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects; it occurs when energy in the external environment or the body stimulates receptors in the sense organs.
Perception
the process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information.
sense receptors
specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain.
doctrine of specific nerve energies
the principle that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain
synesthesia
a condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes another.
psychophysics
the field concerned with how the physical properties of stimuli are related to our psychological experience of them
absolute threshold
the smallest quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer
difference threshold
the smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared.
signal detection theory
a psychophysical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process
sensory adaptation
the reduction or disappearance of sesnsory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious.
Sensory deprivation
the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation
selective attention
the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the environment and the blocking out of others
inattentional blindness
failure to consciously perceive something you are looking at because you are not attending to it
hue
the dimension of visual experience specified by colour names and related to the wavelength of light
brightness
lightness or luminance;; the dimension of visual experience related to the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object.
saturation
vividness or purity of colour; the dimension of visual experience related to the complexity of light waves.
retina
neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball's interior which contains the receptors for vision
rods
visual receptors that respond to dim light
cones
visual receptors involved in colour vision
dark adaptation
a process by which visual receptors become maximally sensitive to dim light
ganglion cells
neurons in the retina of the eye that gather information from receptor cells their axons make up the optic nerve.
feature detector cells
cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific features of the environment
trichromatic theory
a theory of colour perception that proposes three mechanisms in the visual system, each sensitive to a certain range of wavelengths; their interaction is assumed to produce all different experiences of hue.
opponent-process theory
a theory of colour perception that assumes that the visual system treats pairs of colours as opposing or antagonistic.
negative afterimage
seeing red after starting at green; the cells that switch on or off to signal the presence of green send the opposite signal red when the green is removed and vice versa.
figure
the item of interest that stands out from the ret of the environment
the ground
the environment or background
gestalt principles
principles that describe the brains organization of sensory information into meaningful units and patterns
binocular cues
visual cues to depth or distance requiring two eyes
convergence
the turning inward of the eyes which occurs when they focus on a nearby object.
retinal disparity
the slgiht difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen b the left eye and the right eye
monocular cues
visual cues to depth or distance that can be used by one eye alone.
perceptual constancy
the accurate perception of objects as stable or unchanged despite changes in the sensory patterns they produce
pitch
the dimension of auditory experience related to the frequency of a pressure wave; the height or depth of a tone
frequency
how rapdly the air vibrate - that is the number of times per second the wave cycles through a peak and a low point
timbre
the distinguishing quality of a soung; the dimension of auditory experience related to the complexity of the pressure wave.
organ of corti
a structure in the cochlea containing hair cells that serve as receptors for hearing.
cochlea
a snail shaped fluid filled organ in the inner ear, containing the structure where the receptors for hearing are located.
basilar membrane
the rubbery membrane that stretches across the interior of the cochlea in which the hair cells of the cochlea are embedded.
gustation
sense of taste
papillae
knoblike elevations on the tongue, containing the taste buds.
taste buds
nests of taste receptor cells.
olfaction
sense of smell
gate control theory of pain
the theory that the experience of plain depends in part on whether pain impulses get past a neurological gate in the spinal cord and thus reach the brain
phantom pain
the experience of pain ina missing limb or other body part.
kinesthesis
the sense of body position and movement of body parts
equilirium
the sense of balance
semicircular canals
sense organs in the inner ear that contribute to equilibrium by responding to rotation of the head
critical period
a crucial window of time during a person must have experiences or perception will be impaired.
perceptual set
a habitual way of perceiving, based on expectations
priming
a method used to measure unconscious cognitive processes, in which a person is exposed to information is later tested to see whether the information affects behavior or performance on another task or in another situation
parapsychology
the study of purported psychic phenomena such as ESP and mental telepathy.