Psychology Exam 2

Front 1

Sense (Definition)

Back 1

A System that translates information from outside the nervous system into neural activity.

Front 2

Sensation (Definition)

Back 2

Messages from the senses that make up the raw information that affect many kinds of behavior and mental processes

Front 3

Perception (Definition)

Back 3

The process through which people take raw sensations from the environment and interpret them, using knowledge, experience and understanding of the world, so that the sensations become meaningful experiences.

Front 4

Sensation vs. Perception

Back 4

Perception isn't just decoding of senses. It is our brains making sense of our sensations by using past experiences to fill in missing information.

Front 5

Elements of a Sensory System

Back 5

Energy contains info about the world
1Accessory structure modifies energy
2 Receptor transduces energy into neural activity
3. Sensory nerves transfer the neural activity to the central nervous system
4. Thalamus processes and relays the neural activity to the cerebral cortex
5. Cerebral cortex receives input and produces the sensation and perception.

Front 6

Coding (Definition)

Back 6

The translation of the physical properties of a stimulus into a pattern of nerve cell activity that specifically identifies those properties.

Front 7

Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

Back 7

The discovery that stimulation of a particular sensory nerve provides codes for that sense, no matter how the stimulation takes place

Front 8

Temporal vs. Spatial Codes

Back 8

Temporal reflects change in timing pattern like certain neurons firing faster in bright light than in dim light
Spatial code depends on locations of neurons firing. Like different sensory neurons will fire when someone touches your hand as opposed to your foot.

Front 9

Topographical Representations

Back 9

The cortex contains neural maps of each sense. these maps are organised so that features near eachother in the world are near eachother in the brain, two close auditory pitches stimulate neurons close to each other in the brain.

Front 10

Sound

Back 10

Repeated fluctuation, a rising and falling, in the pressure of air, water, or some other substance called a medium.

Front 11

accessory structures

Back 11

structures such as the lens of the eye that modify a stimulus

Front 12

transduction

Back 12

the process of converting incoming energy into neural activity

Front 13

neural receptors

Back 13

specialized cells that detect certain forms of energy and transduce them into nerve cell activity

Front 14

sensory adaptation

Back 14

the process through which responsiveness to an unchanging stimulus decreases over time

Front 15

encoding

Back 15

translating the physical properties of a stimulus into a pattern of nerve cell activity that specifically identifies those properties

Front 16

specific energy doctrine

Back 16

the discovery that stimulation of a particular sensory nerve provides codes for that sense no matter how the stimulation takes place

Front 17

sound

Back 17

a repetitive fluctuation in the pressure of a medium such as air

Front 18

amplitude

Back 18

the difference between the peak and the baseline of a waveform

Front 19

wavelength

Back 19

the number of complete waveforms, or cycles, that pass a give point in space every second

Front 20

frequency

Back 20

a psychological dimension of sound determined by the amplitude of a sound wave