Sensation And Perception

Front 1

sensation

Back 1

the sense organs' detection of and responses to external stimuli and the transmission of these responses to the brain

Front 2

perception

Back 2

the processing, organization, and interpretation of sensory signals; it results in an internal representation of the stimulus

Front 3

sensory coding

Back 3

our sensory organs' translations of stimuli's physical properties into neural impulses

Front 4

transduction

Back 4

a process by which sensory receptors produce neural impulses when they receive physical or chemical stimulation

Front 5

absolute threshold

Back 5

the minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before you experience a sensation

Front 6

difference threshold

Back 6

minimum amount of change required for a person to detect a difference

Front 7

Weber's Law

Back 7

the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion of the original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of difference

Front 8

signal detection theory (SDT)

Back 8

theory of perception based on the idea that the detection of a faint stimulus requires a judgment-it is not an all-or-none process

Front 9

sensory adaptation

Back 9

a decrease in sensivity to a constant level of stimulation

Front 10

gustation

Back 10

the sense of taste

Front 11

taste buds

Back 11

sensory receptors that transduce taste information

Front 12

olfaction

Back 12

the sense of smell, which occurs when receptors in the nose respond to chemicals

Front 13

olfactory epithelium

Back 13

the thin layer of tissue, within the basal cavity, that is embedded with smell receptors

Front 14

olfactory bulb

Back 14

the brain center for smell, located below the frontal lobes

Front 15

haptic sense

Back 15

sense of touch

Front 16

audition

Back 16

sense of sound perception

Front 17

sound wave

Back 17

the pattern of the changes in the air pressure through time that result in the percept of a sound

Front 18

eardrum (tympanic membrane)

Back 18

a thin membrane, which sound waves vibrate, that marks the beginning of the middle ear

Front 19

cornea

Back 19

the clear outer covering of the eye

Front 20

retina

Back 20

the thin inner surface of the back of the eyeball. the retina contains the photoreceptors that transduce light into neural signals

Front 21

pupil

Back 21

the small opening in the eye; it lets in light waves

Front 22

iris

Back 22

the colored muscular circle on the surface of the eye; it changes shape to let in more or less light

Front 23

rods

Back 23

retinal cells that respond to low levels of illumination and result in black-and-white perception

Front 24

cones

Back 24

retinal cells that respond to higher levels of illumination and result in color perception

Front 25

fovea

Back 25

the center of the retina, where cones are densely packed

Front 26

receptive field

Back 26

the region of visual space to which neurons in the primary visual cortex are sensitive

Front 27

lateral inhibition

Back 27

a visual process in which adjacent photoreceptors tend to inhibit one another

Front 28

subtractive color mixing

Back 28

a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which the mixture occurs within the stimulus itself and is actually a physical, non psychological, process

Front 29

additive color mixing

Back 29

a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which different wavelengths of lights are mixed. the percept is determined by the interaction of these wavelengths with receptors in the eye and is a psychological process

Front 30

kinesthetic sense

Back 30

perception of our limbs in space

Front 31

vestibular sense

Back 31

perception of balance

Front 32

Gestalt proximity

Back 32

states that the closer two figures are to each other, the more likely we are to group them and see them as part of the same object

Front 33

Gestalt similarity

Back 33

states that we tend to group figures according to how closely they resemble each other, whether in shape, color, or orientation

Front 34

Gestalt good continuation

Back 34

we tend to interpret intersecting lines as continuous rather than as changing direction radically

Front 35

Gestalt closure

Back 35

we tend to complete figures even when gaps exist

Front 36

Gestalt illusory contours

Back 36

we tend to perceive contours even when they do not exist

Front 37

binocular depth cues

Back 37

cues of depth perception that arise from the fact that people have two eyes

Front 38

monocular depth cues

Back 38

cues of depth perception that are available to each eye alone

Front 39

binocular disparity

Back 39

a cue of depth perception that is caused by the distance between a person's eyes, which provides each eye with a slightly different image