Tony Lambert's Lectures

Front 1

Sensation

Back 1

The awareness of properties of an object of event that occurs when a type of receptor such as those at the back of the eye in the year or on the skin is stimulated

Front 2

Perception

Back 2

The act of organising the interpreting sensory input as signalling a particular object of even

Front 3

Psychophysics

Back 3

The study of the relation between physical events and the corresponding experience of those events

Front 4

Threshold

Back 4

The point at which stimulation is strong enough to be noticed

Front 5

Absolute threshold

Back 5

The smallest amount of stimulus needed in order to detect that the stimulus is present. (The change in ligh level might be so slight that sometimes you notice it and sometimes you don't.

Front 6

Just-noticeable difference

Back 6

The size of the difference in a stimulus property needed for the observer to notice that a change has occurred

Front 7

Webber's law

Back 7

The rule that a constant percentage of a magnitude change is necessary to detect a difference

Front 8

Signal detection theory

Back 8

A theory explaning why people detect signals independently of bias, the theory is based on the idea that signals are always embedded in noise, and thus the challenge is to distinguish signal from noise.

Front 9

Sensitivity

Back 9

In signal detection theory, the threshold level for distinguishing between a stimulus and noise, the lower the threshold the greater the sensitivity

Front 10

Bias

Back 10

In signal detection theory, a person's willingness to reprt noticing a stimulus

Front 11

Amplitude

Back 11

The height of the peaks in a light wave

Front 12

Frequency

Back 12

The number of waves per second that move past a given point

Front 13

Wavelength

Back 13

The distance between the arrival of peaks of a light wave measured in nanometers. Shorter wavelengths correspond to higher frequencies.

Front 14

Tranduction

Back 14

The process whereby physical energy is converted by a sensory neural into neural impulses

Front 15

Pupil

Back 15

The opening in the eye through which light passes

Front 16

Iris

Back 16

The circular muscle that adjusts the size of the pupil

Front 17

Cornea

Back 17

The transparent covering over the eye, which serves partly to focus the light into the back of the eye.

Front 18

Retina

Back 18

A sheet of tissue at the back oft he eye containing cells that convert light to neural impulses

Front 19

Fovea

Back 19

The small, central region of the retina with the highest density of cones and the highest resolution

Front 20

Rods

Back 20

Rod-shaped retinal cells that are very sensitive to light but register only shades of grey

Front 21

Cones

Back 21

Cone-shaped retinal cells that respond most strongly to one of three wave lengths of light, the combined outputs from cones that are most sensitive to different wavelengths play a key role in producing color vision.

Front 22

Optic nerve

Back 22

The large bundle of nerve fibres carrying impulses from the retina into the brain

Front 23

Dark adaptation

Back 23

The process whereby exposure to darkness causes the eyes to become more sensitive allowing for better vision in the dark.

Front 24

Opponent Process theory of color vision

Back 24

The theory that if a color is present, it causes cells that register it to inhibit the perception of complementary color such as red vs green)

Front 25

After image

Back 25

The image left behind by previous perception

Front 26

Opponent cells

Back 26

Cells that pit the colors in a pair, most notably blue/yellow or red/green against each other

Front 27

Color blindness

Back 27

An inability, either acquired (brain damage) or inherited to perceive certain hues.

Front 28

Figure

Back 28

In perception, a set of characteristics (such as shape, color, texture) that correspond to an object

Front 29

Ground

Back 29

In perception, the background which must be distinguished in order to pick out figures