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64 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
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Sensation
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The process of organising and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognise meaningful objects and events.
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Perception
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Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information
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Bottom-Up Processing
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Info processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perception drawing on our experience and expectation
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Top-Down Processing
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The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them
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Psychophysics
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The mimimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time
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Absolute Threshold
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A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectation, motivation, and level of fatigue.
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Signal Detection Theory
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Below one's absolute threshold for concious awareness
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Subliminal
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the activation, often unconciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
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Priming
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the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time; experienced as the "just noticeable difference"
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Difference Threshold
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The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage
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Weber's Law
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diminished sensativity as a consequence of contant stimulation
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Sensory Adaptation
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Conversion of one form of energy into another
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Transduction
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The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next
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Wavelength
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the dimension of colour that is determined by the wavelength of light
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Hue
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the amount of energy in a light or sounds wave, which we percieve as brightness or oloudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude
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Intensity
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the adjustable opening in the centre of the eye through which light enters
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Pupil
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a ring of muscle tissue that forms the coloured portion of the eye around the pupil and controld the size of the pupil opening
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Iris
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the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina
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Lens
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the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information
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Retina
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The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina
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Accommodation
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Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond
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Rods
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retinal receptors cells that are concentrated near the centre of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; detect find detail and give rise to colour sensation
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Cones
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the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
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Optic Nerve
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the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye; no receptor cells are located there
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Blind Spot
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the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster
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Fovea
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nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimuluos such as shape, angle, or movement
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Feature Detectors
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The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously
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Parallel Processing
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the theory that the retina contains three different colour recptors which, when stimulated in combonation, can produce the perception of any colour
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Young-Heimholtz trichomatic (three-colour) theory
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the theory that opposing retinal processes enable colour vision
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Opponent-Process Theory
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The sense or act of hearing
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Audition
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coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses
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Cochlea
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contains three tiny bones(hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window
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Middle Ear
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contains cochlea, semicicular cannals, and vestibular sacs
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Inner Ear
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___ channels the sound wavesthrough the ___ to the ___, a tight membrane that vibrates with the waves
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Outer ear; auditory canal; eardrum
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incoming vibration cause the cochlea's membrane (the ___) to vibrate, causing ripples in the ___ bending the ___ lining its surface.
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oval window; basicular membrane; hair cells
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The ___ sends neural messages via the ___ to the ___ lobe's ___
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auditory nerve; thalamus; temporal; auditory cortex
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the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated
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Place Theory
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The theory that the rate of nerve impulses travelling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch
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Frequency theory
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hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea
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Conduction Hearing Loss
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hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; (nerve deafness)
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Sensorineural Hearing Loss
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a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
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Cochlear Implant
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the term for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
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Kinethesis
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the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance
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Vestibular Sense
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the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
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Gate-Control Theory
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the principle that one sense may influence another
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Sensory Interaction
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An organised whole; emphasis on our tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes
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Gestalt
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The perceptual tendency to organise stimuli into coherent groups
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Grouping
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The ability to see objects in three dimension although the images that strike the retina are two-dimension; allows us to judge distance
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Depth Perception
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lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
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Visual Cliff
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Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes
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Binocular cues
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A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the greater the disparity between two images, the closer the object
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Retinal Disparity
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Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone
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monocular cues
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an illusion of movement when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
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Phi Phenomenon
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Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change
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Perceptual Constancy
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In vision, the ability to adjust to an artifically displaced or even inverted visual field
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Perceptual Adaptation
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A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
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Perceptual Set
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A branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environment can be made safe and easy to use
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Human Factors Psychology
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the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory inpu; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition
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Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
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Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent colour
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Colour Constancy
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The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis
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Parapsychology
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The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
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Frequency
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A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
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Pitch
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The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
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Figure-Ground Theory
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