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54 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Illusion |
Perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn't match it's physical reality |
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Sensation |
Detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain |
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Perception |
The brain's interpretation of raw sensory inputs |
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Transduction |
The process of converting an external energy or substance into electrical activity within neurons |
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Sense receptor |
Specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system |
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Sensory adaption |
Activation is greatest when a stimulus is first detected |
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Psychophysics |
The study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics |
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Absolute threshold |
Lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a charge 50 percent of the time |
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Just noticeable difference |
The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect |
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Weber's law |
There is a constant proportional relationship between the jnd and original stimulus intensity |
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Signal detection theory |
Theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions |
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Synesthesia |
A condition in which people experience cross - modal sensations |
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Parallel processing |
The ability to attend to many sense modalities simultaneously |
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Bottom up processing |
Processing in which a whole is constructed from parts |
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Top down processing |
Conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies |
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Perceptual set |
Set formed when expectations influence perceptions |
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Perceptual constancy |
The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions |
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Selective attention |
Process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimizing others |
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Inattentional blindness |
Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere |
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Subliminal perception |
Perception below the limen or threshold of conscious awareness |
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Pupil |
Circular hole through which light enters the eye |
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Cornea |
Part of the eye containing transparent cells that focus light on the retina |
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Lens |
Part of the eye that changes curvature to keep images in focus |
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Accommodation |
Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far |
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Retina |
Membrane at the back of the eye responsible for converting light into neural activity |
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Fovea |
Central portion of the retina |
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Acuity |
Sharpness of vision |
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Rods |
Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in low levels of light |
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Dark adaption |
Time in dark before rods regain maximum light sensitivity |
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Cones |
Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in colour |
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Optic nerve |
Nerve that travels from the retina to the brain |
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Blind spot |
Region of the retina containing no rods and completely devoid of sense receptors |
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Feature detector cell |
Cell that detects lines and edges |
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Trichromatic theory |
Idea that colour vision is based on our sensitivity to three primary colours |
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Colour blindness |
Inability to see some or all colours |
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Depth perception |
Ability to judge distance and 3D relations |
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Monocular depth cues |
Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye |
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Binocular depth cues |
Stimuli that enables us to judge depth using both eyes |
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Audition |
Our sense of hearing |
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Timbre |
Complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices, or other sources sound unique |
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Cochlea |
Bony, spiral - shaped sense organ used for hearing |
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Organ of Corti |
Tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing |
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Basilar membrane |
Membrane supporting the organ of corti and hair cells in the cochlea |
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Place theory |
A specific place along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch |
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Frequency theory |
Rate at which neurons fire action potentials faithfully reproduce the pitch |
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Olfaction |
Our sense of smell |
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Gustation |
Our sense of taste |
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Taste bud |
Sense receptor in the tongue that responds to sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami and perhaps fat |
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Somatosensory |
Our sense of touch, temperature, and pain |
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Gate control model |
Idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in spinal cord |
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Phantom pain |
Pain or discomfort felt in an amputated limb |
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Proprioception |
Our sense of body position |
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Vestibular sense |
Our sense of equilibrium or balance |
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Semicircular canals |
Three fluid - filled canals in the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance |