Sensation And Perception Vocabulary

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Absolute Threshold

Back 1

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

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Accommodation

Back 2

(perceptual) - The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

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Acuity

Back 3

The sharpness of vision.

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Anosmia

Back 4

The inability to smell.

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Audition

Back 5

The sense of hearing.

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Basilar Membrane

Back 6

Runs the length of the spiraled cochlea, holds the auditory receptors.

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Binocular Cues

Back 7

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes.

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Blind Spot

Back 8

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye and does not contain receptor cells.

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Bottom-up Processing

Back 9

Analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

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Cochlea

Back 10

A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses.

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Cocktail Party Effect

Back 11

The ability to attend selectively to only one voice among many.

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Color Constancy

Back 12

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

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Conduction Hearing Loss

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Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

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Cones

Back 14

Receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. They detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

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Convergence

Back 15

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes turn inward when looking at an object.

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Cornea

Back 16

The curved, transparent, protective layer through which light rays enter the eye.

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Dark Adaptation

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The process in which the eyes become more sensitive to light in low illumination.

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Depth Perception

Back 18

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

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Difference Threshold

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The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. (Also called just noticeable difference or jnd.)

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Eardrum

Back 20

The thin, semitransparent, oval-shaped membrane that separates the middle ear from the external ear.

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Extrasensory Perception

Back 21

(ESP) - The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

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Farsightedness

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A condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly than near objects because the image of near objects is focused behind the retina.

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Feature Detectors

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Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.

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Figure-ground

Back 24

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.

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Fovea

Back 25

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster.

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Frequency

Back 26

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second).

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Frequency Theory

Back 27

In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch.

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Gate-control Theory

Back 28

The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.

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Gestalt

Back 29

An organized whole. Emphasizes our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

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Grouping

Back 30

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

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Habituation

Back 31

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.

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Hue

Back 32

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.

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Human Factors Psychology

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A branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be adapted to human behaviors.

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Inner Ear

Back 34

The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.

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Intensity

Back 35

The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude.

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Iris

Back 36

A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.

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Kinesthesis

Back 37

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

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Lens

Back 38

The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.

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Middle Ear

Back 39

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window.

Front 40

Monocular Cues

Back 40

Distance cues, such as linear perspective and overlap, available to either eye alone.

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Motion Parallax

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(relative motion) - Monocular cue for depth that involves images of objects at different distances moving across the retina at different rates.

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Nearsightedness

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A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in front of the retina.

Front 43

Olfaction

Back 43

The sense of smell.

Front 44

Opponent-process Theory

Back 44

(color) - The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.

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Optic Nerve

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The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

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Parallel Processing

Back 46

The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

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Parapsychology

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The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.

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Perception

Back 48

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

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Perceptual Adaptation

Back 49

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

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Perceptual Constancy

Back 50

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.

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Perceptual Set

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A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

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Pheromones

Back 52

Chemicals released by one animal and detected by another that shape the second animal's behavior or physiology.

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Phi Phenomenon

Back 53

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession.

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Pitch

Back 54

A tone's highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

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Place Theory

Back 55

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated.

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Psychophysics

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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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Pupil

Back 57

The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.

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Retina

Back 58

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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Retinal Disparity

Back 59

A binocular cue for perceiving depth: By comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance - the greater the difference between the two images, the closer the object.

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Rods

Back 60

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond.

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Selective Attention

Back 61

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect.

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Sensation

Back 62

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

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Sensorineural Hearing Loss

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Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.

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Sensory Adaptation

Back 64

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

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Sensory Interaction

Back 65

The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.

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Shape Constancy

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Refers to our perceiving an object as retaining its shape even when the shape it casts on the retina changes.

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Signal Detection Theory

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A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue.

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Size Constancy

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The perception that an object remains the same size despite changes in the size of the proximal stimulus on the retina.

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Stroboscopic Motion

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An illusion in which images flashed in rapid succession are perceived as moving.

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Subliminal Perception

Back 70

The registration of sensory input without conscious awareness. Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

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Taste Buds

Back 71

Clusters that contain taste-receptor cells located inside the small visible protrusions on the tongue.

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Top-down Processing

Back 72

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

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Transduction

Back 73

Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses.

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Trichromatic Theory

Back 74

(Young-Helmholtz) - The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue - which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color.

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Vestibular Sense

Back 75

The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.

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Visual Capture

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The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses.

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Visual Cliff

Back 77

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

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Wavelength

Back 78

The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.

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Weber's Law

Back 79

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).