Chapter 4 Vocab

Question 1

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

Answer 1

Parapsychology

Question 2

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

Answer 2

sensation

Question 3

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

Answer 3

Perception

Question 4

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the braids Integra geisha of sensory information

Answer 4

Bottom up processing

Question 5

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

Answer 5

Top down processing

Question 6

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Answer 6

Selective attention

Question 7

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Answer 7

Inattentional blindness

Question 8

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Answer 8

Change blindness

Question 9

The study of relationships between physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

Answer 9

Psychophysics

Question 10

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

Answer 10

Absolute threshold

Question 11

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation

Answer 11

Signal detection theory

Question 12

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Answer 12

Subliminal

Question 13

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response

Answer 13

Priming

Question 14

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold and just notable difference

Answer 14

Difference threshold

Question 15

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage

Answer 15

Webers law

Question 16

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Answer 16

Sensory adaptation

Question 17

Conversion of one form of energy into another. And sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret

Answer 17

Transduction

Question 18

The distance from the peak of one light or soundwave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths very from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of a radio transmission

Answer 18

Wavelength

Question 19

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light

Answer 19

Hue

Question 20

The amount of energy and a light or soundwave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness as a determined by the amplitude of the wave

Answer 20

Intensity

Question 21

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

Answer 21

Pupil

Question 22

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

Answer 22

Iris

Question 23

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

Answer 23

Lens

Question 24

The light sensitive inner surface on the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

Answer 24

Retina

Question 25

The process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Answer 25

Accommodation

Question 26

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, one cones to respond

Answer 26

Rods

Question 27

Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in the daylight or in the well lit conditions

Answer 27

Cones

Question 28

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

Answer 28

Optic nerve

Question 29

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot because no receptor cells are located there

Answer 29

Blind spot

Question 30

The central focus point in the retina, around which the eyes cones cluster

Answer 30

Fovea

Question 31

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

Answer 31

Feature detectors

Question 32

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brains natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

Answer 32

Parallel processing

Question 33

The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors one most sensitive to read one most sensitive to green and one most sensitive to blue. When stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color

Answer 33

Young Helmholtz trichromatic theory

Question 34

The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision.

Answer 34

Opponent process theory

Question 35

The sense or act of hearing

Answer 35

Audition

Question 36

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Answer 36

Frequency

Question 37

Hey tones experienced highness or lowness depends on frequency

Answer 37

Pitch

Question 38

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window

Answer 38

Middle ear

Question 39

A coiled, bony, fluid filled tube in the inner ear through which soundwaves trigger nerve impulses

Answer 39

Cochlea

Question 40

The innermost part of the year, containing the cochlea, semicircular Canal's, and vestibular sacs

Answer 40

Inner ear

Question 41

Did hearing, the theory that links the pitch we here with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

Answer 41

Place theory

Question 42

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 it's pitch

Answer 42

Frequency theory

Question 43

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts soundwaves to the cochlea

Answer 43

Conduction hearing loss

Question 44

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves

Answer 44

Sensorineural hearing loss

Question 45

A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

Answer 45

Cochlear implant

Question 46

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

Answer 46

Kinesthesis

Question 47

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

Answer 47

Vestibular sense

Question 48

The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain

Answer 48

Gate control theory

Question 49

The principle that one sends me influence another, as when the smell of food influences it's taste

Answer 49

Sensory interaction

Question 50

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Answer 50

Extrasensory perception

Question 51

And organized hole

Answer 51

Gestalt

Question 52

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

Answer 52

Figure ground

Question 53

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Answer 53

Grouping

Question 54

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

Answer 54

Depth perception

Question 55

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

Answer 55

Visual cliff

Question 56

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

Answer 56

Binocular cues

Question 57

A binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the retina is in the two eyes, the brain computes distance

Answer 57

Retinal disparity

Question 58

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either Eye alone

Answer 58

Monocular cues

Question 59

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

Answer 59

Phi phenomenon

Question 60

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Answer 60

Perceptual constancy

Question 61

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

Answer 61

Color constancy

Question 62

InVision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Answer 62

Perceptual adaptation

Question 63

And mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Answer 63

Perceptual set