Sensation and perception - Vocabulary Noba

Question 1

What is the absolute threshold?

Answer 1

The smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense.

Question 2

What is agnosia?

Answer 2

Loss of the ability to perceive stimuli.

Question 3

What is anosmia?

Answer 3

Loss of the ability to smell.

Question 4

What is audition?

Answer 4

Ability to process auditory stimuli. Also called hearing.

Question 5

What is the auditory canal?

Answer 5

Tube running from the outer ear to the middle ear.

Question 6

What are auditory hair cells?

Answer 6

Receptors in the cochlea that transduce sound into electrical potentials.

Question 7

What is binocular disparity?

Answer 7

Difference in images processed by the left and right eyes.

Question 8

What is binocular vision?

Answer 8

Our ability to perceive 3D and depth because of the difference between the images on each of our retinas.

Question 9

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 9

Building up to perceptual experience from individual pieces.

Question 10

What are chemical senses?

Answer 10

Our ability to process the environmental stimuli of smell and taste.

Question 11

What is the cochlea?

Answer 11

Spiral bone structure in the inner ear containing auditory hair cells.

Question 12

What are cones?

Answer 12

Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to color. Located primarily in the fovea.

Question 13

What is dark adaptation?

Answer 13

Adjustment of eye to low levels of light.

Question 14

What is the differential threshold?

Answer 14

The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli.

Question 15

What is the dorsal pathway?

Answer 15

Pathway of visual processing. The ‘where’ pathway.

Question 16

What is flavor?

Answer 16

The combination of smell and taste.

Question 17

What is gustation?

Answer 17

Ability to process gustatory stimuli. Also called taste.

Question 18

What is just noticeable difference (JND)?

Answer 18

The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli.

Question 19

What is light adaptation?

Answer 19

Adjustment of eye to high levels of light.

Question 20

What are mechanoreceptors?

Answer 20

Mechanical sensory receptors in the skin that respond to tactile stimulation.

Question 21

What is multimodal perception?

Answer 21

The effects that concurrent stimulation in more than one sensory modality has on the perception of events and objects in the world.

Question 22

What is nociception?

Answer 22

Our ability to sense pain.

Question 23

What are odorants?

Answer 23

Chemicals transduced by olfactory receptors.

Question 24

What is olfaction?

Answer 24

Ability to process olfactory stimuli. Also called smell.

Question 25

What is the olfactory epithelium?

Answer 25

Organ containing olfactory receptors.

Question 26

What is the opponent-process theory?

Answer 26

Theory proposing color vision as influenced by cells responsive to pairs of colors.

Question 27

What are ossicles?

Answer 27

A collection of three small bones in the middle ear that vibrate against the tympanic membrane.

Question 28

What is perception?

Answer 28

The psychological process of interpreting sensory information.

Question 29

What is a phantom limb?

Answer 29

The perception that a missing limb still exists.

Question 30

What is phantom limb pain?

Answer 30

Pain in a limb that no longer exists.

Question 31

What is the pinna?

Answer 31

Outermost portion of the ear.

Question 32

What is the primary auditory cortex?

Answer 32

Area of the cortex involved in processing auditory stimuli.

Question 33

What is the primary somatosensory cortex?

Answer 33

Area of the cortex involved in processing somatosensory stimuli.

Question 34

What is the primary visual cortex?

Answer 34

Area of the cortex involved in processing visual stimuli.

Question 35

What is the principle of inverse effectiveness?

Answer 35

The finding that, in general, for a multimodal stimulus, if the response to each unimodal component (on its own) is weak, then the opportunity for multisensory enhancement is very large.

Question 36

What is the retina?

Answer 36

Cell layer in the back of the eye containing photoreceptors.

Question 37

What are rods?

Answer 37

Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to low levels of light. Located around the fovea.

Question 38

What is sensation?

Answer 38

The physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs.

Question 39

What is sensory adaptation?

Answer 39

Decrease in sensitivity of a receptor to a stimulus after constant stimulation.

Question 40

What is the shape theory of olfaction?

Answer 40

Theory proposing that odorants of different size and shape correspond to different smells.

Question 41

What is signal detection?

Answer 41

Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli.

Question 42

What is somatosensation?

Answer 42

Ability to sense touch, pain, and temperature.

Question 43

What is the somatotopic map?

Answer 43

Organization of the primary somatosensory cortex maintaining a representation of the arrangement of the body.

Question 44

What are sound waves?

Answer 44

Changes in air pressure. The physical stimulus for audition.

Question 45

What is the superadditive effect of multisensory integration?

Answer 45

The finding that responses to multimodal stimuli are typically greater than the sum of the independent responses to each unimodal component.

Question 46

What are tastants?

Answer 46

Chemicals transduced by taste receptor cells.

Question 47

What are taste receptor cells?

Answer 47

Receptors that transduce gustatory information.

Question 48

What is top-down processing?

Answer 48

Experience influencing the perception of stimuli.

Question 49

What is transduction?

Answer 49

The conversion of one form of energy into another.

Question 50

What is the trichromatic theory?

Answer 50

Theory proposing color vision as influenced by three different cones responding preferentially to red, green, and blue.

Question 51

What is the tympanic membrane?

Answer 51

Thin, stretched membrane in the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound. Also called the eardrum.

Question 52

What is the ventral pathway?

Answer 52

Pathway of visual processing. The 'what' pathway.

Question 53

What is the vestibular system?

Answer 53

Parts of the inner ear involved in balance.

Question 54

What is Weber’s law?

Answer 54

States that just noticeable difference is proportional to the magnitude of the initial stimulus.