Sensory Processes Vocabulary Flashcards
(40 cards)
The tough, protective outer covering of the eye
Sclera
The specialized part of the sclera at the front of the eye that allows light to pass into the eye. Produces most of the refraction used to focus an image
Cornea
The pigmented layer that defines the pupil.
iris
A hole in the iris that adjusts to admit only rays of light that can be focused. the size of this structure adjusts as you change your gaze among objects at different distances
Pupil
An elastic structure behind the iris that also changes its properties in order to focus an image as you gaze among objects at different distance. Makes small adjustments to the amount of refraction
Lens
the complex layer of neural tissue that covers the back of the eye. the surface where a focused image is formed so that we may see.
Retina
the blur that necessarily results from different wavelengths of light refracting different amounts. Ameliorated for high acuity by concentrating on having a highly focused image in the fovea and by removing wavelengths that cannot be focused when the other wavelengths are focused. Light is removed by having pigment in the lens and in the area around the fovea to absorb the light. Removing ‘blue’ from white light yields the experience of yellow; the lens and fovea are tinted yellow.
chromatic aberration
An innervation pattern that allows the activity in one cell to reduce (inhibit) the report rom neighboring (to the side – lateral) cells. This mututal interaction causes the report from the set of cells to accentuate differences (contrast) in their responses, which makes the identification of difference easier. this helps us see edges/borders, improving our ability to correctly perceive objects in the world.
Lateral inhibition
The more brain given to an analysis, the better the analysis. the term given to the disproportional representation in cortex of some sensory input, yeiling great sensitivity and resolution in the analysis. In vision, the output of the fovea receives such preferential analysis. In the somatic senses, the hands and mouth are represented in much larger proportions in the parietal lobe homunculus that their size in the body.
cortical magnification
A Twentieth Century school of psychology that focused on complete systems. It was particularly successful in its study of how the mind organized sensations into perceptions, forming something that may be greater that the sum of its parts. It arose in response to what it perceived as the great error of the behaviorist/empiricist approach.
Gestalt psychology
The Gestalt psychologist studied two catefgories of rules for performing an interpretive analysis. One category describes how a person determines what features belong with each other to define an object (organization principles for the perception of form). the second describes properties (perceptual constancies) that we attribute to objects. The 6-month old infant has acquired both.
Gestalt principles
According to Gestalt psychology, features that are alike will tend to be perceived to belong to a single form. May be based on any aspect of the stimulus: shape, color, motion, etc. will tend to yield a perceptual joining of the similar features
Similarity
According to Gestalt psychology, features that are near each other will rend to be perceived to belong to a single form. By altering the space between features, we alter the perceptual organization.
Proximity
According to Gestalt psychology, we interpret the sensory input from the world with the minimal complexity necessary. Even when we have observed manipulations that reveal the true complexity of a scene, our perception is always of minimal complexity.
Simplicity
According to Gestalt psychology, the aspect of the object concept that states that the size of an object is not subject to rapid change. When the image on an object rapidly changes, this concept eliminates the possibility that the change in the image is due to a change in the object itself, leading to a perception of a change in the distance of the object.
Size constancy
According to Gestalt psychology, the aspect of the object concept that states that the shape of an object is not subject to rapid change. When the image of an object rapidly changes, this concept eliminates the possibility that the change in the image is due to a change in the object itself, leading to a perception of a change in the orientation of the object or the interposition of another object obscuring the view of the original object.
Shape constancy
Cells that are activated by specific characteristic in the environment.
Feature detectors
A form of passive analysis that involves the simultaneous analysis of the possible existence of a wide array of features by different processors (parallel processing). The presence of a particular feature is indicated by a particular processing being highly activated by the stimulus (while other processors respond little or not at all).
Feature analysis
Involves the active, inductive construction of a hypothesis about what would be happening in the world that would give rise to the features represented in the various sensory areas of the brain. An unconscious analysis of the information provided about the external world by the sensory systems in order to ‘take a guess’ as what things in the world actually are. This was recognized by von Helmholtz when he described perception as a process of ‘unconscious inference.”
Interpretive analysis
Allow people to perceive depth relations with information available to a single eye. Interpreted as indicators of depth relaitons (active analysis), as opposed to retinal disparity, which, through the process of stereopsis, gives us a passive analysis perception of depth.
Pictorial cues
A laboratory device, developed by Eleanor Gibson, for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. Gibson’s experiments proved that by the time they were old enough to crawl, infants had learned depth perception.
visual cliff
This concept has three parts:
- ) two eyes ‘see” different parts of the world 9each eye ‘sees’ across about 120 degrees, but they overlap only for 60 degrees)
- ) even when viewing the same object, the views of the object are slightly different (the object is seen at slightly different angles)
- ) the image of a single object generally falls in different locations in the two eyes.
Must exist to give us the psychological experience of feeling that we are present in a three dimensional world.
Binocular disparity
A difference in the positions of the images on the two retinas
Retinal disparity
Any factor that allows us to tell two lights apart in the absence of any characteristics such as the shape or texture (judging just the light themselves)
Light
