Terms

Question 1

sensory adaptation

Answer 1

the reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness that occurs when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious

Question 2

sensory deprivation

Answer 2

the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation

Question 3

selective attention

Answer 3

the focus of attention on selected aspects of the environment and the blocking out of others

Question 4

signal detection theory

Answer 4

a psychological theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process

Question 5

difference threshold

Answer 5

the smallest difference in stimulation that can reliably be detected by on observer when two stimuli are compared; aka notable difference

Question 6

saturation

Answer 6

vividness or purity of color; the dimension of visual experience related to the complexity of light waves

Question 7

sensation

Answer 7

the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects, it occurs when energy in the external environment or the body stimulates receptors in the sense organs

Question 8

perception

Answer 8

the process by which the brain organizes and inputs sensory information

Question 9

absolute threshold

Answer 9

the smallest quantity of a physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer

Question 10

doctrine of specific nerve endings

Answer 10

theory that different sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing, exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain

Question 11

dark adaptation

Answer 11

process by which visual receptors become maximally sensitive to dim light

Question 12

feature detectors

Answer 12

cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific features in the environment

Question 13

trichromatic theory

Answer 13

theory of color perception which proposes three mechanisms in the visual system, each sensitive to a certain range of wavelengths; their interaction is assumed to produce all the difference variances of hue

Question 14

opponent process theory

Answer 14

a theory of color perception which assumes that the visual system treats pairs of colors as opposing or asntagonistic

Question 15

gastalt principles

Answer 15

principles that describe the brain’s organization of sensory building blocks into meaningful units and patterns

Question 16

binocular cues

Answer 16

visual cues to depth or distance requiring two eyes

Question 17

figure-ground

Answer 17

the figure is in focus and stands out and the background is blurrier

Question 18

retinal disparity

Answer 18

slight difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen between the eyes

Question 19

perceptual constancy

Answer 19

the accurate perception of objects as stable or unchanged despite changes in the sensory patterns they produce

Question 20

perceptual set

Answer 20

habitual way of perceiving based on expectations

Question 21

neuromatrix theory

Answer 21

theory that a matrix of neurons in the brain is capable of generating pain and sensation in the absence of signals from sensory nerves

Question 22

gate control theory

Answer 22

theory that experience of pain depends in part on whether pain impulses get past a neurological gate in the spinal cord and thus reach the brain

Question 23

subliminal perception

Answer 23

perceiving something we are not consciously aware of

Question 24

visual cliff

Answer 24

investigate depth perception