UNIT 4 Vocab and Concepts

Question 1

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

Answer 1

Sensation

Question 2

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

Answer 2

Perception

Question 3

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information

Answer 3

Bottom-up processing

Question 4

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes such as when we construct perception drawing on our experience and expectations

Answer 4

Top-down processing

Question 5

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Answer 5

Selective attention

Question 6

Ability to attend to only one voice out of many

Answer 6

Cocktail party effect

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

1. Receive sensory information, often using specialized receptor cells
2. Transform that stimulation into neural impulses
   3.deliver the neural information to our brains

Answer 9

Transduction process

Question 10

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

Answer 10

Transduction

Question 11

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

Answer 11

Psychophysics

Question 12

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

Answer 12

Absolute threshold

Question 13

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a persons experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

Answer 13

Signal detection theory

Question 14

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Answer 14

Subliminal

Question 15

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing ones perception, memory, or response

Answer 15

Priming

Question 16

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the different threshold as just noticeable different or (JND)

Answer 16

Difference threshold

Question 17

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

Answer 17

Weber’s Law

Question 18

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Answer 18

Sensory adaptation

Question 19

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Answer 19

Perceptual set

Question 20

Claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Answer 20

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

Question 21

Mind-to-mind communication

Answer 21

Telepathy

Question 22

Perceiving remote events, such as a house on fire in another state

Answer 22

Clairvoyance

Question 23

Perceiving future events

Answer 23

Precognition

Question 24

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

Answer 24

Parapsychology

Question 25

The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmissions

Answer 25

Wavelength

Question 26

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

Answer 26

Hue

Question 27

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

Answer 27

Intensity

Question 28

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

Answer 28

Pupil

Question 29

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

Answer 29

Iris

Question 30

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

Answer 30

Lens

Question 31

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

Answer 31

Retina

Question 32

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

Answer 32

Accommodation

Question 33

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

Answer 33

Rods

Question 34

Retinal 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 sensation.

Answer 34

Cones

Question 35

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

Answer 35

Optic nerve

Question 36

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

Answer 36

Blind spot

Question 37

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

Answer 37

Fovea

Question 38

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

Answer 38

Feature detectors

Question 39

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brains natural mode of information processing for many functions including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.

Answer 39

Parallel processing

Question 40

An organized whole. These types of psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Answer 40

Gestalt

Question 41

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).

Answer 41

Figure-ground

Question 42

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Answer 42

Grouping

Question 43

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

Answer 43

Depth perception

Question 44

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

Answer 44

Visual cliff

Question 45

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

Answer 45

Binocular cues

Question 46

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance- the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer it is

Answer 46

Retinal disparity

Question 47

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

Answer 47

Monocular cues

Question 48

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

Answer 48

Phi phenomenon

Question 49

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having constant shapes, sizes, brightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change

Answer 49

Perceptual constancy

Question 50

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

Answer 50

Color constancy

Question 51

In vision, the ability to adjunct to an artificially displaces or even inverted visual field

Answer 51

Perceptual adaptation

Question 52

The sense or act of hearing

Answer 52

Audition

Question 53

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

Answer 53

Frequency

Question 54

A tones experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Answer 54

Pitch

Question 55

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

Answer 55

Middle ear

Question 56

A coiled, bony, fluid filled tribe in the inner ear; sound eaves traveling through the cochlear fluid tigger nerve impulses

Answer 56

Cochlea

Question 57

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

Answer 57

Inner ear

Question 58

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cojeas receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness

Answer 58

Sensorineural hearing loss

Question 59

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

Answer 59

Conduction hearing loss

Question 60

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

Answer 60

Cochlear implant

Question 61

In hearing, the theory that linked the pitch we hear where the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated

Answer 61

Place theory

Question 62

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

Answer 62

Frequency theory

Question 63

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 op[ned 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

Answer 63

Gate-control theory

Question 64

Sense of smell chain action of events -odors interact with receptors (hairs in nose) -nerve cells in nose convey information about stimulus to brain olfactory bulb - intimate connection in humans for memory and survival

Answer 64

Olfaction

Question 65

The system for sensing the position and movements of individual body parts

Answer 65

Kinesthesia

Question 66

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

Answer 66

Vestibular sense

Question 67

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

Answer 67

Sensory interaction

Question 68

In psychological science, the influence of bodily sensations, gestures and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements

Answer 68

Embodied cognition