Sensation/Perception Vocab

Autokinetic effect

when a small point of light is dark surroundings, making it seem to move.

Acuity

how sharp and clear a vision is.

Brightness

A psychological sensation caused by the intensity of light waves.

Stroboscopic motion

a series of similar but separate stimuli appearing quickly, giving the appearance of moving (like in a movie)

Pheromones

chemical signals released by organisms to communicate with other members of their species.

Afterimages

________**- Sensations (of colors) that linger after the stimulus is removed.

Cones

________- Photoreceptors in the retina that are especially sensitive to colors but not to dim light.

Vestibular

________ sense**- the sense of body position and movement of body parts relative to each other (where are your body parts located)

Perception

________- process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Rods

________- Photoreceptors in the retina that are especially sensitive to dim light but not to colors.

Color

________ is not a property of things in the external world; rather, is is a psychological sensation created in the brain from information obtained by the eyes from the wavelengths of visible light.

similar objects

Law of common fate- The brain groups ________ because they share a common motion or destination.

Cocktail party

________ effect- ability to attend to only one voice among many (and detecting your name in an unattended voice)

Timbre

________**- the quality of a sound wave that derives from the waves complexity (combination of pure tones)

Gestalt

________ psychology**- a pattern that the brain recognizes- also a theory that we organize incoming stimuli into meaningful perceptual patterns according to how our brains are structured from birth (innate)- underlying is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Transduction

________- conversion of one form of energy to another.

Selective attention

________- the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Cochlea

________**- primary organ of hearing; a coiled tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are transduced into nerve messages.

Frequency

________**- The number of vibrations or cycles the wave completes in a given amount of time.

neural impulses

Photoreceptors**- Light- sensitive cells (neurons) in the retina that convert light energy to ________.

Placebo

________ effect**- a response to a(n) ________ (a fake drug) caused by subjects belief that they are taking real drugs.

Place Theory

________**- Says that different frequencies activate different locations on the membrane, as they send out neural codes for different pitches to the auditory cortex of the brain.

Webers law JND

________ is proportional to size of a stimulus (ratio or percentage)- the difference is not linear.

visual system

The photoreceptors are as far as light gets into the ________.

retina

The ________ contains millions of photoreceptors and other nerve cells.

Skin senses

________**- sensory systems for processing touch, warmth, cold, texture, and pain.

Monocular cues depth info

________ received from only one eye.

Basilar membrane thin strip of tissue

________ running through the cochlea.

Optic

________ nerve**- The bundle of neurons that carries visual information from the retina to the brain.

Percept product of perception

________- something thats associated with concepts, memories of events, emotions, and motives.

sensory receptors

Sensation- process by which our ________ and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Nerve deafness

________- (also known as sensorineural hearing loss)- the inability to hear, linked to a deficit in the bodys ability to transmit impulses from the cochlea to the brian, usually involving the auditory nerve or higher auditory processing centers.

Signal detection theory theory

________ predicting how and when we detect the presence of a stimulus amid background stimulation.

Shape constancy

________- the brains ability to perceive a shape as the same even if its altered slightly.

**Sensory adaptation-**diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

occurs because our sensory system is built to notice changes

**Difference threshold-**Smallest amount a stimulus can be changed and difference is detected (just noticeable difference

JND)

Webers law- JND is proportional to size of a stimulus (ratio or percentage)

the difference is not linear

Three types

normal, nearsightedness, farsightedness

**Trichromatic theory-**we are sensitive to…three different colors

red, blue, and green

Nerve deafness-(also known as sensorineural hearing loss)

the inability to hear, linked to a deficit in the bodys ability to transmit impulses from the cochlea to the brian, usually involving the auditory nerve or higher auditory processing centers

**Percept-**product of perception

something thats associated with concepts, memories of events, emotions, and motives

Feature detectors- (important names Hubel and Wiesel did this research)

occipital cortex brain cells that identify parts of the human face

**Gestalt psychology-**a pattern that the brain recognizes

also a theory that we organize incoming stimuli into meaningful perceptual patterns according to how our brains are structured from birth (innate) -underlying is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts