EXam 2

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Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Example: Feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. Example: Recognizing your friend's face in a crowd.

Sensory Receptors

Specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli from the environment. Example: Nociceptors detecting pain from a hot stove.

Nociceptors

Sensory receptors that detect harmful stimuli, sending signals to the spinal cord and brain, which interprets it as pain. Example: Feeling pain when you accidentally cut your finger.

Transduction

The process of converting one form of energy into another. In sensation, it refers to transforming stimulus energies (like sights or sounds) into neural impulses. Example: Light energy being converted into neural signals in the eyes.

Taste (Gustation)

The sense involving the detection of basic flavors, which can be influenced by learning, expectations, and bias. Example: Sweet (energy source), salty (needed for body functions), bitter (possibly poisonous).

Sweet Taste

Indicates an energy source. Example: Tasting sugar in a piece of candy.

Salty Taste

Indicates sodium, essential for physiological processes. Example: Tasting salt in pretzels.

Sour Taste

Indicates potentially toxic acid. Example: Tasting lemon juice, which is sour and acidic.

Bitter Taste

Indicates possible poisons. Example: Tasting dark chocolate, which can have a bitter flavor.

Umami Taste

Indicates proteins to help grow and repair tissue. Example: Tasting the savory flavor of a cooked steak.

Olfaction (Smell)

The sense of smell, which detects chemical molecules. Example: Smelling freshly baked cookies.

Kinesthesia

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. Example: Knowing your hand is moving without looking at it.

Vestibular Sense

The sense of body movement and position, including balance. Example: Feeling dizzy after spinning around in circles.

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

The claim that perception can occur without sensory input. Common types include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. Example: Someone claiming to predict the future.

Telepathy

Communicating thoughts directly from one person's mind to another without using known senses. Example: Believing you can send thoughts to a friend without speaking.

Clairvoyance

The ability to perceive events happening somewhere else. Example: Someone claiming they can 'see' a car accident happening in another city.

Precognition

The ability to predict future events. Example: Predicting an event before it happens, like knowing a surprise party is planned.

Absolute Threshold

The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. Example: Being able to hear the tick of a clock in a quiet room.

Difference Threshold

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time (also called the 'just noticeable difference'). Example: Detecting a slight change in the brightness of a light.

Signal Detection Theory

Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background noise. Example: Hearing your name in a noisy room.

Sensory Adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation. Example: Not noticing the smell of your own house after a while.

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. Example: Expecting to see a snake in tall grass and mistaking a stick for a snake.

Wavelength

The distance between two peaks of a wave; determines color in light waves and pitch in sound waves. Example: Short wavelengths are blue, while long wavelengths are red.

Hue

The color that is determined by the wavelength of light. Example: The sky appearing blue due to the shorter wavelength of light.

Intensity

The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, perceived as brightness or loudness. Example: A flashlight's brightness can be adjusted to different intensities.

Retina

The light

Rods

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and night vision. Example: Seeing in dim light when walking around at night.

Cones

Retinal receptors that detect color and are responsible for sharp vision, especially in bright light. Example: Seeing vibrant colors on a sunny day.

Olfactory Bulb

The part of the brain that processes information about smells. Example: The smell of roses is detected by the olfactory bulb in the nose.

Optic Nerve

The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. Example: Visual information from the retina travels through the optic nerve to the brain for processing.

Blind Spot

The point where the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a 'blind' spot because no receptor cells are located there. Example: You can't see a specific small area in your field of vision because of the blind spot.

Fovea

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster. Example: The fovea allows you to see details sharply, like reading small print.

Young

Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

Opponent

Process Theory

Feature Detectors

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. Example: Specific neurons respond to the edges and angles of a cube when you look at it.

Parallel Processing

The brain's ability to process many aspects of a problem or visual scene simultaneously. Example: When looking at a car, you can recognize its shape, color, and motion all at once.

Gestalt

An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts. Example: When looking at a drawing of an incomplete circle, your brain fills in the missing parts to perceive it as a whole circle.

Figure

Ground

Grouping

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. Example: Grouping a set of dots into a line based on their proximity.

Depth Perception

The ability to see objects in three dimensions and judge distance, although the image on the retina is two

Visual Cliff

A laboratory device used to test depth perception in infants and young animals. Example: A baby may hesitate to crawl across a glass table that simulates a cliff, showing their depth perception.

Binocular Cue

A depth cue that requires both eyes, like retinal disparity, to judge distance. Example: Seeing a slight difference between what each eye sees helps you perceive depth.

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue for perceiving depth, by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes. Example: The closer an object is, the more your eyes' images differ, which helps you judge its distance.

Monocular Cue

A depth cue available to either eye alone, such as size or linear perspective. Example: Objects farther away appear smaller, a monocular cue for depth.

Phi Phenomenon

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession. Example: Seeing a row of lights appear to 'move' across a sign.

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shape, size, brightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change. Example: Recognizing a door as rectangular even when it's partially open and appears differently shaped.

Perceptual Adaptation

The ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or inverted visual field. Example: If you wear glasses that flip the world upside down, your brain will eventually adapt to see the world right

Audition

The sense or act of hearing. Example: Listening to music uses the sense of audition.

Frequency (Sound)

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time, determining pitch. Example: Higher frequencies result in a higher

Pitch

A tone's experienced highness or lowness, depending on the frequency. Example: A flute produces high

Middle Ear

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) that transmit vibrations to the cochlea. Example: The middle ear bones amplify sound vibrations coming from the eardrum.

Cochlea

A coiled, fluid

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or the auditory nerves. Example: Prolonged exposure to loud noise can lead to this type of hearing loss.

Conduction Hearing Loss

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. Example: An ear infection that damages the eardrum can result in conduction hearing loss.

Gate

Control Theory

Hypnosis

A social interaction where one person responds to suggestions that certain thoughts, feelings, or behaviors will occur. Example: A person under hypnosis might be suggested to feel no pain during a dental procedure.

Dissociation

A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others. Example: Driving while daydreaming and not remembering the last few miles of the trip.

Posthypnotic Suggestion

A suggestion made during hypnosis to be carried out after the session ends. Example: A person might be hypnotized to no longer crave cigarettes after the session ends.

Sensory Interaction

The principle that one sense may influence another. Example: The smell of food can affect how it tastes.

Embodied Cognition

The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments. Example: Feeling cold can make someone judge others as emotionally distant.

Parapsychology

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis. Example: Studying telepathy or mind reading as part of parapsychology research.

Learning

The process of getting new information or behaviors through experience.

Associative Learning

Learning that two things happen together, like two events or a behavior and its outcome.

Stimulus

Something that causes a response or reaction.

Respondent Behavior

An automatic reaction to a stimulus.

Operant Behavior

Behavior that you control, and it causes a consequence (reward or punishment).

Cognitive Learning

Learning by watching others, thinking, or using language.

Classical Conditioning

Learning to connect two things so that one predicts the other.

Behaviorism

The idea that psychology should focus only on behaviors, not thoughts or feelings.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that doesn't cause any specific response before learning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

A natural reaction that happens without learning.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Something that naturally causes a response without any learning.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned reaction to something that used to be neutral.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Something that used to be neutral but now triggers a learned response.

Acquisition

The first stage of learning when a neutral stimulus starts to cause a conditioned response.

Extinction

The gradual fading of a learned response when the unconditioned stimulus doesn't follow.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a learned response after a break.

Generalization

Responding the same way to similar stimuli.

Discrimination

Learning to tell the difference between different stimuli.

Operant Conditioning

Learning where behavior is shaped by rewards or punishments.

Law of Effect

Behaviors followed by good outcomes are more likely to happen again.

Operant Chamber

A box used to study operant conditioning by teaching animals to press levers for food.

Reinforcement

Anything that increases the chance of a behavior happening again.

Shaping

Gradually guiding behavior toward a goal by rewarding small steps.

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something good to increase a behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

Removing something bad to increase a behavior.

Primary Reinforcer

Something naturally rewarding, like food or water.

Conditioned Reinforcer

Something rewarding because it's linked to a primary reinforcer.

Reinforcement Schedule

A plan for how often a behavior will be reinforced.

Continuous Reinforcement Schedule

Reinforcing a behavior every time it happens.

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedule

Only reinforcing a behavior some of the time.

Fixed

Ratio Schedule

Variable

Ratio Schedule

Fixed

Interval Schedule

Variable

Interval Schedule

Punishment

Something that decreases the chance of a behavior happening again.

Preparedness

The idea that we are biologically ready to learn certain behaviors more easily.

Instinctive Drift

When animals revert to their natural behaviors after being conditioned.

Cognitive Map

A mental picture of a place or layout.