Psychology Unit 4

Vision

the ability to see

audition

the sense or act of hearing

gustation

sense of taste

cones

color

rods

retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray

fovea

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

cochlea

a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

retinal disparity

a binoculars cue for perceiving depth by comparing images from the retinas in the 2 eyes, the brain computes distance—the greater the disparity (difference) between the 2 images, the closer the object.

bottom-up processing

the analysis of the smaller features to build up to a complete perception.

top-down processing

using past knowledge to create or organize

place theory

in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated

frequency theory

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

volley theory

the view that some sounds are coded by matching the frequency of neural firing

prospagnosia

inability to recognize faces

What is perception?

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.

What is sensory adaptation?

Reduced sensitivity to a stimulus after prolonged exposure to it.

What is the difference threshold?

The smallest change in a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time.

What are photoreceptors?

Cells in the retina that respond to light.

What is the visual cliff?

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

What is depth perception?

The ability to perceive the distance of objects.

What is form perception?

The recognition of shapes and objects in our visual field.

What is selective attention?

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

What is signal detection theory?

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation.

What is the Stroop effect?

A demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task.