Sensation and Perception

Nearsightedness

Unable to see objects in the distance.

Farsightedness

Unable to see objects close to your eye.

inattentional blindness

The phenomenon of missing what’s right in front of your eyes.

parapsyhology

the study of paranormal phenomena

extrasensory perception (ESP)

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input, includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

embodied cognition

the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.

sensory interaction

the principle that one sense can influence another

vestibular sense

our balance sense- our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance

kinesthesia

our movement sense- our system for sensing the position and movement of the individual body parts.

olfaction

sense of smell

Gustation

sense of taste

posthypnotic suggestion

a suggestion made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out when the subject isn’t hypnotised anymore.

Dissociation

a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.

Hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur

Frequency Theory

in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. (Temporal coding)

Place Theory

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

cochlear implant

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

conduction hearing loss

A less common form of hearing loss, damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound to cochlea.

sensorineural hearing loss

the most common form of hearing loss, damage to the cochlea’s receptors or auditory nerve; also called nerve deafness

Inner ear

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

Cochlea

A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner-ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear

Middle Ear

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

pitch

a tone’s experienced highness or lowness: Depends on frequency.

Frequency

The number if complete wave-lengths that pass a point in given time

Audition

The sense or act of hearing

Sensation

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

sensory receptors

sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli

perception

the process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, enabling use to recognize objects and events as meaningfuk

bottom-up processing

information processing that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to our brain’s integration of sensory information

top-down processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as we construct perceptions drawing on our experiences and expectations.

transduction

conversion of one form of energy to another. In sensations, transforming taste,touch,sound into neural impulses our brain can interpret

psychophysics

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

absolute threshold

the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

signal detection theory

a theory predicting how and when the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivations and emotions.

Subliminal

below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Difference threshold

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. A noticeable difference

Weber’s Law

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

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations , thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response

Sensory Adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Wavelength

the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. From short blips of gamma rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.

Hue

the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light.

Intensity

the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness, is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height)

Retina

The light sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.

Accommodation

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

Rods

retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to movement. Necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.

Cones

retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Detects fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

Optic Nerve

Carries neural impulses from eye to brain.

Blindspot

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

Fovea

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

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

The theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors- one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue- which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

Opponent-process theory

The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. Some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.

Feature Detectors

nerve cells brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of stimulus, such as shape, angle of movement,

parallel processing

processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously

Gestalt

An organized whole. Pieces of informations into meaningful wholes.

Figure-ground

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

grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Depth Perception

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

Visual Cliff

A laboratory Device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. Created by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk (1960)

Binocular cue

A depth cue, such as retinal disparity, depends on the use of two eyes

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue for perceiving depth. Depends on the use of two eyes.

Monocular Cue

A depth cue available to either eye alone

Phi Phenomenon

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

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging (Same color, brightness, shape and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.

Perceptual Adaption

The ability to adjust to changed sensory input