AP Psychology - Unit 1.5 Vocabulary #2

Middle ear

the chamber between the emotion and cochlea containing the three tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window

Cochlea

a coiled, body, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses

Inner ear

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

Sensorineural hearing loss

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

Conduction hearing loss

a less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

Cochlear implant

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

Place theory

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

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

Gate-control theory

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 opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is

Kinesthesis

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

Vestibular sense

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

Sensory interaction

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

Embodied cognition

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

Selective attention

focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness

Perceptual set

a mental predisposition to receive one thing and not another

Gestalt

an organized whole. gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Figure-ground

the organization of the visual field 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

Binocular cue

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

Convergence

a cue to nearby objects’ distance, enabled by the brain combining retinal images

Retinal disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth. by comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance — the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object

Monocular cue

a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone

Stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continuous movement (as in a motion picture) experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images

Phi phenomenon

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

Autokinetic effect

the illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

Perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

Color constancy

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

Perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field