Sensation and Perception Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering sensation, perception, visual/auditory mechanisms, depth cues, and sensory modalities based on the lecture notes.

Synesthesia

So when something triggers one of our sense and triggers another A condition where one sense or attribute of a stimulus causes an additional experience in another sense.

Sensation

The process where sense organs detect information from the environment.

Perception

The process where the brain organizes, identifies, and interprets sensory information to create a meaningful experience.

Transduction

 is when sensory receptors change physical energy into neural signals that the brain can understand.

Psychophysics

The study of how physical characteristics of a stimulus relate to mental perception.

Absolute threshold

The minimal intensity needed to barely detect a stimulus in 50% of trials.

Just noticeable difference (JND)

The smallest change in a stimulus that can be detected.

Weber's law

The principle that the amount of change needed to notice a difference is not a fixed amount, but a constant percentage or ratio of the starting stimulus intensity.

Signal detection theory

A theory stating that response to a stimulus depends both on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in noise and on their decision criterion.

Sensory adaptation

The phenomenon where sensitivity to a constant stimulus decreases over time.

Wavelength

The length of a light wave, which determines its hue (color).

Amplitude (Light)

The height of light wave peaks, which determines brightness.

Purity (Saturation)

The complexity of light wavelengths, which determines the richness or saturation of a color.

Cornea

The eye structure that bends light waves and sends them through the pupil.

Pupil

The hole/opening in the colored part of the eye that lets light in.

Iris

The colored part of the eye that controls pupil size and the amount of light entering.

Lens

The clear structure behind the pupil that focuses light onto the retina.

Retina

Light-sensitive tissue containing rods and cones that receives light focused by the lens.

Accommodation

The process where the lens changes shape (flatter for faraway objects, rounder for nearby objects) to keep images focused clearly on the retina.

Rods

Photoreceptor cells that become active in low light and detect shades of gray, but not color.

Cones

Photoreceptor cells that detect color, work in normal daylight, and allow fine detail focus.

L-cones

Cones sensitive to long wavelengths that process reddish light.

M-cones

Cones sensitive to medium wavelengths that process greenish light.

S-cones

Cones sensitive to short wavelengths that process bluish light.

Color afterimage

A visual phenomenon of seeing an image in its opposite colors after staring at it and looking away, caused by tired color cells.

Fovea

The central region of the retina where vision is clearest due to a high concentration of cones and no rods.

Blind spot

The location where the optic nerve leaves the eye, lacking rods and cones and unable to detect light.

Feature detectors

Specialized neurons that respond to specific visual traits such as edges, lines, and orientation.

Parallel Processing

The simultaneous processing of separate visual features by the brain.

Binding

The process where the brain stitches separate visual features back together into one complete object.

Illusory Conjunction

A perceptual mistake where the brain glues the wrong traits together.

Attention

The active and conscious processing of particular sensory information.

Perceptual constancy

The principle that perception of an object stays constant even when sensory input changes.

Figure-ground

A Gestalt principle of separating an object that stands out (figure) from its surrounding background (ground).

Monocular depth cues

Aspects of a visual scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye.

Binocular disparity

The difference between the two slightly different images received by each eye.

Change blindness

The failure to notice a change in a visual scene.

Inattentional blindness

The failure to notice something because attention is focused elsewhere.

Frequency (Sound)

The property of sound waves that determines pitch.

Amplitude (Sound)

The intensity of sound wave peaks, which determines loudness.

Complexity (Sound)

The wave property that determines sound timbre and quality.

Pinna

The visible outer part of the ear that collects and funnels sound waves.

Auditory canal

The passageway that carries sound waves toward the eardrum.

Eardrum

A membrane that vibrates when sound waves hit it.

Ossicles

Three tiny bones in the middle ear that amplify sound vibrations and send them to the inner ear.

Cochlea

A fluid-filled inner ear structure where sound vibrations are converted into neural signals.

Hair cells

Auditory receptor cells embedded in the basilar membrane that bend to create electrical activity.

Basilar membrane

A structure in the inner ear that moves with sound vibrations and contains hair cells.

Haptic perception

Active exploration of the environment through touching and grasping objects.

A-delta fibers

Pain receptors that carry fast, sharp pain signals.

C fibers

Pain receptors that carry slower, duller, and longer-lasting pain signals.

Gate control theory

A theory stating that pain signals can be blocked or reduced by a 'gate' in the spinal cord.

Proprioception

The body sense of position and movement of body parts using receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints.

Vestibular system

The balance center inside the inner ear that senses head movement.

Odorant molecules

Airborne chemical substances that trigger the sense of smell.

Olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs)

Receptor cells that detect odorant molecules and transduce them into neural signals.

Olfactory bulb

A brain structure located above the nasal cavity that receives signals from ORNs and relays them to the rest of the brain.

Taste buds

Structures containing taste receptor cells that react to chemicals in food called tastants.