PSY101 Key Terms Chapter 3

absolute threshold

The minimum amount of stimulus energy that a person can detect.

apparent movement

The perception that a stationary object is moving.

auditory nerve

The nerve structure that receives information about sound from the hair cells of the inner ear and carries these neural impulses to the brain’s auditory areas.

binding

In the sense of vision, the bringing together and integration of what is processed by different neural pathways or cells.

binocular cues

Depth cues that depend on the combination of the images in the left and right eyes and on the way the two eyes work together.

bottom-up processing

The operation in sensation and perception in which sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it up to the brain for interpretation.

cones

The receptor cells in the retina that allow for color perception.

convergence

A binocular cue to depth and distance in which the muscle movements in an individual’s two eyes provide information about how deep and/or far away something is.

depth perception

The ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally.

difference threshold

The degree of difference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected.

feature detectors

Neurons in the brain’s visual system that respond to particular features of a stimulus.

figure-ground relationship

The principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out (figure) and those that are left over (ground).

frequency theory

Theory on how the inner ear registers the frequency of sound, stating that the perception of a sound’s frequency depends on how often the auditory nerve fires.

gestalt psychology

A school of thought interested in how people naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns.

inner ear

The part of the ear that includes the oval window, cochlea, and basilar membrane and whose function is to convert sound waves into neural impulses and send them to the brain.

kinesthetic senses

Senses that provide information about movement, posture, and orientation.

middle ear

The part of the ear that channels and amplifies sound through the eardrum, hammer, anvil, and stirrup to the inner ear.

monocular cues

Powerful depth cues available from the image in one eye, either the right or the left.

noise

Irrelevant and competing stimuli, not only sounds but also any distracting stimuli for the senses.

olfactory epithelium

The lining of the roof of the nasal cavity, containing a sheet of receptor cells for smell.

opponent-process theory

Theory stating that cells in the visual system respond to complementary pairs of red-green and blue-yellow colors; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another cell might be excited by yellow and inhibited by blue.

optic nerve

The structure at the back of the eye, made up of axons of the ganglion cells, that carries visual information to the brain for further processing.

outer ear

The outermost part of the ear, consisting of the pinna and the external auditory canal.

pain

The sensation that warns an individual of damage to the body.

papillae

Rounded bumps above the tongue’s surface that contain the taste buds, the receptors for taste.

parallel processing

The simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways.

perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense.

perceptual constancy

The recognition that objects are constant and unchanging even though sensory input about them is changing.

perceptual set

A predisposition or readiness to perceive something in a particular way.

place theory

Theory on how the inner ear registers the frequency of sound, stating that each frequency produces vibrations at a particular spot on the basilar membrane.

retina

The multilayered light-sensitive surface in the eye that records electromagnetic energy and converts it to neural impulses for processing in the brain.

rods

The receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light but not very useful for color vision.

selective attention

The act of focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.

semicircular canals

Three fluid-filled circular tubes in the inner ear containing the sensory receptors that detect head motion caused when an individual tilts or moves the head and/or the body.

sensation

The process of receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy.

sensory adaptation

A change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation.

sensory receptors

Specialized cells that detect stimulus information and transmit it to sensory (afferent) nerves and the brain.

signal detection theory

An approach to perception that focuses on decision making about stimuli in the presence of uncertainty.

subliminal perception

The detection of information below the level of conscious awareness.

thermoreceptors

Sensory nerve endings under the skin that respond to changes in temperature at or near the skin and provide input to keep the body’s temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

top-down processing

The operation in sensation and perception, launched by cognitive processing at the brain’s higher levels, that allows the organism to sense what is happening and to apply that framework to information from the world.

trichromatic theory

Theory stating that color perception is produced by three types of cone receptors in the retina that are particularly sensitive to different, but overlapping, ranges of wavelengths.

vestibular sense

Sense that provides information about balance and movement.

visual cortex

Located in the occipital lobe, the part of the cerebral cortex involved in vision.

volley principle

Principle addressing limitations of the frequency theory of hearing, stating that a cluster of nerve cells can fire neural impulses in rapid succession, producing a volley of impulses.

Weber’s law

The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as differe