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Chapter 4
Terms from chapter 4
48
Psychology
Undergraduate 1
01/22/2012

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Term
synesthesia
Definition
the perceptual experience of one sense that is evoked by another sense.
Term
sensation
Definition
simple stimulation of a sense organ.
Term
perception
Definition
the organization, indetification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation.
Term
transduction
Definition
what takes place when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the central nervous system.
Term
psychophysics
Definition
methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observer's sensitity to that stimulus.
Term
absolute threshold
Definition
the minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus
Term
just noticeable difference (JND)
Definition
the minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected
Term
Weber's Law
Definition
the just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity.
Term
signal detection theory
Definition
an observation that the response to a stimulus depends both on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise and on a person's response criterion.
Term
sensory adaptation
Definition
sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions
Term
visual acuity
Definition
the ability to see fine detail
Term
retina
Definition
light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball.
Term
accommodation
Definition
the process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina.
Term
cones
Definition
photoreceptors that detect color, operate under normal dayligh conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail.
Term
rods
Definition
photoreceptors that become active under low-light conditions for night vision
Term
fovea
Definition
an area of the retina where vision is the clearest and there are no rods at all.
Term
blind spot
Definition
a location in the visual field that produces no sensation on the retina because the corresponding area of the retina contains neither rods nor cones and therefore has no mechanism to sense light.
Term
receptive field
Definition
the region of the sensory surface that, when stimulated, causes a change in the firing rate of that neuron.
Term
trichromatic color representation
Definition
the pattern of responding across the three types of cones that provides a unique code for each color
Term
color-opponent system
Definition
pairs of visual neurons that work in opposition
Term
area V1
Definition
the part of the occipital lobe that contains the primary visual cortex
Term
visual-form agnosia
Definition
the inability to recognize objects by sight.
Term
binding problem
Definition
how features are linked together so that we see unified objects in our visual world rather than free-floating or miscombined features.
Term
feature integration theory
Definition
the idea that focused attention is not required to detect the individual features that comprise a stimulus but is required to bind those individual features together
Term
perceptual constancy
Definition
a perceptual principle stating that even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains consistent.
Term
template
Definition
a mental representation that can be directly compared to a  viewed shape in the retinal image
Term
monocular depth cues
Definition
aspects of a secene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye
Term
binocular disparity
Definition
the difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth.
Term
apparent motion
Definition
the perception of movement as a reult of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations.
Term
change blindness
Definition
when people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene.
Term
inattentional blindness
Definition
a failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention
Term
pitch
Definition
how high or low a sound is
Term
loudness
Definition
a sound's intensity
Term
timbre
Definition
a listener's experience of sound quality or resonance.
Term
cochlea
Definition
a fluid-filled tube that is the organ of auditory transduction
Term
basilar membrane
Definition
a structure in the inner ear that undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fluid.
Term
hair cells
Definition
specialized auditory receptor neurons embedded in the basilar membrane.
Term
Area A1
Definition
a portion of the temporal lobe that contains the primary auditory cortex.
Term
place code
Definition
the cochlea encodes different frequencies at different locations along the basilar membrane
Term
temporal code
Definition
the cochlea registers low frequencies via the firing rate of action potentials entering the auditory nerve
Term
haptic perception
Definition
the active exploration of the environment by touching and grasping objects with our hands.
Term
referred pain
Definition
feeling of pain when sensory information from internal and external areas converges on the same nerve cells in the spinal cord.
Term
gate-control theory
Definition
a theory of pain perception based on the idea that signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped, or GATED, by interneurons in the spinal cord via feedback from two directions.
Term
vestibular system
Definition
the three fluid-filled semicircular canals and adjacent organs located next to the cochlea in each inner ear.
Term
olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs)
Definition
receptor cells that initiate the sense of smell.
Term
olfactory bulb
Definition
a brain structure located above the nasal cavity beneath the frontal lobes.
Term
pheromones
Definition
biochemical odorants emitted by other members of its species that can affect an animal's behavior or physiology
Term
taste buds
Definition
the organ of taste transduction
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