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| The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system recieve and represent stimulus energies from our environment |
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| The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events |
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| Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
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| Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations |
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| Conversion of one from of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret |
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| The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time |
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| A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness |
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| Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness |
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| The activation, often unconsciously, of ceraain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response |
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| The minimum difference between two timuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticable difference |
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| The principle that, to be percieved as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant mimimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) |
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| Diminshed sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation |
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| A mental predisposition to percieve on thing and not another |
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| The distance from the peak of one light or sound wae to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips fo cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission |
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| The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth |
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| The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we percieve as brightness or loudness, as determine by the wave's amplitude |
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| The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information |
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| The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina |
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| Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond |
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| Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that unction in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. |
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| The nerve that carries neural impluses from the eye to the brain |
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| The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot because no receptor cells are located there |
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| The central focal point in the retina around which the eye's cones cluster |
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| Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement |
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| The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving |
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| Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic (three-color) Theory |
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| The theory that the retina contains three different 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 |
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| The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green. |
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| An organized whole. Gestalt psychology emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes |
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| The organization of the visual fields into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground) |
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| The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups |
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| The ability to see objects in three dimensions althought the images that strike the retina are two-deminsional; allows us to judge distance. |
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| A labratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals |
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| Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes |
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| A binocular cue for percieving depth: By comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance-the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object |
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| Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone |
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| Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change |
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| Percieving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object |
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| In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted field |
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| The sense or act of hearing |
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| The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time |
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| A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency |
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| 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 |
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| A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses |
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| The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs |
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| Sensorineural Hearing Loss |
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| Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory neres; also called nerve deafness |
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| Hearing loss caused by damage to the mecahnical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea |
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| A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea |
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| In hearing, Helmholtz's theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated |
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| 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 |
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| 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 closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain |
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| The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body barts |
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| The sense of your head's (and thus your body's) movement and position, including the sense of balance |
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| The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste |
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| The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments |
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| Extrasensory Perception (ESP) |
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| The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition |
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| The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis |
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