Psych 3
Terms
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- optic nerve
- the pathway that carries visual information from the eyeball to the brain
- sensation
- the processes by which our sense organs receive information from the environment
- just noticeable difference
- the smallest amount of change in a stimulus that can be detected
- blind spot
- a part of the retina through which the optic nerve passes. lacking rods and cones, this spot is not responsive to light
- lens
- a transparent structure in the eye that focuses light on the retina
- ethologists
- scientists who study the behavior of animals in their natural habitat
- shaping
- a procedure in which reinforcements are used to gradually guide an animal or person toward a specific behavior
- feature detectors
- neurons in the visual cortex that respond to specific aspects of a visual stimulus (such as lines or angles)
- absolute threshold
- the smallest amount of stimulation that can be detected
- psychophysics
- the study of the relationship between physical stimulation and subjective sensations
- auditory localization
- the ability to judge the direction a sound is coming from
- signal detection theory
- the theory that detecting a stimulus is jointly determined by the signal and the subject's response criterion
- punishment
- in operant conditioning, any stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a prior response
- cones
- cone-shaped photoreceptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to color
- discriminative stimulus
- a stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement
- white noise
- a hissing sound that results from a combination of all frequencies of the sound spectrum
- discrimination
- in classical and operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish between different stimuli
- fixed action pattern
- a species-specific behavior that is built into an animal's nervous system and triggered by a specific stimulus
- acquistion
- the formation of a learned response to a stimulus through the presentation of an unconditioned stimulus (classical conditioning) or reinforcement (operant conditioning)
- spontaneous recovery
- the reemergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period
- audition
- the sense of hearing
- extinction
- the elimination of a learned response by removal of the unconditioned stimulus (classical conditioning) or reinforcement (operant conditioning)
- unconditioned response
- an unlearned response (salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (food)
- opponent process theory
- the theory that color vision is derived from three pairs of opposing receptors. the opponent colors are blue and yellow, red and green, and black and white.
- weber's law
- the principle that the just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity
- partial reinforcement effect
- the tendency for a schedule or partial reinforcement to strengthen later resistance to extinction
- classical conditioning
- a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate one stimulus with another (also called Pavlovian conditioning)
- reinforcement
- in operant conditioning, any stimulus that increases the liklihood of a prior response
- skinner box
- an apparatus, invented by B.F. Skinner, used to study the effects of reinforcement on the behavior of laboratory animals
- conditioned response
- a learned response (salivation) to a classically conditioned stimulus (bell)
- stimulus generalization
- the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus
- visual cortex
- located in the back of the brain, it is the main information-processing center for visual information
- habituation
- the tendency of an organism to become familiar with a stimulus as a result of repeated exposure
- afterimage
- a visual sensation that persists after prolonged exposure to and removal of a stimulus
- retina
- the rear, multilayered part of the eye where rods and cones convert light into neural impulses
- observational learning
- learning that takes place when one observes and models the behavior of others
- transduction
- the process by which physical energy is converted into sensory neural impulses
- light adaptation
- the process of adjustment by which the eyes become less sensitive to light in a bright environment
- rods
- rod-shaped photoreceptor cells in the retina that are highly sensitive to light
- fovea
- the center of the retina, where cones are clustered
- learning
- a relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that results from experience
- accommodation
- the visual process by which lenses become rounded for viewing nearby objects and flatter for viewing remote objects
- receptive field
- an area of the retina in which stimulation triggers a response in a cell within the visual system
- operant conditioning
- the process by which organisms learn to behave in ways that produce reinforcement
- cornea
- the clear outer membrane that bends light so it is sharply focused in the eye
- dark adaptation
- a process of adjustment by which the eyes become more sensitive to light in a dark environment
- sensorineural hearing loss
- hearing loss caused by damage to the structure of the inner ear
- conduction hearing loss
- hearing loss caused by damage to the eardrum or bones in the middle ear
- latent learning
- learning that occurs but is not exhibited in performance until there is an incentive to do so
- conditioned stimulus
- a neutral stimulus (bell) that comes to evoke a classically conditioned response (salivation)
- olfactory system
- the structures responsible for the sense of smell
- trichromatic theory
- a theory of color vision stating that the retina contains three types of color receptors - for red, blue, and green - and that these combine to produce all other colors
- unconditioned stimulus
- a stimulus (food) that triggers an unconditioned response (salivation)
- law of effect
- a law stating that responses followed by positive outcomes are repeated, whereas those followed by negative outcomes are not
- pupil
- the small round hole in the iris of the eye through which light passes
- pheromones
- chemicals secreted by animals that transmit signals - usually to other animals of the same species
- iris
- the ring of muscle tissue that gives their color and controls the size of the pupil
- preception
- the processes by which people select, organize, and interpret sensations