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Psychology Ch. 5, McPherson 2006

Terms

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Visual Agnosia
A condition in which an individual can see objects and identify their features but cannot recognize the objects. (p. 145).
Prosopagnosia
A condition in which an individual can recognize details in faces but cannot recognize faces as a whole. (p. 145).
Sensation
The process that detects stimuli from the body of surroundings. (p. 146).
Perception
The process that organizes sensations into meaningful patterns. (p. 146).
Sensory receptors
Specialized cells that detect stimuli and convert their energy into neural impulses. (p. 146).
Sensory transduction
The process by which sensory receptors convert stimuli into neural impulses. (p. 146).
Psychophysics
The study of the relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli and the conscious psychological experiences that are associated with them. (p. 146).
Absolute Threshold
The minimum amount of stimulation that an individual can detect through a given sense. (p. 146).
Signal-detection theory
The theory holding that the detection of a stimulus depends on both the intensity of the stimulus and the physical and psychological state of the individual. (p. 147).
Subliminal perception
The unconscious perception of stimuli that are too weak to exceed the absolute threshold for detection. (p. 147).
Difference Threshold
The minimum amount of change in stimulation that can be detected. (p. 148).
just noticeable difference (jnd).
Weber and Fechner's term for the difference threshold. (p. 149).
Weber's law.
The principle that the amount of change in stimulation needed to produce a just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus. (p. 149).
Sensory adaptation.
The tendency of the sensory receptors to respond less and less to a constant stimulus. (p. 149).
Vision
The sense that detects objects by the light reflected from them into the eyes. (p. 149).
Visible spectrum.
The portion of the elctromagnetic spectrum that we commonly call light. (p. 149 and 150****)
SEE PGS 150-151 FOR DESCRIPTIONS OF EYE PARTS.
p. 150-151.
Accommodation
the proecss by which the lens of the eye increases its curvature to focus light from close objects or decreases its curvature to focus light from more distant objects. (p. 151).
Myopia
Visual nearsightedness, which is caused by an elongated eyeball. (p. 151).
Hyperopia
visual farsightedness, which is caused by a shortened eyeball. (p. 151).
Rods & Cones
Rods: receptor cells in retina, deal with night vision and peripheral vision.

Cones: Receptor cells in retina- dealing with daylight vision and color vision.

(p. 152).
Optic nerve
The nerve, formed from the axons of ganglion cells, that carries visual impulses from the retina to the brain. (p. 152).
Fovea
A small area at the center of the retina that contains only cones and provides the most acute vision. (p. 152).
Smooth pursuit movements
Eye movements controlled by the ocular muscles that keep objects focused on the fovea. (p. 153).
Optic chaism.
The point under the frontal lobes at which some axons from each of the optic nerves cross over to the opposite side of the brain. (p. 154).
Visual cortex.
The area of the occipital lobes that processes visual input. (p. 154).
Photopigments.
Chemicals, including rhodopsin and iodopsin, that enable the rods and cones to generate neural impulses. (p. 155).
Dark adaptation
The process by which the eyes become more sensitive to light when under low illumination. (p. 156).
Trichromatic theory.
The theory that color vision depends on the relative degree of stimulation of red, green, and blue receptors. (p. 156).
Opponent-process theory.
The theory that color vision depends on red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white opponent processes in the brain. (p. 157).
Afterimage.
An image that persists after the removal of a visual stimulus. (p. 157).
Color blindness.
The inability to distinguish between certain colors, most often red and green. (p. 158).
Figure-ground perception
The distinguishing of an object (the figure) from its surroundings (the ground). (p. 159). SEE BOOK, MANY THINGS WRITTEN THERE.
Feature-detector theory.
The theory that we construct perceptions of stimuli from activity in neurons of the brain that are sensitive to specific features of those stimuli. (p. 160).
Illusory contours
The perception of nonexistent contours as if they were the edges of real objects. (p. 161).
Depth perception.
The perception of the relative distance of objects. (p. 161).
Binocular cues.
Depth perception cues that require input from the two eyes. (p. 162).
Monocular cues.
Depth perception cues that require input from only one eye. (p. 162).
Size constancy.
The perceptual process that makes an object appear to remain the same size despite changes in the size of the image it casts on the retina. (p. 164).
Shape constancy.
The perceptual process that makes an object appear to maintain its normal shape regardless of the angle from which it is viewed. (p. 164).
Brightness constancy
The perceptual process that makes an object maintina a particular level of brightness despite changes in the amount of light reflected from it. (p. 165).
Visual illusion.
A misperception of physical reality usually caused by the misapplication of visual cues. (p. 165).
Moon illusion.
The misperception that the moon is larger when it is at the horizon than when it is overhead. (p. 165).
Audition
The sense of hearing. (p. 168).
Tympanic Membrane.
The eardrum; a membrane separating the outer ear from the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound waves that strike it. (p. 169).
Conduction deafness.
Hearing loss usually caused by blockage of the auditory canal, damage to the eardrum, or deterioration of the ossicles of the middle ear. (p. 173).
Nerve deafness.
Hearing loss caused by damage to the hair cells of the basilar membrane, the axons of the auditory nerve, or the neurons of the auditory cortex. (p. 173).
Olfaction.
The sense of smell, which detects molecules carried in the air. (p. 174).
Gustation.
The sense of taste, which detects molecules of substances dissolved in the saliva. (p. 177). ALSO SEE DIAGRAM OF TASTE BUDS PAGE 177.
Somatosensory cortex.
The area of the parietal lobes that processes information from sensory receptors in the skin. (p. 178).
Gate-control theory.
The theory that pains impulses can be blocked by the closing of a neuronal gate in the spinal cord. (p. 179).
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
The use of electrical stimulation of sites on the body to provide pain relief, apparently by stimulating the release of endorphins. (p. 181).
Kinesthetic sense
The sense that provides information about the position of the joints, the degree of tension in the muscles, and the movement of the arms and legs. (p. 182).
Vestibular sense.
The sense that provides information about the head's position in space and helps in the maintenance of balance. (p. 182).
Alleged paranormal abilities. SEE PAGE 184!
MUST READ 184+!

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