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Psychology 101 Final

Terms

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Prosopagnosia
A form of visual agnosia characterized by difficulty in the recognition of people's faces; caused by damage to the visual association cortex
Visual agnosia
The inability of a person who is not blind to recognize the identity of an object visually; caused by damage to the visual association cortex
Colour Mixing
The perception of two or more lights of different wavelengths seen together as light of an intermediate wavelength
Gestalt psychology
A branch of psychology that asserts that the perception of objects is produced by particular configurations of the elements of stimuli
somatosense
Bodily sensations; sensitivity to such stimuli as touch, pain and temperature
inflection
A change in the form of word (usually by adding a suffix) to denote a grammatical feature such as tense or number
rhodopsin
The photopigment contained by rods
Fovea
A small pit near the centre of the retina containing densely packed cones; responsible for the most acute and detailed vision
Harmonic
A component of a complex tone; one of series of tones whose frequency is a multiple of the fundamental frequency. In music theory, also known as an overtone
Achromatopsia
The inability to discriminate among different hues; caused by damage to the visual association cortex
Brightness constancy
the tendency to perceive objects as having constant brightness event when they are observed under varying levels of illumination
Bottom-up processing
A perception based on successive analyses of the details of the stimuli that are presented
ventriloquism effect
The apparent shift in location of a sound from its auditory source to its perceived visual location
pure word deafness
The ability to hear, to speak, and (usually) to write, without being able to comprehend the meaning of speech; caused by bilateral temporal lobe damage
Saturation
A perceptual dimension of colour, most closely associated with purity of a colour
Law of similarity
A Gestalt law of organization; similar elements are perceived as belonging to the same figure
semantics
the meaning and the study of the meanings represented by words
Child-directed speech
The speech of an adult directed toward a child; differs in important features from adult directed speech and tends to facilitate learning of language by children
surface dyslexia
A reading disorder in which people can read words phonetically but have difficulty reading irregularly spelled words by the whole-word method
ground
A visual stimulus that is perceived as a formless background against which objects are seen
olfaction
The sense of smell
phonological dyslexia
A reading disorder in which people can read familiar words but have difficulty reading unfamiliar words or pronounceable non-words because they cannot sound out words
vestibular sac
One of a set of two receptor organs in each inner ear that detect changes in the tilt of the head
Negative afterimage
The image seen after a portion of the retina is exposed to an intense visual stimulus; these consists of colours complementary to those of the physical stimulus
phoneme
The minimum unit of sound that conveys meaning in a particular language, such as /p/
Saccadic movement
The rapid movement of the eyes that is used in scanning a visual scene, as opposed to the smooth pursuit movements used to follow a moving object
artificial intelligence
A field of study in which computer programs are designed to simulate human cognitive abilities; this endeavour may help investigators understand the mechanisms that underlie these abilities
Perception
The detection of the more complex properties of a stimulus, including its location and nature; involves learning
Broca's aphasia
Severe difficulty in articulating words, especially function words, caused by damage that includes Broca's area, a region of the frontal cortex on the left (speech-dominant) side of the brain
receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve)
A graph of hits and false alarms by participants under different motivational conditions; indicates people's ability to detect a particular stimulus
Muscle spindle
A muscle fibre that functions as a strech receptor; arranged parallel to the muscle fibres responsible for contraction of the muscle, it detects muscle length
rod
A photoreceptor that is very sensitive to light but cannot detect changes in hue
hue
A perceptual dimension of colour, most closely related to the wavelength of a pure light
auditory hair cell
The sensory neuron of the auditory system; located on the basilar membrane
semantic priming
A facilitating effect on the recognition of words having meanings related to a word that was presented previously
semicircular canal
One of a set of three organs in the inner ear that respond to rotational movements of the head
phi phenomenon
The perception of movement caused by the turning on of two or more lights, one at a time; often used on theatre marqueesl responsible for the apparent movement of images in movies are television
bipolar cell
A neuron in the retina that receives information from photoreceptors and passes it on to the ganglion cells, from which axons proceed through the optic nerve to the brain
Weber fraction
The ratio between a just-noticeable difference and the magnitude of a stimulus; reasonably constant over the middle range of most stimulus intensities
Pacinian corpuscle
A specialized somatosensory nerve ending, which detects mechanical stimuli, especially vibrations
agrammatism
A language disturbance; difficulty in the production and comprehension of grammatical features, such as proper use of function words, word endings, and word order. Often seen in cases of Broca's aphasia
whole-word reading
Reading be recognizing a word as a whole; "sight reading"
Pheromones
Chemical signals, usually detected by smell or taste, that regulate reproductive and social behaviours between animals
Receptor cell
A neuron that directly responds to a physical stimulus, such as light, vibrations, or aromatic molecules
Photopigment
A complex molecule found in photoreceptors; when struck by light, it splits apart and stimulates the membrane of the photoreceptor in which it resides
Round window
An opening in the bone surrounding the cochlea. Movements of the membrane behind this opening permits vibrations to be transmitted through the oval window into the cochlea
direct dyslexia
A language disorder caused by brain damage in which people can read words aloud without understanding them
Linguistic relativity
The hypothesis that the language a person speaks is related to his or her thoughts and perceptions
Receptive field
The portion of the visual field in which the presentation of visual stimuli will produce an alteration in the firing rate of a particular neuron
vestibular apparatus
The receptive organs of the inner ear that contribute to balance and perception of head movement
Absolute Threshold
The minimum value of a stimulus that can be detected
Interposition
A monocular cue of depth perception; on object that partially blocks another object is perceived as closer
phonetic reading
Reading by decoding the phonetic significance of letter strings; "sound reading"
Transduction
The conversion of physical stimuli into changes in the activity of receptor cells of sensory organs
haze
A monocular cue of depth perception; objects that are less distinct in their outline and texture are seen as farther from the viewer
prototype
A hypothetical idealized pattern that resides in the nervous system and is used to perceive objects or shapes by a process of comparison; recognition can occur even when an exact match is not found
elevation
A monocular cue of depth perception; objects nearer the horizon are seen as farther from the viewer
brightness
A perceptual dimension of colour, most closely related to the intensity or degree of radiant energy emitted by a visual stimulus
Protanopia
A form of hereditary anomalous colour vision; caused by defective "red" cones in the retina
script
The characteristics (events, rules, and so on) that are typical of a particular situation; assists the comprehension of verbal discourse
taste bud
A small organ on the tongue that contains a group of gustatory receptor cells
unconscious inference
A mental computation of which we are unaware that plays a role in perception
surface structure
The grammatical features of a sentence
Photoreceptor
A receptive cell for vision in the retina; a rod or a cone
fixation
A brief interval between saccadic eye movement during which the eye does not move; visual information is gathered during this time
Anatomical coding
A means by which the nervous system represents information; different features are coded by the activity of different neurons
free nerve ending
A dendrite of somatosensory neurons
Optic disc
A circular structure located at the exit point from the retina of the axons of the ganglion cells that form the optic nerve
Retina
The tissue at the back inside surface of the eye that contains the photoreceptors and associated neurons
Lens
The transparent organ situated behind the iris of the eye; helps focus an image on the retina
underextension
The use of a word to denote a smaller class of items than is appropriate; for example, referring only to one particular animal as a dog
Law of closure
A Gestalt law of organization; elements missing from the outline of a figure are "filled in" by the visual system
template
A hypothetical pattern that resides in the nervous system and is used to perceive objects or shapes by process of comparison
Phantom limb
Sensations that appear to originate in a limb that has been amputated
Ganglion cell
A neuron in the retina that receives information from photoreceptors by means of bipolar cells and from which axons proceed through the optic nerve to the brain
Pursuit movement
The movement that the eyes make to maintain an image of a moving object upon the fovea
Protoword
A unique string of phonemes that an infant invents and uses as a word
Trichromatic Theory
The theory that colour vision is accomplished by three types of photoreceptors. each of which is maximally sensitive to a different wavelength of light
Timbre
A perceptual dimension of sound, determined by the complexity of the sound - for example, as shown by a mathematical analysis of the sound wave
wavelength
The distance between adjacent waves of radiant energy; in vision, most closely associated with the perceptual dimension of hue
Oval window
An opening in the bone surrounding the cochlea. The stirrup presses against a membrane behind this structure and transmits sound vibrations into the fluid within the cochlea
Cornea
The transparent tissue covering the front of the eye
parallel processor
A computer device that can perform several operations simultaneously
Gustation
The sense of taste
Papilla
A small bump on the tongue that contains a group of taste buds
Tachistoscope
A device that can present visual stimuli for controlled (usually very brief) durations of time
good continuation
A Gestalt law of organization; given two or more interpretations of elements that form the outline of the figure, the simplest interpretation will be prefered
Basilar membrane
One of two membranes that divide the cochlea of the inner ear into three compartments. The receptive organ for audition resides here
Wernicke's area
A region of the auditory association cortex located in the upper part of the left temporal lobe; involved in the recognition of spoken words
deuternopia
A form of hereditary anomalous colour vision; caused by defective "green" cones in the retina
stereopsis
A form of depth perception based on retinal disparity
temporal coding
A means by which the nervous system represents information; different features are coded by the pattern of activity of neurons
top-down processing
A perception based on information provided by the context in which a particular stimulus is encountered
two-point discrimination threshold
the minimum distance between two small points that can be detected as separate stimuli when pressed against a particular region of the skin
olfactory mucosa
The mucous membrane lining the top of the nasal sinuses; contains the cilia of the olfactory receptors
Chemosense
One of the two sense modalities (gustation and olfaction) that detect the presence of a particular molecule present in the environment
content word
A noun, verb, adjective, or adverb that conveys meaning
Convergence
The result of conjugate eye movements whereby the fixation point for each eye is identical; feedback from these movements provides information about the distance of objects from the viewer
Cone
A photoreceptor that is responsible for acute daytime vision and for colour perception
size
A monocular cue of depth perception based on the retinal size of an object
just-noticeable difference (jnd)
The smallest difference between two similar stimuli that can be distinguished.
isolation aphasia
A language disturbance that includes an inability to comprehend speech or to produce meaningful speech, accompanied by the ability to repeat speech and to learn new sequences of words; caused by brain damage to the left temporal/parietal cortex that spares Wernicke's area
cochlea
A snail-shaped chamber set in bone in the inner ear, where auditory transduction takes place
Opponent Process
The representation of colours by the rate of firing of two types of neurons: red/green and yellow/blue
Iris
The pigmented muscle of the eye that controls the size of the pupil
Tectorial membrane
A membrane located above the basilar membrane; serves as a shelf against which the cilia of the auditory hair cells move
neural network
A model of the nervous system based on interconnected network of elements that have some of the properties of neurons
subliminal perception
The perception of a stimulus, as indicated by a change in behaviour, at an intensity insufficient to produce a conscious sensation
Cilium
A hairlike appendage of a cell; involved in movement or in transducing sensory information. Found on the receptors in the auditory and vestibular systems
law of common fate
A Gestalt law of organization; elements that move together give rise to the perception of a particular fate
deep structure
The essential meaning of a sentence, without regard to the grammatical features (surface structure) of the sentence that are needed to express it in words
Perception
A rapid, automatic, unconscious process by which we recognize what is represented by the information provided by our sense organs
Accommodation
Changes in the thickness of the lens of the eye that focus images of near or distant objects on the retina
affix
A sound or group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word (prefix) or to its end (suffix)
syntactical rule
A grammatical rule of a particular language for combining words to form phrases, clauses, and sentences
language universal
A characteristic feature found in all natural languages
Linear perspective
A monocular cue of depth perception; the arrangement of drawing of objects on a flat surface such that parallels lines receding from the viewer are seen to converge at a point on the horizon
distinctive feature
A physical characteristic of an object that helps distinguish it from other objects
psycholinguistics
A branch of psychology devoted to the study of verbal behaviour
sclera
The tough outer layer of the eye; the "white" of the eye
Fundamental frequency
The lowest, and usually most intense, frequency of a complex sound; most often perceived as the sound's basic pitch
Sensation
The detection of the elementary properties of a stimulus
Motion parallax
A cue of depth perception. As we pass by a scene, objects closer to us pass in front of objects farther away
olfactory bulbs
Stalk-like structures located at the base of the brain that contain neural circuits that perform the first analysis of olfactory information
Balint's syndrome
A syndrome caused by bilateral damage to the parietooccipital region of the brain; includes difficulty in perceiving the location of objects and reaching for them under visual guidance
Wernicke's aphasia
A disorder caused by damage to the left temporal and parietal cortex, including Wernicke's area; characterized by deficits in the perception of speech and by the production of fluent by rather meaningless speech
Dark adaptation
The process by which the eye becomes capable of distinguishing dimly illuminated objects after going from a bright area to a dark one
ossicle
One of the three bones of the middle ear (the hammer, anvil and stirrup) that transmit acoustical vibrations from the eardrum to the membrane behind the oval window of the cochlea
Law of proximity
A Gestalt law of organization; elements located closest to each other are perceived as belonging to the same figure
Shading
A monocular cue of depth perception; determines whether portions of the surface of an object are perceived as concave or convex
overextension
The use of a word to denote a larger class of items than is appropriate; for example, referring to the moon as a ball
psychophysics
A branch of psychology that measures the quantitative relation between physical stimuli and perceptual experience
prosody
The use of changes in intonation and emphasis to convey meaning in speech besides that specified by the particular words; an important means of communication of emotion
Difference threshold
An alternative name for just-noticeable difference (jnd)
Hertz (Hz)
The primary measure of the frequency of vibration of sound waves; cycles per second
voice-onset time
The delay between the initial sound of a consonant (such as the puffing sound of the phoneme /p/) and the onset of vibration of the vocal chords
Threshold
The point at which a stimulus, or a change in the value of a stimulus, can just be detected
retinal disparity
The fact that the points on objects located at different distances from the observer will fall on slightly different locations on the two retinas; provides the basis for stereopsis; one of the forms of depth perception
Signal detection theory
A mathematical theory of the detection stimuli which involves discriminating a signal from the noise in which it is embedded and which takes into account participant's willingness to report detecting the signal
tritanopia
A form of hereditary anomalous colour vision; caused by a lack of "blue" cones in the retina
function word
A preposition, article, or other word that conveys little of the meaning of a sentence but is important in specifying its grammatical structure
conjugate movement
The cooperative movement of the eyes, which ensures that image of an object falls on identical portions of both retinas
form constancy
The tendency to perceive objects as having a constant form, event when they are rotated or their distance from the observer changes
texture
A monocular cue of depth perception; the fineness of detail present in the surfaces of objects or in the ground or floor of a scene
figure
A visual stimulus that is perceived as a self-contained object

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