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Psychology ch. 3 2

Terms

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Explain Sensation.
It is the process of detecting a physical stimulus such as light, sound, heat, or pressure. It is the result of neural impluses transmitted to the brain from sensory receptors that ahve been stimulated by physical energy from the external environment.
Explain Perception.
The process of intergrating, organizing, and interpreting sensations.
Define Sensory Receptors.
Specialized cells unique to each sense organ that responf to a particular form of sensory stimulation.
Define Transduction.
The process by which a form of physical energy is converted into a coded neural signal that can be processed by the nervous system.
Explain the Absolute Threshold.
The smallest possible strength of a stimulus that can be detected half of the time.
Explain the Difference Threshold.
The smallest possible difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time; also called just noticable difference.
Explain Weber's law.
A principle of sensation that holds that the size of the just noticeable difference will vary depending on its relation to the strength of the orginial stimulus.
Define Sensory Adapatation.
The decline in sensitivity to a constant stimulus.
What is a cornea?
A clear membrane covering the visible part of the eye that helps gather and direct incoming light.
What is a pupil?
The opening in the middle of the iris that changes size to let in different amounts of light.
What is a iris?
The colored part of the eye, which is the muscle that controls the size of the pupil.
What is the lens?
A transparent structure located behind the pupil that actively focuses, or bends, light as it enters the eye.
Define Accommodation.
The process by which the lens changes shape to focus incoming light so that it falls on the retina.
What is the retina?
A thin, light-sensitive membrane located at the back of the eye that contains the sensory receptors for vision.
What are rods?
Sensory receptors of the eye that are highly sensitive to light, but not to color, and that are primarily responsible for peripheral vision and night vision.
What are cones?
Sensory receptors of the eye that detect color and are responsible for color vision and visual acuity.
What is a fovea?
A small area in the center of the retina composed of cones, where visual information is most sharply focused.
What is an optic disk?
Area of the retina without rods or cones, where the optic nerve exits the back of the eye.
What is the blind spot?
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, producing a small gap in the field of vision.
What are ganglion cells?
In the retina, the specialized neurons that connect to the bipolar cells; the bundled axons of the ganglion cells form the optic nerve.
What are bipolar cells?
In the retina, the specialized neurons that connect the rods and cones with the ganglion cells.
What is the optic nerve?
The thick nerve that exits from the back of the eye and carries visual information to the visual cortex in the brain.
What is the optic chiasm?
The point the brain where the optic nerve fibers from each eye meet and partly cross to the opposite side of the brain.
What is the trichromatic theory of color vision?
The theory that the sensation of color results because of cones in the retina are especially sensitive to red light (long wavelengths), green light (medium wavelengths), or blue light (short wavelenghts)
What is the opponent-processing theory of color vision?
The theory that color vision is the product of opposing pairs of color receptors, red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white; when one color is stimulated the other is inhibited.
What is audition?
The technical name for hearing.
What are the 3 characteristics of sound?
-Amplitude (intensity/ amount of energy wave)
-Pitch (relative highness/ lowness of sound)
-Timbre (Distinctive quality of sound *unique*)
What is the outer ear?
Directs sounds into ear and collects sound. Contists of the pinna, the ear canal, and the ear drum.
What is the middle ear?
The part of the ear that amplifies sound waves; consists of 3 small bones: the hammer, anvil, and stirrup.
What is the inner ear?
The part of the ear where sound is transduced into neural impluses; consists of the cochlea and semi-circular canals.
What is the olfactory bulb?
The enlarged ending of the olfactory cortex at the front of the brain where th sensation of smell is registered.
Explain the sense of smell.
-reports directly to the brain
-most emoitionally envoking
-smell is 80% of taste
-important part of sexuality
-smell is transduced by olfactory bulbs.
-chemical sense
Explain the sense of taste and its 5 parts.
-chemical sense
1-bitter
2-salty
3-sweet
4-blind spot
5-sour
What are nociceptors?
Specialized sensory receptors for pain that are found in the skin, muscles, and internal organs.
What is substance P?
A neurotrasmitter that is involved in the transmission of pain messages to the brain.
What is the gate-control theory of pain?
The theory that pain is a product of both physiological and psychological factors that cause spinal that cause spinal gates to open and relay patterns of intense stimulation to the brain which perceives them as pain.
What are proprioceptors?
Sensory receptors located in the muscles and joints that provide information about body position and movement.
What is vestibular sense?
The technical name for the sense of balance. *Equilibrium
Explain Bottom-Up processing.
Information is driven by the actual experience the stimulus is giving you. Based on taste, touch, etc.
Explain Top-Down processing.
Driven by experiences, things you have learned in the past to bring on the new information.
Explain Gestalt Psychology.
We look at things as a whole as oppose to looking at the parts of something. We look at the whole before we see the parts.
"the whole is different than the sum of the parts"
Expalin perceptual constancies.
when things are skewed we still recognize them for what they are.
Explain monocular cues for depth.
Distance or depth cues that can be processed by either eye alone.
Explain binocular cues for depth.
Distance or depth cues that require the uses of both eyes.
What are 2 binocular cues for depth that require the use of both eyes?
1-Convergence -degree to which muscles rotate your eyes to focus on an object.
2-Binocular Disparity -a slightly differnet image of an object is cast on the retina of each eye.
Explain Perceptional Constancies.
There are physical objects that are recognized always for what they are no matter what way they are turned.
-size constancy
-shape constancy
-brightness constancy

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