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| The process of receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy. |
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| The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it has meaning. |
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| A situation of stimulus that can have more than one interpretation |
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| Miss-perception of sensory stimuli |
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| Combines physics with psychology by looking at the impact of physical stimulation on our psychological experience (absolute threshold, difference threshold, Weber's Law) |
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| The operation in sensation and perception in which sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it up to the brain for interpretation. |
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| The operation in sensation and perception, launched by cognitive processing at the brain's higerh levels, that allow the organism to sense what is happening and to apply that framework to information from the world. |
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| Specialized cells that detect stimulus information and transmit it to sensory (afferent) nerves and the brain. |
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| Human Senses: Organs, Energy Stimuli, and Sensory Receptors |
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| Detection of light, perceived as sight |
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| Detection of chemical stimuli, perceived as taste and smell |
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| Detection of pressure, vibration, and movement, perceived as touch, hearing, and equilibrium. |
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| An experience in which one sense (such as sight) induces an experience in another sense (such as hearing)- tasting sound/seeing music |
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| Sensory Organ->thalamus->sensory area of the cerebral cortex for modification->throughout the vast neuron network |
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| The minimum amount of stimulus energy that a person can detect. This is defined as the point at which a person can detect a stimulus 50% of the time. |
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| Irrelevant and competing stimuli - no only sounds bus also any distracting stimuli for our senses. |
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| The degree of difference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected. This is defined as the point at which a person can detect a difference in intensity of a stimulus 50% of the time. |
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| The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as different. |
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| The detection of information below the level of conscious awareness. |
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| A theory of perception that focuses on decision making about stimuli in the presence of uncertainty. In this theory, detection of sensory stimuli also depends on individual and contextual variations in a person. |
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| A part of decision making in signal detection theory - pertains to information being communicated and received in a given situation. |
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| A part of decision making in signal detection theory - the component of this theory that is the basis for making a decision based on judgement from the available information. |
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| Signal Detection Outcomes |
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| The process of focusing awareness on a narrowed aspect of the environment. |
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| The process of focusing on a specific aspect of the experience while ignoring others. (focusing on one voice in a crowd) |
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| A common term used to describe selective attention ability - the ability to concentrate on one voice among many in a noisy crowded room. |
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| Effect named for John Ridley. Refers to the way that automatically reading a color name can make it difficult to name the color in which the word is printed. |
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| Stimuli that are new, different, or unusual. |
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| Emotion-induced Blindness |
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| Refers to the fact that when we encounter an emotionally charged stimulus, we often fail to recognize a stimulus that is presented immediately after it. |
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| A term that refers to the failure to detect unexpected events when our attention is engaged by a task (gorilla on basketball court). |
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| A predisposition or readiness to perceive something in a particular way - reflects a top-down influence on perception (red ace of spades test). |
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| A change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation (initially freezing water feels warmer/sound in room diminishes as we adjust to it). |
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| The term for the scientific study of ESP (extrasensory perception). |
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| A form of electromagnetic energy that can be described in terms of wavelengths. The visible light range is from 400 to 700 nanometers (1 billionth of a meter abbreviated nm) |
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| The distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next (light). |
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| The wavelength of light that is reflected from a stimulus. |
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| Light Amplitude (brightness) |
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| The height of the wavelength of light. Greater amplitude make up brighter light, and smaller amplitude make up dimmer light. |
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| The purity of the wavelengths of light - whether they are all the same or a mix of waves. |
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| The richness of a visual stimulus. |
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| The white, outer part of the eye that helps maintain the shape of the eye and protect it from injury. |
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| The colored part of the eye, which can be different colors in each person. It contains the muscles that control the size of the pupil, and hence the amount of light that gets into the eye. |
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| A clear membrane just in front of the eye. The function of this part of the eye is to bend the light hitting the eye to focus it on the back. Contains three layers - Rods/Cones, Bipolar Cells, Ganglion Cells. Light hits rods/cones, moves to the bipolar cells, the ganglion cells, and then to the optic nerve for transmission to the brain. |
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| A transparent and somewhat flexible disk-shaped structure filled with a gelatin-like material. Functions by changing shape to bend the light hitting the eye to focus it on the back of the eye. |
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| The multilayered light-sensitive surface in the eye that records electromagnetic energy and converts it to neural impulses for processing in the brain. Contains rods and cones and approximately 126 million receptor cells. |
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| The receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light but not very useful for color vision. Retina contains approximately 120 million rods. Function wall under low illumination. |
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| The receptor cells in the retina that allow for color reception. Retina contains approximately 6 million cones. Require brighter light to function. |
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| The most important part of the retina. Tiny area in the center of the retina. Area where vision is the best. Contains only cones. |
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| The structure at the back of the eye, made up of axons of the ganglion cells, that carries visual information to the brain for further processing. |
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| The point where the optic nerve fibers divide, and approximately half of the nerve fibers cross over the mid-line of the brain. This results in the visual information coming from the right halves of the two retinas is transmitted to the right side of the occipital lobe in the cerebral cortex, and the visual information coming from the left halves of the retinas is transmitted to the left side of the occipital lobe. |
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| The part of the cerebral cortex involved in vision. It is located in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain. |
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| Neurons in the brain's visual system that respond to particular features of a stimulus. |
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| The simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways. |
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| Term related to vision. Refers to the bringing together and integration of what is processed by different neural pathways or cells. |
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| Trichromatic Theory (Thomas Young-1802) |
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| Theory stating that color perception is produced by three types of cone receptors in the retina that are particularly sensitive to different, but overlapping, ranges of wavelengths. |
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| Theory stating that cells in the visual system respond to complementary pairs of red-green and blue-yellow colors; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another cell might be excited by yellow and inhibited by blue. |
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| Figure-ground Relationship |
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| The principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out (figure) and those that are left over (background or ground). |
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| A school of thought interested in how people naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns (the whole is different than the sum of its parts). |
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| Theory of gestalt psychology that says when we see disconnected or incomplete figures, we fill in the spaces and see them as complete figures. |
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| Theory of gestalt psychology that says when we see objects that are near each other, they tend to be seen as a unit. |
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| Theory of gestalt psychology that says when we see objects that are similar to each other, we tend to see them as a unit. |
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| The ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. |
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| Depth cues that depend on the combination of the images in the left and right eyes and on the way the two eyes work together. |
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| A binocular cue to depth and distance in which the muscle movements in our eyes provide information about how deep and/or far away something is. - Binocular Cue |
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| Powerful depth cues available from the image in one eye, either the right or the left. |
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| The cue to the depth and distance of objects that is based on what we have learned from experience about the standard size of objects. - Monocular Cue |
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| Height in the field of view |
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| All other things being equal, objects positioned higher in a picture are seen as farther away. - Monocular Cue |
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| Linear perspective and Relative size |
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| Objects that are farther away take up less space on the retina. So, things that appear smaller are perceived to be farther away. - Monocular Cue |
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| We perceive an object that partially conceals or overlaps another object as closer. - Monocular Cue |
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| The cue that involves changes in perception due to the position of the light and the position of the viewer. |
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| Texture becomes denser and finer the farther away it is from the viewer. - Monocular Cue |
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| The perception that a stationary object is moving. |
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| The recognition that objects are constant and unchanging even though sensory input about them is changing. |
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| The recognition that an object stays the same size even though the retinal image of the object changes. (perceptual constancy) |
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| The recognition that an object retains the same shape even though its orientation to us changes. (perceptual constancy) |
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| The recognition that an object retains the same color even though different amounts of light fall on it. (perceptual constancy) |
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| Sounds in which numerous frequencies blend together. |
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| The tone saturation (perceptual quality) of a sound. |
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| The amount of pressure the sound wave produces relative to a standard- measured in decibels (dB). The weakest sounds a human ear can detect is 0 dB. |
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| The perception of the sound wave's amplitude. |
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| The number of cycles (full wavelengths) that pass through a point in a given time interval. |
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| The perceptual interpretation of the frequency of a sound. |
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| The outermost part of the ear, consisting of the pinna and the external auditory canal. |
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| The part of the ear that channels sound through the eardrum, hammer, anvil, and stirrup to the inner ear. |
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| Tympanic Membrane (eardrum) |
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| Separates the outer ear from the middle ear and vibrates in response to sound waves. |
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| The part of the ear that includes the oval window, cochlea, and basilar membrane. Its function is to convert sound wave into neural impulses and send them to the brain. |
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| The visible funnel-shaped outer part of the ear. |
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| Found in the middle ear. Intricately connected chain of the three smallest bones in the human body. Vibration of the these bones transmits sound waves to the inner ear. |
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| A membrane in the inner ear that the stirrup is connected to. Transmits sound waves to the cochlea. |
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| The part of the inner ear that is a tubular fluid-filled structure. This part of the ear is coiled up like a snail. |
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| A part of the inner ear that lines the cochlea and runs its entire length. This membrane is lined with hair cells. |
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| The ear's sensory receptors which are found in the cochlea. |
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| A jellylike flap found in the cochlea. Movement of the auditory hair cells against this membrane generate impulses that the brain interprets as sound. |
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| Theory on how the inner ear registers the frequency of sound, stating that each frequency produces vibrations at a particular spot on the basilar membrane. - Theory of hearing |
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| Theory on how the inner ear registers the frequency of sound, stating that the perception of a sound's frequency depends on how often the auditory nerves fire - Theory of hearing |
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| Modification of frequency theory stating that a cluster of nerve cells can fire neural impulses in rapid succession, producing a volley of impulses - Theory of hearing |
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| The nerve structure that receives information about sound from the hair cells of the inner ear and carries these neural impulses to the brain's auditory areas. |
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| Receptors in the skin for touch, temperature, and pain. |
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| The detection of mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. - Cutaneous Sense |
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| Sensory nerve endings under the skin that response to changes in temperature at or near the skin and provide input to keep the body's temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. |
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| The sensation that warns us of damage to our bodies. |
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| Sense responsible for processing chemicals in our environment. The senses that allow us to detect taste and smell. |
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| Rounded bumps above the tongue's surface that contains the taste buds. |
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| The bodies receptors for taste. Contained in the papillae on the tongues surface. Different sections of the tongue contain taste buds responsible for detecting sweet, bitter, salty, and sour. |
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| The lining of the roof of the nasal cavity, containing a sheet of receptor cells for smell. Neurons of the olfactory epithelium have the ability to replace themselves after injury. |
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| Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) |
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| An evolutionary perspective that says the goal of human mating is to find someone with whom to produce the healthiest offspring due to having a differing set of genes. |
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| Senses that provide information about movement, posture, and orientation. Not contained in any specific organ - embedded in muscle fibers and joints. |
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| Sense that provides information about balance and movement. |
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| Information about the position of our limbs and body parts in relation to other body parts. Works in concert with the kinesthetic sense. |
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| Three fluid-filled circular tubes in the inner ear containing the sensory receptors that detect head motion caused when we tilt or move our head and/or body. |
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| Rays that are shorter than 400 nm |
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| Rays that are longer than 700 nm |
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| Caused by poor transfer of vibrations from tympanic membrane to inner ear; can be compensated for with use of amplifier (aka: hearing aid) |
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| Caused by damage to hair cells or the auditory nerve; hearing aids don't work in this case because auditory messages cannot reach the brain, and cochlear implants (electronic devices that stimulate auditory nerves) can be used but are not always effective. |
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