Key Terms of Sensation & Perception
- absolute threshold
- minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time
- afterimage
- continuation of a visual sensation after removal of the stimulus
- amplitude
- height of a wave
- basilar membrane
- thin strip of tissue within the cochlea that contains the hair cells which serve as the sensory receptors for the auditory system
- binaural cue
- two-eared cue to localize sound
- binocular cue
- cue that relies on the use of both eyes
- binocular disparity
- slightly different view of the world that each eye receives
- blind spot
- point where we cannot respond to visual information in that portion of the visual field
- bottom-up processing
- system in which perceptions are built from sensory input
- closure
- organizing our perceptions into complete objects rather than as a series of parts
- cochlea
- fluid-filled, snail-shaped structure that contains the sensory receptor cells of the auditory system
- cochlear implant
- electronic device that consists of a microphone, a speech processor, and an electrode array to directly stimulate the auditory nerve to transmit information to the brain
- conductive hearing loss
- failure in the vibration of the eardrum and/or movement of the ossicles
- cone
- specialized photoreceptor that works best in bright light conditions and detects colour
- congenital deafness
- deafness from birth
- congenital insensitivity to pain (congenital analgesia)
- genetic disorder that results in the inability to experience pain
- cornea
- transparent covering over the eye
- deafness
- partial or complete inability to hear
- decibel (dB)
- logarithmic unit of sound intensity
- depth perception
- ability to perceive depth
- electromagnetic spectrum
- all the electromagnetic radiation that occurs in our environment
- figure-ground relationship
- segmenting our visual world into figure and ground
- fovea
- small indentation in the retina that contains cones
- frequency
- number of waves that pass a given point in a given time period
- Gestalt psychology
- field of psychology based on the idea that the whole is different from the sum of its parts
- good continuation
- (also, continuity) we are more likely to perceive continuous, smooth flowing lines rather than jagged, broken lines
- hair cell
- auditory receptor cell of the inner ear
- hertz (Hz)
- cycles per second; measure of frequency
- inattentional blindness
- failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of attention
- incus
- middle ear ossicle; also known as the anvil
- inflammatory pain
- signal that some type of tissue damage has occurred
- interaural level difference
- sound coming from one side of the body is more intense at the closest ear because of the attenuation of the sound wave as it passes through the head
- interaural timing difference
- small difference in the time at which a given sound wave arrives at each ear
- iris
- coloured portion of the eye
- just noticeable difference
- difference in stimuli required to detect a difference between the stimuli
- kinaesthesia
- perception of the body’s movement through space
- lens
- curved, transparent structure that provides additional focus for light entering the eye
- linear perspective
- perceive depth in an image when two parallel lines seem to converge
- malleus
- middle ear ossicle; also known as the hammer
- Meissner’s corpuscle
- touch receptor that responds to pressure and lower frequency vibrations
- Ménière’s disease
- results in a degeneration of inner ear structures that can lead to hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, and an increase in pressure within the inner ear
- Merkel’s disk
- touch receptor that responds to light touch
- monaural cue
- one-eared cue to localize sound
- monocular cue
- cue that requires only one eye
- neuropathic pain
- pain from damage to neurones of either the peripheral or central nervous system
- nociception
- sensory signal indicating potential harm and maybe pain
- olfactory bulb
- bulb-like structure at the tip of the frontal lobe, where the olfactory nerves begin
- olfactory receptor
- sensory cell for the olfactory system
- opponent-process theory of colour perception
- colour is coded in opponent pairs: black-white, yellow-blue, and red-green
- optic chiasm
- X-shaped structure that sits just below the brain’s ventral surface; represents the merging of the optic nerves from the two eyes and the separation of information from the two sides of the visual field to the opposite side of the brain
- optic nerve
- carries visual information from the retina to the brain
- Pacinian corpuscle
- touch receptor that detects transient pressure and higher frequency vibrations
- pattern perception
- ability to discriminate among different figures and shapes
- peak
- (also, crest) highest point of a wave
- perception
- way that sensory information is interpreted and consciously experienced
- perceptual hypothesis
- educated guess used to interpret sensory information
- pheromone
- chemical message sent by another individual
- photoreceptor
- light-detecting cell
- pinna
- visible part of the ear that protrudes from the head
- pitch
- perception of a sound’s frequency
- place theory of pitch perception
- different portions of the basilar membrane are sensitive to sounds of different frequencies
- principle of closure
- organize perceptions into complete objects rather than as a series of parts
- proprioception
- perception of body position
- proximity
- things that are close to one another tend to be grouped together
- psychophysics
- branch of psychology that studies the effects of physical stimuli on sensory perceptions and mental states
pupil
small opening in the eye through which light passes
- response bias
- behavioural tendency to respond “yes”
retina
light-sensitive lining of the eye
- rod
- specialized photoreceptor that works well in low light conditions
- Ruffini corpuscle
- touch receptor that detects stretch
- sensation
- what happens when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor
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- sensitivity
- the true ability of the individual to detect the presence or absence of signals
- sensorineural hearing loss
- failure to transmit neural signals from the cochlea to the brain
- sensory adaptation
- not perceiving stimuli that remain relatively constant over prolonged periods of time
- signal detection analysis
- technique used to determine the ability of the perceiver to separate true signals from background noise
- similarity
- things that are alike tend to be grouped together
- stapes
- middle ear ossicle; also known as the stirrup
- subliminal stimuli
- events that occur below the absolute threshold and of which we are not conscious
- taste bud
- grouping of taste receptor cells with hair-like extensions that protrude into the central pore of the taste bud
- temporal theory of pitch perception
- sound’s frequency is coded by the activity level of a sensory neurone
- thermoception
- temperature perception
- timbre
- sound’s purity
- top-down processing
- interpretation of sensations is influenced by available knowledge, experiences, and thoughts
- transduction
- conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential
- trichromatic theory of colour perception
- colour vision is mediated by the activity across the three groups of cones
- trough
- lowest point of a wave
- tympanic membrane
- eardrum
- umami
- taste for monosodium glutamate
- vertigo
- spinning sensation
- vestibular sense
- contributes to our ability to maintain balance and body posture
- visible spectrum
- portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see
- wavelength
- length of a wave from one peak to the next peak
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- Weber’s law
- the just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion of the original intensity of the stimulus