| Term | Definition |
|---|
| absolute threshold | The smallest magnitude of a stimulus that can be detected half the time. |
| audition | the sense of hearing. |
| basilar membrane | One of the membranes that separate the two tubes of the cochlea and on which the organ of Corti rests. |
| basket cells | Sensory receptor cells at the base of hairs that detect pressure. |
| binocular cues | Two visual cues that require both eyes to allow us to perceive depth. |
| blind spot | The spot where the optic nerve attaches to the retina, which contains no rods or cones. |
| bone conduction hearing | Hearing accomplished through sounds transmitted through the bones of the head directly to the cochlear fluid. |
| ciliary muscle | The muscle in the eye that controls the shape of the lens. |
| cochlea | A curved structure of the inner ear that is filled with fluid. |
| cones | The 6 million receptor cells located mostly in the center of the retina that transduce light waves into neural impulses, thereby coding information about light, dark, and color. |
| cornea | The protective coating on the surface of the eye through which light passes. |
| cupula | A gelatin-like structure containing a tuft of hairlike sensory receptor cells in the semicircular canals. |
| dark adaptation | Increased sensitivity of the eye in semidarkness following an abrupt reduction in overall illumination. |
| decibel | Measurement of the intensity of perceived sound. |
| difference threshold | The smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time. |
| eardrum | A thin membrane that sound waves cause to vibrate; a structure of the middle ear., the membrane in the ear that vibrates to sound |
| electromagnetic radiation | A form of energy including electricity, radio waves, and X rays, of which visible light is a part. |
| fovea | The central spot of the retina, which contains the greatest concentration of cones. |
| free nerve endings | Sensory receptor cells in the skin that detect pressure, temperature, and pain. |
| external auditory canal | external passage for sounds collected from the pinna to the tympanum |
| gustation | The sense of taste. |
| hammer - anvil - stirrup | Three linked bones of the middle ear, which pass sound waves to the inner ear. |
| hertz | The measurement of the frequency of sound waves in cycles per second. |
| intensity | The density of vibrating air molecules, which determines the loudness of sound. |
| iris | The colored part of the eye behind the cornea that regulates the amount of light that enters. |
| kinesthetic receptors | Receptors in the muscles, joints, and skin that provide information about movement, posture, and orientation. |
| lens | The transparent portion of the eye that focuses light on the retina. |
| light adaptation | Regaining sensitivity of the eye to bright light following an abrupt increase in overall illumination. |
| monocular cues | Eight visual cues that can be seen with one eye and that allow us to perceive depth. |
| nocioceptors | Receptors for stimuli that are experienced as painful. |
| olfaction | The sense of smell. |
| olfactory epithelium | The sheet of receptor cells at the top of the nasal cavity. |
| opponent-process theory | The theory of color vision contending that the visual system has two kinds of color processors, which respond to light in either the red-green or yellow-blue ranges of wavelength. |
| optic chiasm | The area in the brain where the optic nerves cross. |
| optic nerve | The nerve that carries neural messages about vision to the brain. |
| organ of Corti | A sensory receptor in the cochlea that transduces sound waves into coded neural impulses. |
| oval window | The membrane of the inner ear that vibrates, creating sound waves in the fluid of the cochlea. |
| papillae | Clusters of taste buds on the tongue. |
| perception | The process of organizing and interpreting information received from the outside world. |
| perceptual constancy | The tendency for perceptions of objects to remain relatively unchanged, in spite of changes in raw sensations. |
| pinna | The external part of the ear. |
| pitch | The experience of sound vibrations sensed as high or low. |
| psychophysics | A specialty area of psychology that studies sensory limits, sensory adaptation, and related topics. |
| pupil | The opening of the iris. |
| retina | The area at the back of the eye on which images are formed and that contains the rods and cones. |
| rods | The 125 million cells located outside the center of the retina that transduce light waves into neural impulses, thereby coding information about light and dark. |
| round window | The membrane that relieves pressure from the vibrating waves in the cochlear fluid. |
| saccule utricle | Fluid-filled sacs of the vestibular organ that inform the brain about the body's orientation. |
| semicircular canals | Three nearly circular tubes in the vestibular organ that inform the brain about tilts of the head and body. |
| sensation | The process of receiving, translating, and transmitting messages from the outside world to the brain. |
| sense organs | Organs that receive stimuli. |
| sensory adaptation | Weakened magnitude of a sensation resulting from prolonged presentation of the stimulus. |
| sensory receptor cells | Cells in sense organs that translate messages into neural impulses that are sent to the brain. |
| sound waves | Vibratory changes in the air that carry sound.frequency of cycles*The rate of vibration of sound waves; determines pitch. |
| specialized end bulbs | Sensory receptor cells that detect pressure and skin pleasure. |
| stereochemical theory | The theory that different odor receptors can be stimulated only by molecules of a specific size and shape that fit them like a "key" in a lock. |
| stimulus | Any aspect of the outside world that directly influences our behavior or conscious experience. |
| tactile discs | Sensory receptor cells that detect pressure. |
| taste cells | The sensory receptor cells for gustation located in the taste buds. |
| timbre | The characteristic quality of a sound as determined by the complexity of the sound wave. |
| transduction | The translation of energy from one form to another. |
| trichromatic theory | the theory of color vision contending that the eye has three different kinds of cones, each of which responds to light of one range of wavelength. |
| vestibular organ | The sensory structures in the inner ear that provide the brain with information about orientation and movement. |
| visual acuity | Clearness and sharpness of vision. |
| wavelength | The frequency of light waves, which determines the color we see. |
| Weber's law | A law stating that the amount of change in a stimulus needed to detect a difference is in direct proportion to the intensity of the original stimulus. |
| bottom-up processing | analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information. |
| top-down processing | information processing guided by higherlevel mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. |
| signal detection theory | a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise"). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue. |
| subliminal | below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness. |
| priming | the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. |
| hue | the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth. |
| accommodation | the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. |
| feature detectors | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. |
| parallel processing | the processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-bystep (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving. |
| Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory | the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue—which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color. |
| color constancy | perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object. |
| frequency | the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second). |
| middle ear | the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window. |
| inner ear | the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs |
| place theory | in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated. |
| frequency theory | in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. |
| conduction hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. |
| sensorineural hearing loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness. |
| cochlear implant | a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea |
| gate-control theory | the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain. |
| sensory interaction | the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste. |
| kinesthesis | the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. |
| vestibular sense | the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance. |
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