Psychology Chapter 3
About this set
Created by:
hannah_3636 on September 29, 2012
Description:
What is Psychology Essentials
Copied From:
Set copied from dmarcinko
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.
Order by
65 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 the minimum intensity of a stimulus at which participants can identify its presence 50% of the time | absolute threshold |
| (1) the process through which the lens is stretched or squeezed to focus light on the retina; (2) the process by which a schema is changed, modified, or created anew in order to understand something new in the environment | accommodation |
| a physical property of some energies that corresponds to the height of wave peaks | amplitude |
| an organism's ability to focus its consciousness on some aspect of its own mental processes and/or its environment | attention |
| the nerve that carries information from the inner ear to the brain | auditory nerve |
| the structure in the cochlear duct that contains the hair cells, which convert sound waves into action potentials | basilar membrane |
| depth cues that utilize information from both eyes | binocular [bye-NOCK-you-lar] depth cues |
| the point where the optic nerve leaves the retina, where there are no rods or cones | blindspot |
| perception that is not guided by prior knowledge or expectations | bottom-up perceptual processing |
| the intensity of light; it corresponds to the amplitude of the light waves | brightness |
| a Gestalt principle of perception that states that when we look at a stimulus, we tend to see it as a closed shape rather than lines | closure |
| the curled, fluid-filled tube that contains the basilar membrane in the inner ear | cochlea [COCK-lee-uh] |
| a condition in which a person cannot perceive one or more colors because of a lack of specific cones in the retina | color blindness |
| the cells of the retina that are sensitive to specific colors of light and send information to the brain concerning the colors we are seeing | cones |
| a physical characteristic of energy defined as a wave peak and the valley that immediately follows it | cycle |
| the process through which our eyes adjust to dark conditions after having been exposed to bright light | dark adaptation |
| the unit of measure used to determine the loudness of a sound | decibels [DESS-uh-bells] (dB) |
| the inner layer of the skin | dermis |
| proposes that a combination of volley and place theory explains how our brain decodes pitch | duplicity theory |
| the outer layer of the skin | epidermis |
| a theory of perception that proposes the existence of feature detectors, cortical cells that fire only when we see certain visual stimuli such as shapes, colors of light, or movement | feature detection theory |
| specialized cells in the visual cortex that fire only when they receive input that indicates we are looking at a particular shape, color, angle, or other visual feature | feature detectors |
| a Gestalt principle of perception that states that when we perceive a stimulus, we visually pull the figure part of the stimulus forward while visuallypushing backward the background, or ground, part of the stimulus | figure-ground |
| a physical characteristic of energy defined as the number of cycles that occur in a given unit of time | frequency |
| proposes that our brain decodes pitch directly from the frequency at which the hair cells of the basilar membrane are firing | frequency theory |
| a psychological school of thought originating in Germany that proposed that the whole of a perception must be understood rather than trying to deconstruct perception into its parts | Gestalt [gush-TALLT] approach |
| a Gestalt principle of perception that states that we have a preference for perceiving stimuli that seem to follow one another as part of a continuing pattern | good continuation |
| the sense of taste | gustation [gus-TAY-shun] |
| neurons that grow out of the basilar membrane and convert sounds waves into action potentials | hair cells |
| the color of a light | hue |
| the minimum change in intensity of a stimulus that participants can detect 50% of the time | just noticeable difference (jnd) |
| the ability to sense the position of our body parts in relation to one another and in relation to space | kinesthesis [kin-ess-THEE-sis] |
| the part of the eye that lies behind the pupil and focuses light rays on the retina | lens |
| the process through which our eyes adjust to bright light after having been exposed to darkness | light adaptation |
| proposes that olfactory receptors are excited by odor molecules in a fashion that is similar to how neurotransmitters excite receptor sites | lock-and-key theory |
| the psychophysical property of sound that corresponds to the amplitude of a sound wave | loudness |
| depth cues that require information from only one eye | monocular depth cues |
| the sense of smell | olfaction |
| a special piece of skin at the top of the nasal cavity that contains the olfactory receptors | olfactory epithelium [ole-FACT-uh-ree epp-ith-THEEL-ee-um] |
| proposes that we have dualaction cells beyond the level of the retina that signal the brain when we see one of a pair of colors | opponent-process theory |
| the point in the brain where the optic nerve from the left eye crosses over the optic nerve from the right eye | optic chiasm |
| the structure that conveys visual information away from the retina to the brain | optic nerve |
| bumps on the tongue that many people mistake for taste buds | bumps on the tongue that many people mistake for taste buds |
| the process through which we interpret sensory information | perception |
| airborne chemicals that are released from glands and detected by the vomeronasal organs in some animals and perhaps humans | pheromones [FAIR-uh-moans] |
| light-sensitive chemicals that create electrical changes when they come into contact with light | photopigments |
| the psychophysical property of sound that corresponds to the frequency of a sound wave | pitch |
| proposes that our brain decodes pitch by noticing which region of the basilar membrane is most active | place theory |
| (1) a Gestalt principle of perception that states that we tend to group close objects together during perception; (2) physical closeness | proximity |
| the study of how the mind interprets the physical properties of stimuli | psychophysics |
| the hole in the iris through which light enters the eye | pupil |
| the structure at the back of the eye that contains cells that convert light into neural signals | retina |
| a binocular depth cue that uses the difference in the images projected on the right and left retinas to inform the brain about the distance of a stimulus | retinal disparity |
| the light-sensitive cells of the retina that pick up any type of light energy and convert it to neural signals | rods |
| the purity of light; pure light or saturated light consists of a single wavelength | saturation |
| the process through which our sense organs convert environmental energies such as light and sound into neural impulses | sensation |
| a Gestalt principle of perception that states that we tend to group like objects together during perception | similarity |
| when the intensity of a stimulus is below the participant's absolute threshold and the participant is not consciously aware of the stimulus | subliminal |
| the sense organs for taste that are found between the papillae on the tongue | taste buds |
| the idea that color vision is made possible by the presence of three different types of cones in the retina that react respectively to either red, green, or blue light | trichromatic [try-crow-MAT-ick] theory of color vision |
| the sense of balance | vestibular [ves-STIB-you-lar] sense |
| the spectrum of light that humans can see | visible spectrum |
| proposes that our brain decodes pitch by noticing the frequency at which groups of hair cells on the basilar membrane are firing | volley theory |
| a physical property of some energies that corresponds to the distance between wave peaks | wavelength |
| a psychological principle that states that for each of our five senses, the amount of change in the stimulus that is necessary to produce a jnd depends on the intensity at which the stimulus is first presented | Weber's [VAY-bers] law |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.