| Term | Definition |
|---|
| sensation | process of receiving information from the environment |
| perception | process of organizing incoming sensory information and giving it meaning |
| white light | light as it originates from the sun or a bulb, contains all wavelengths |
| cornea | clear outer covering of the eye |
| iris | colored circular muscle in the eye whcih controls the amount of light that gets in |
| lens | part of the eye that focuses images on the back of the eye |
| pupil | the opening in the eye to allow light in |
| retina | the back of the eye which contains receptors that allow us to sense images |
| blind spot | area in the retina in which there are no rods or cones and therefore no sensory detection |
| rod | visual receptor sensitive in low light, no real color vision or sharpness and detail |
| cone | visual receptor active in high light levels, detects color and sharpness of vision |
| afterimage | firing of cones not used after viewing an object for a time that causes an image to appear in opposite colors |
| audition | the sense of hearing |
| pitch | how high or low a tone is |
| timbre | the complexity of a tone (why a guitar sounds different from a piano) |
| intensity | also called volume, how loud a sound is (measured in decibels) |
| eardrum | membrane in the inner ear that detects vibrations in the air and sends them on to the cochlea |
| cochlea | snail-shaped part of the ear that has hair cells that respond to vibration and determines qualities of the sounds we hear |
| hair cells | receptor cells for hearing found in the cochlea |
| cutaneous receptors | our three types of touch receptors which respond to pressure, temperatuer, and pain |
| olfaction | our sense of smell |
| cilia | tiny hair-like receptor cells that receive odor molecules for detection |
| olfactory bulbs | specialized neuron receptors cells that communicate the types of smells we receive to the brain |
| pheromones | odor molecules that communicate a message (often sexual interest) |
| size constancy | our ability to retain the size of an object mentally regardless of its distance from us (the size of its image on our retina) |
| color constancy | ability to perceive an object as the same color regardless of the changing light it may be reflecting |
| space constancy | ability to keep objects in the environment steady in our mind despite movement around us |
| depth perception | ability to see objects in space and judge their distance from us |
| binocular disparity | difference between the two images each eye perceives (aids in depth perception) |
| visual texture | depth perception based on how detailed or blurry an object appears |
| gestalt | organized whole, something that is greater than the sum of its parts (a school of thought in perception) |
| similarity | principle that we group thins together that are alike |
| closure | principle that we see things as wholes by filling in the missing details of what we see |
| proximity | principle that we group things together based on their closeness to each other |
| illusion | an inaccurate perception often occuring because it violates perceptual constancies |
| subliminal perception | ability to perceive or sense information below our level of consciousness |
Combine with other sets
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