Data

Copy and paste the text below. It is read-only. Select All

selective attention the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect cocktail party effect describes the ability to focus one's listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversations and background noises, ignoring other conversations; form of selective attention sensory interaction the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of good influences its taste chemical senses taste and smell kinesthesis the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts; receptors located in our muscles and joints olfactory cortex location temporal lobe smelling process molecules of a substance are carried in the air and up the nasal cavity towards a tiny cluster of millions of receptor cells; from the receptor cells, the impulse goes to the olfactory bulb; this in turn sends the impulse to the temporal lobe's olfactory cortex and the limbic system 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 the small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain touch basic sensations pressure, warmth, cold, pain accomodation the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina nearsightedness a condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in front of the retina; can't see objects that are far away farsightedness a condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly than near objects because the image of near objects is focused behind the retina; can't see objects that are nearby or close properties of sound frequency, amplitude frequency the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time; determines the pitch of a sound; short wavelength = high frequency; long wavelength = low frequency amplitude how loud the sound is; the higher the crest of the wave is the louder the sound is; measured in decibels Young-Helmholtz 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 opponent-process theory the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white) enable color vision; ex. some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red while others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green; also explains why we cannot see certain colors in combination with each other (ex. we cannot see a reddish green) 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-by-step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving processing visual information Phase 1: gathering the light; phase 2: within the eye (cornea - pupil - lens - retina); phase 3: transduction (rods/cones - bipolar cells - ganglion cells - optic nerve); phase 4: in the brain (goes to visual cortex in occipital lobe where feature detectors identify movement, shape, etc. and parallel processing occurs) rods retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond cones receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations cochlea a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear, through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses iris a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening sensation the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment perception the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events properties of color hue, intensity hue the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what is known as the color names blue, green, and so forth intensity the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude psychophysics the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychosocial experience of them transduction conversion of one form of energy into another; in sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses electromagnetic waves ROY G BIV Weber's Law the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) sensory adaptation diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation subliminal below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness absolute threshold the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time Gestalt an organized whole Gestalt psychology emphasizes our tendency to integrate peices of information into meaningful wholes; focuses on how we group objects together (usually through proximity, similarity, and continuity) continuity top-down processing figure ground the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground) proximity grouping objects that are close together phi phenomenon an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession connectedness grouping objects together because they appear to be connected closure top-down processing; we fill gaps in if we can recognize it linear perspective the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer visual cliff a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals; monocular cue relative clarity a monocular cue for perceiving depth; hazy objects are farther away than sharp, clear objects binocular cues retinal disparity; convergence; depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes retinal disparity a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance --- the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object interposition monocular visual cue in which two objects are in the same line of vision and one partially conceals the other, indicating that the first object concealed is further away convergence a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object parapsychology the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis visual capture the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses perceptual adaptation in vision, the ability to adjust to an artifically displaced or even inverted visual field perceptual set a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another Blackmore and Cooper experiment sensory restriction; kittens raised without exposure to horizontal lines later had difficulty perceiving horizontal bars bottom-up processing analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information top-down processing information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we contruct perceptions drawing on our experienec 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 that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivations, and level of fatigue difference threshold the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time; we experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference wavelength the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next; electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission pupil the adjustable opening in the venter of the eye through which light enters lens the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina retina the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information acuity the sharpness of vision optic nerve the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain blind spot the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there fovea the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster feature detectors nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement color constancy perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object audition the sense of hearing pitch a tone's highness or lowness; depends on frequency 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 vestibular sense the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance grouping the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups depth perception the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance monocular cues distance dues, such as linear perspective and overlap, available to either eye alone perceptual constancy preceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change human factors psychology a branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be adapted to human behaviors extrasensory perception the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition