Psych Unit 4B&C: Sensation and Perception
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Created by:
estrailblazer on October 5, 2011
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35 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 acuity | the sharpness of vision |
| nearsightedness | a condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in front of the retina |
| 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 |
| audition | the sense of hearing |
| frequency | the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time |
| pitch | a tone's highness or lowness |
| middle ear | the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones 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 |
| cochlea | a coiled, bony, fluid filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses |
| 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 |
| condition 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 |
| 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 |
| sensory interaction | the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences taste |
| kinesthesis | the system for sensing the position and movement for individual body parts |
| vestibular sense | the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance |
| selective attention | the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect |
| visual capture | the tendency for vision to dominate other senses |
| gestalt | an organized whole |
| figure-ground | the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings |
| grouping | the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli in coherent groups |
| depth perception | the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional |
| visual cliff | a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals |
| binocular cues | depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes |
| monocular cues | distance cues, such as linear perspective and overlap, available to either eye alone |
| retinal disparity | a binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance-the greater the disparity between the two images, the closer the object |
| convergence | a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object |
| phi phenomenon | an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession |
| perceptual constancy | perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change |
| perceptual adaptation | in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field |
| perceptual set | a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
| 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 (ESP) | the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input |
| parapsychology | the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis |
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