 | Term | Definition |
| |
sensation |
process of receiving information from the environment |
| |
perception |
process of organizing incoming sensory information and giving it meaning |
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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 |
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lens |
part of the eye that focuses images on the back of the eye |
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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 |
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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 |
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cone |
visual receptor active in high light levels, detects color and sharpness of vision |
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afterimage |
firing of cones not used after viewing an object for a time that causes an image to appear in opposite colors |
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audition |
the sense of hearing |
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pitch |
how high or low a tone is |
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timbre |
the complexity of a tone (why a guitar sounds different from a piano) |
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intensity |
also called volume, how loud a sound is (measured in decibels) |
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eardrum |
membrane in the inner ear that detects vibrations in the air and sends them on to the cochlea |
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cochlea |
snail-shaped part of the ear that has hair cells that respond to vibration and determines qualities of the sounds we hear |
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hair cells |
receptor cells for hearing found in the cochlea |
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cutaneous receptors |
our three types of touch receptors which respond to pressure, temperatuer, and pain |
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olfaction |
our sense of smell |
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cilia |
tiny hair-like receptor cells that receive odor molecules for detection |
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olfactory bulbs |
specialized neuron receptors cells that communicate the types of smells we receive to the brain |
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pheromones |
odor molecules that communicate a message (often sexual interest) |
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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) |
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color constancy |
ability to perceive an object as the same color regardless of the changing light it may be reflecting |
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space constancy |
ability to keep objects in the environment steady in our mind despite movement around us |
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depth perception |
ability to see objects in space and judge their distance from us |
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binocular disparity |
difference between the two images each eye perceives (aids in depth perception) |
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visual texture |
depth perception based on how detailed or blurry an object appears |
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gestalt |
organized whole, something that is greater than the sum of its parts (a school of thought in perception) |
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similarity |
principle that we group thins together that are alike |
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closure |
principle that we see things as wholes by filling in the missing details of what we see |
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proximity |
principle that we group things together based on their closeness to each other |
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illusion |
an inaccurate perception often occuring because it violates perceptual constancies |
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subliminal perception |
ability to perceive or sense information below our level of consciousness |
