Sensation and Perception

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Sensation and Perception

• Chapter 3

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Sensation

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• The process of detecting a physical stimulus,
  such as light, sound, heat, or pressure.

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Perception

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• The process of integrating, organizing, and
  interpreting sensation.

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Sensory Receptors

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• Specialized cells unique to each sense organ that
  respond to a particular form of sensory
  stimulation

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Transduction

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• The process by which a form of physical energy is
  converted into a coded neural signal that can be
  processed by the nervous system

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Absolute Threshold

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• The smallest possible strength of a stimulus that
  can be detected half the time.

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Difference Threshold

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• The smallest possible difference between two
  stimuli that can be detected half the time also
  called just noticeable difference.

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Webers Law

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• A principle of sensation that holds the size of
  the just noticeable difference will vary
  depending on its relation to the strength of the
  original stimulus

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Sensory Adaption

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• The decline in sensitivity to a constant stimulus

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Subliminal perception

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• The perception of stimuli that are below the
  threshold of conscious awareness

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Wavelength

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• The distance from on wave peak to another

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Cornea

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• A clear membrane covering the visible part of the
  eye that helps gather and direct incoming light

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Pupil

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• The opening in the iris that change size to let
  in different amounts of light

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Iris

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• The colored part of the eye, which is the muscle
  that controls the size of the pupil

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Iridology

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• A pseudoscience based on the unproven notion that
  the physical and psychological functioning of an
  individual is represented in marking of the iris

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Lens

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• A transparent structure located behind the pupil
  that actively focuses, or bends, light as it
  enters the eye

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Accommodation

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• The process by which the lens changes shape to
  focus incoming light so that it falls on the
  retina

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Retina

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• A thin, light-sensitive membrane located at the
  back of the eye that contains the sensory
  receptors for vision.

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Rods

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• The long, thin light-sensitive membrane located
  at the back of the eye that contains the sensory
  receptors for vision and night vision

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Cones

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• The short, thick, pointed sensory receptors of
  the eye that detect color and are responsible for
  color vision and visual acuity

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Fovea

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• A small area in the center of the retina,
  composed entirely of cones, where visual
  information is most sharply focused.

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Optic Disk
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• Area of the retina without rods or cones where
  the optic nerve exits the back of the eye

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Blind spot
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• The point at which the optic nerve leaves the
  eye producing a small gap in the field of vision

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Ganglion cells

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• In the retina, the specialized neurons that
  connect to the bipolar cells, the bundled axons
  of the ganglion cells form the optic nerve

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Bipolar cells

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• In the retina, the specialized neuron that
  connects the rods and cones with the ganglion
  cells.

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Optic nerve

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• The thick nerve that exits from the back of the
  eye and carries visual information to the visual
  information to the visual cortex in the brain

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Optic Chiasm

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• Point in the brain where the optic nerve fibers
  from each eye meet and partly cross over to the
  opposite side of the brain

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Trichormatic theory of color vision

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• The theory that the sensation of color results
  because of the cones in the retina are especially
  sensitive to either red light, green light,or
  blue light

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Color blindness

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• One of several inherited forms of color
  deficiency or weakness in which an individual
  cannot distinguish between certain colors

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Afterimage

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• A visual experience that occurs after the
  original source of stimulation is no longer
  present

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Opponent-process theory of color vision

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• The theory that color vision is the product of
  opposing pairs of color receptors, red/green,
  blue/yellow, and black/white when one member of
  color pair is stimulated the other is not

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Audition

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• The technical term for hearing

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Loudness

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• The intensity (or amplitude) of a sound wave,
  measured in decibels

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Amplitude

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• The intensity or amount of energy of a wave,
  reflected In the height of the wave the
  amplitude of a sound determines loudness

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Decibel

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• The unit of measurement for loudness

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Pitch

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• The relative highness or lowness of a sound,
  determined by the frequency of a sound wave.

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Frequency

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• The rate of vibration, or the number of sound
  waves per second

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Timbre

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• The distinctive quality of a sound, determined by
  the complexity of a sound wave

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Outer Ear

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• The part of the ear that collects sound waves
  consists of the pinna, the ear canal, and the
  eardrum

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Eardrum

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• A tightly stretched membrane at the end of the
  ear canal that vibrates when hit by sound wave

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Middle ear

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• The part of the ear that amplifies sound waves,
  consist of three small bones, the hammer, the
  anvil, and the stirrup

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Inner Ear

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• The part of the ear where sound is transduced
  into neural impulses consist of the cochlea and
  semicircular canals

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Cochlea
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• The coiled, fluid-filled inner-ear structure that
  contains the sensory receptors for sound

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Basilar Membrane

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• The membrane within the cochlea of the ear that
  contains the hair cells

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Hair cells

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• The hair like sensory receptors for sound, found
  in the basilar membrane of the cochlea

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Frequency theory

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• The view that the basilar membrane vibrates at
  the same frequency as the sound wave

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Place theory

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• The view that different frequencies cause larger
  vibrations at different locations along the
  basilar membrane

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Olfaction

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• Technical name for the sense smell

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Gustation

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• Technical name for the sense of taste.

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Olfactory bulb

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• The enlarged ending of the olfactory cortex at
  the front of the brain where the sensation of
  smell is registered

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Pheromones

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• Chemical signals released by an animal that
  communicates information and affect the behavior
  of other animals of the same species

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Taste buds

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• The specialized sensory receptors for taste that
  are located on the tongue and inside the mouth
  and throat

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Pain

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• The unpleasant sensation of physical discomfort
  or suffering that can occur in varying degrees of
  intensity

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Gate-control theory

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• The theory that pain is a product of both
  physiological and psychological factors that
  cause spinal gates to open and relay patterns of
  intense stimulation to the brain, which perceives
  them as pain.

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Substance P

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• A neurotransmitter that is involved in the
  transmission of pain messages to the brain

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Kinesthetic sense

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• The technical name for the sense of location and
  position of body parts in relation to one another

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Proprioceptros

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• Sensory receptors, located in the muscles and
  joints, that provide information about body
  position and movement.

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Vestibular sense

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• The technical name for the sense of balance, or
  equilibrium.

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ESP (extrasensory perception)

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• Perception of information by some means other
  than through the normal process of sensation

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Parapsychology

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• The scientific investigation of claims of
  paranormal phenomena and abilities

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Bottom-up processing

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• Information processing that emphasizes the
  importance of the sensory receptors in detecting
  the basic features of a stimulus in the process
  of recognizing a whole pattern also called
  data-driven processing

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Top-down processing

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• Information processing that emphasizes the
  importance of the observers knowledge,
  exceptions, and other cognitive processes, in
  arriving at meaningful perception analysis that
  moves from the whole parts also called
  conceptually driven processing

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Gestalt psychology

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• a school of psychology founded in Germany in the
  early 1900s that maintained that our sensations
  are actively processed according to consistent
  perceptual rules that result in meaningful whole
  perceptions

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Figure-ground relationship

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• A Gestalt principle of perceptual organization
  that states that we automatically separate the
  elements of a perception into the feature that
  clearly stands out and its less distinct in the
  background

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Depth perception

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• The use of visual cues to perceive the distance
  or three-dimensional characteristics of objects

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Monocular cues

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• Distance or depth cues that can be processed by
  either eye alone

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Binocular cues

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• distances or depth cues that require the use of
  both eyes

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Perceptual cues

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• The tendency to perceive objects, especially
  familiar objects, as constant and unchanging
  despite changes in sensory input

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Size constancy

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• The perception of an object as maintaining the
  same shape regardless of the image produced on
  the retina

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Shape constancy
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• The perception of an object as maintaining the
  same shape regardless of the image produced on
  the retina

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Brightness constancy

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• The perception that the brightness of an object
  remains the same even though the lighting
  conditions change

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Perceptual illusion

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• The misperceptions of the true characteristics of
  an object or an image

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Muller-Lyer Illusion

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• A famous visual illusion involving the
  misperception of the identical length of two
  lines, one with an arrow pointed inward, one with
  an arrow pointed outwards

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Moon illusion

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• A visual involving the misperception that the
  moon is larger when it is on the horizon than
  when is directly overhead

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Perceptual set

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• the influence of prior assumptions and
  exceptions on perceptual interpretations.

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KEY PEOPLE

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Karl Duncker

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• German Gestalt psychologist who is best known for
  his studies on the perception of motion also
  studies the perception of pain and the effect of
  past experience on perception.

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Max Wertheimer

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• German psychologist who founded Gestalt
  psychology in the early 1900s, immigrated to the
  United States in 1933, studied the optical
  illusion of apparent movement, and described
  principles of perception