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| The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. |
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| The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. |
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| Analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information. |
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| Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectation. |
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| The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them |
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| The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. |
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| Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes that there is not single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue. |
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| Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness |
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| The minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference. JND- Just noticeable difference |
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| The principle that, to perceive their difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than by a constant amount) |
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| Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. |
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| Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses. |
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| Distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next |
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| The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light. |
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| The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude. |
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| The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters. |
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| A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of he pupil opening. |
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| The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus images on the retina. |
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| Process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus the image of near objects on the retina. |
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| 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. |
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| A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because the lens focuses the image of distant objects in front of the retina. |
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| A condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly than near objects because the image of near objects is focused behind the retina. |
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| Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray: necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond. |
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| Receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine details and give rise to color sensations. |
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| The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. |
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| The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind” spot because no receptor cells are located there. |
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| The central focal point in the retina, around which eye’s cones cluster |
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| Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. |
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| The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. |
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| Young-Helmoltz trichromatic (3-color) theory |
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| 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. |
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| The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. |
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| Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object. |
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| In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated. |
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| 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. |
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| Hearing loss used by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. |
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| Sensorineural hearing loss |
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| Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness. |
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| Theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that block pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain. |
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| The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste. |
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| The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. |
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| The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance. |
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| The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as in the cocktail party effect. |
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| The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses |
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| An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. |
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| The organization of the visual field into objects (figure) that stand out from their surroundings (ground) |
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| The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. |
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| The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance. |
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| A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. |
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| Depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the se of two eyes. |
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| Distance cues, such as linear perspective and overlap, available to either eye alone. |
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| A binocular cue for perceiving depth; The greater the disparity (difference) between the two images the retina receives of an object, the closer the object is to the viewer. |
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| A binocular cue for perceiving depth, the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object. |
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| An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession |
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| Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change. |
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| In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual filed. |
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| A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. |
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| Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) |
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| The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. |
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| The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP ad psychokinesis. |
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