Chapter 5: Sensation and Perception

Provides us with feedback about our muscles and joints positions and movements.

To refer to the failure of unattended stimuli to register in consciousness.

During which certain kinds of experiences must occur if perceptual abilities and the brain mechanisms that underlie them are to develop normally.

Making "sense "of what our senses tell us- is the active process of organizing this stimulus input and giving it meaning.

Refers to the vertical size of the sound waves- that is, the amount of compression and expansion of the molecules in the conducting medium.

The progressive improvement in brightness sensitivity that occurs over time under conditions of low illumination.

Is the process whereby the characteristics of a stimulus are converted into nerve impulses.

The lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected 50 percent of the time.

A multi- layered light- sensitive tissue at the rear of the fluid- filled eyeball.

Is produced by feedback from the muscles that turn your eyes inward to view a close object.

Rods and cones translate light waves into nerve impulses through the action of protein molecules.

States that the difference threshold or jnd is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made.

A sheet of tissue that runs its length.

Contains about 16, 000 tiny hair cells that are the actual sound receptors.

Which function best in dim light, are primarily black- and- white brightness receptors.

Chemical receptors concentrated along the tip, edges, and back surface of the tongue.

An elastic structure that becomes thinner to focus on distant objects and thicker to focus on nearby objects.

The number of sound waves, or cycles, per second.

The diminishing sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus.

A standard of how certain they must be that a stimulus is present before they will say they detect it.

Chemical signals found in natural body scents.

A small area in the center of the retina that contains no rods but many densely packed cones.

Fire selectively in response to visual stimuli that have specific characteristics.

The technical measure of cycles per second; 1 ________ equals 1 cycle per second.

Studies relations between the physical characteristics of stimuli and sensory capabilities.

A coiled, snail- shaped tube about 3.5 centimeters (1.4 inches) in length that is filled with fluid and contains the Basilar Membrane.

The system takes in individual elements of the stimulus and then combines them into a unified perception.

Ability to see fine detail.

The sense of smell.

The sense of taste.

________: there are three types of color receptors in the retina.

A forebrain structure immediately above the nasal cavity.

Allow us to recognize familiar stimuli under varying conditions.

Is the stimulus detection process by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain.

Which require only one eye.

Compelling but incorrect perceptions.

The sense of body orientation, or equilibrium.

Tendency to organize stimuli into a central or foreground figure and a background.

Illusory movement produced when a light is briefly flashed in darkness and then, a few milliseconds later, another light is flashed nearby.

Where each eye sees a slightly different image.

Proposes that the experience of pain results from the opening and closing of gating mechanisms in the nervous systems.

Sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations.

Are color receptors, function best in bright illumination.

Is concerned with the factors that influence sensory judgments.

Caused by damaged receptors within the inner ear or damage to the auditory nerve itself.

A mental representation or image containing the critical and distinctive features of a person, object, event, or other perceptual phenomena.