the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.
  • frequency
  • wavelength
  • pitch
  • amplitude
conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses.
  • sensation
  • sensory adaptation
  • perception
  • transduction
literally, "below threshold"; stimuli too weak to be consistently detected
  • continuity
  • closure
  • absolute threshold
  • subliminal
monocular cue for depth perception; nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes...thus, given two identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away. Also, shading produces a sense of depth consistent with our assumption that light comes from above.
  • retinal disparity
  • light and shadow
  • interposition
  • linear perspective
the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.
  • cochlea
  • semicircular canals
  • inner ear
  • middle ear
the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition
  • accommodation
  • clairvoyance
  • parapsychology
  • extrasensory perception (ESP)
Receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. They detect fine details and give rise to color sensation.
  • rods
  • bipolar cells
  • feature detectors
  • cones
when paying attention to a specific aspect of a visual scene, we may fail to notice other fairly obvious changes or presentations of stimuli; demonstrated by the door study and the gorilla illusion
  • parallel processing
  • selective attention
  • change blindness
  • perceptual set
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information; enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
  • perception
  • sensory adaptation
  • transduction
  • sensation
laboratory device for testing depth perception among infants and young animals; its use demonstrated that, among most species, animals have the ability to perceive depth by the time they are mobile
  • relative size
  • relative motion
  • retinal disparity
  • visual cliff
credited with founding Gestalt Psychology; also conducted studies of insight learning in chimps
  • Wolfgang Kohler
  • Relative Clarity
  • Gustav Fechner
  • Gestalt
often credited with founding "psychophysics" as a subfield of psychology; studied afterimages
  • Signal Detection Theory
  • Ernst Weber
  • Weber's Law
  • Gustav Fechner
the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).
  • Accommodation
  • Weber's law
  • Sensory adaptation
  • Signal detection theory
monocular cue for depth perception; as we move, stationary objects seem to "move" as well. Objects above a fixation point move "with" us, objects below the fixation point move "past" us.
  • linear perspective
  • relative motion
  • retinal disparity
  • interposition
Gestalt grouping principle; when objects uniform (in color or texture) are linked (no space exists between them) we perceive them as a single unit
  • similarity
  • connectedness
  • closure
  • proximity
the same sound (e.g. "ba") can be perceived differently (e.g. "pa" or "fa") when the visual image of the mouth pronouncing it is changed; a classic example of "visual capture"
  • Accommodation
  • Sensory adaptation
  • McGurk effect
  • Opponent-process theory
detection of stimuli below absolute threshold
  • subliminal sensation
  • perceptual set
  • weber's law
  • sensory adaptation
the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance
  • retinal disparity
  • grouping
  • depth perception
  • perceptual constancy
monocular cue for depth perception; parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, appear to converge with distance. The more they converge, the greater the perceived distance
  • retinal disparity
  • convergence
  • linear perspective
  • interposition
the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance; enabled by feedback from semicircular canals in inner ear
  • sensory interaction
  • vestibular sense
  • olfaction
  • audition
the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis
  • parapsychology
  • human factors psychology
  • perceptual adaptation
  • perceptual constancy
Gestalt grouping principle; our tendency to perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones
  • similarity
  • continuity
  • closure
  • proximity
monocular cue for depth perception; objects that seem "fuzzier" or less clear are perceived to be farther away.
  • relative clarity
  • texture gradient
  • retinal disparity
  • interposition
area within the cochlea where hair cells are located
  • basilar membrane
  • feature detectors
  • semicircular canals
  • cochlea
perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the objects.
  • perceptual adaptation
  • closure
  • interposition
  • color constancy
a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
  • cochlear implant
  • accommodation
  • visual cliff
  • figure-ground
snail-shaped tube in the inner ear that contains fluid that moves in response to vibrations, stimulating activity on the basilar membrane
  • middle ear
  • semicircular canals
  • cochlea
  • basilar membrane
monocular cue for depth perception; if we assume two objects are similar in size, most people perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image to be farther away
  • interposition
  • linear perspective
  • relative size
  • retinal disparity
the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster.
  • lens
  • fovea
  • iris
  • pupil
information processing guided by higher-level mental process, as when we construct perceptions drawing out our experience and expectation.
  • bottom-up processing
  • top-down processing
  • sensory adaptation
  • transduction
the dimension of color that is determine by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.
  • hue
  • pitch
  • wavelength
  • amplitude
diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
  • accommodation
  • transduction
  • absolute threshold
  • sensory adaptation
Gestalt grouping principle; we group similar figures together
  • similarity
  • closure
  • proximity
  • continuity
depth cues that require the combined input of both eyes
  • phi phenomenon
  • depth perception
  • perceptual constancy
  • binocular cues
early psychologist who established that the proportion of difference (rather than absolute difference) between two stimuli that is required for distinguishing between them is constant for particular types of sensation (e.g. weight, brightness, etc).
  • Weber's Law
  • Perceptual Set
  • Ernst Weber
  • Gustav Fechner
a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing the images of the retinas of the two eyes, the brain computes distance. The greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object
  • interposition
  • convergence
  • retinal disparity
  • linear perspective
Nobel-prize-winning researchers who discovered "feature detectors" within the brain
  • Ernst weber
  • David Hubel & Torsten Wiesel
  • Weber's law
  • Retinal ganglion cells
sense of taste
  • olfaction
  • audition
  • transduction
  • gustation
the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
  • sensory adaptation
  • perception
  • sensation
  • transduction
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond.
  • bipolar cells
  • rods
  • fovea
  • cones
the study of relationship between the physical characteristic of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
  • sensation
  • psychophysics
  • selective attention
  • perception
the ability to adjust to an altered perceptual reality; in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or inverted visual field (as when wearing visual displacement goggles).
  • accommodation
  • retinal disparity
  • perceptual set
  • perceptual adaptation
monocular cue for depth perception; we perceive objects higher in our visual field to be farther away. Explanation for why the "bottom" of a figure-ground illusion usually is interpreted as the "figure"
  • relative size
  • relative height
  • interposition
  • linear perspective
fluid filled tubes in inner ear that provide information about movement of the head
  • basilar membrane
  • feature detectors
  • semicircular canals
  • cochlea
monocular cue for depth perception; if one object partially blocks our view of another object, we perceive it as closer
  • interposition
  • texture gradient
  • linear perspective
  • retinal disparity
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.
  • place theory
  • frequency theory
  • opponent-process theory
  • pitch
hearing loss caused by damage to the (mechanical) middle ear structures that conduct sound waves to the cochlea.
  • conduction hearing loss
  • cochlear implant
  • synaesthesia
  • prosopagnosia
ability to selectively attend to one voice among many
  • parallel processing
  • selective attention
  • cocktail party effect
  • change blindness
the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
  • pupil
  • lens
  • iris
  • retina
in psychological science, the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments
  • priming
  • parallel processing
  • kinesthesia
  • embodied cognition
second layer of neurons in the retina that transmit impulses from rods and cones to ganglion cells; rods share these, but cones do not
  • cones
  • bipolar cells
  • rods
  • feature detectors
the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.
  • absolute threshold
  • sensory adaptation
  • weber's law
  • difference threshold
the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
  • sensory adaptation
  • accommodation
  • transduction
  • parallel processing
sound information that depends on frequency (or wavelength) of sound waves
  • frequency
  • pitch
  • wavelength
  • amplitude
mental predisposition to perceive a specific stimulus as one thing and not another (for example, due to suggestion or expectations based on prior learning)
  • selective attention
  • perceptual set
  • bottom-up processing
  • perceptual adaptation
when one sort of sensation (such as hearing a sound) produces another (such as seeing color)
  • synaesthesia
  • accommodation
  • sensation
  • priming
a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimuli ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise"). Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that focuses more on the processing of briefly stored information. (e.g. what determines a "hit", "miss," "false alarm" or "correct rejection")
  • weber's law
  • signal detection theory
  • frequency theory
  • opponent-process theory
Nerve endings that signal the sensation of pain.
  • hair cells
  • nociceptors
  • feature detectors
  • semicircular canals
Activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
  • sensory adaptation
  • transduction
  • perception
  • priming
a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the more the eyes strain to turn inwards to view an object, the closer the object is (note: only a factor at close ranges)
  • linear perspective
  • retinal disparity
  • interposition
  • convergence
A gestalt perceptual phenomenon; the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings
  • similarity
  • closure
  • figure-ground
  • proximity
the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time; determines perception of hue in light and of pitch in sound
  • amplitude
  • frequency
  • wavelength
  • pitch
Gestalt grouping principle; we fill in "gaps" to create a full, complete object
  • continuity
  • closure
  • similarity
  • proximity
the third layer of retinal neurons whose axons leave the eyeball and form the optic nerve.
  • rods
  • retinal ganglion cells
  • bipolar cells
  • cones
inability to recognize or perceive faces
  • sensory adaptation
  • psychophysics
  • prosopagnosia
  • priming
the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye; no receptors cells are located there. Creates a gap in our vision that is "filled" by the brain.
  • fovea
  • pupil
  • lens
  • blind spot
nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimuli, such as shape, angle, or movement.
  • bipolar cells
  • rods
  • cones
  • feature detectors
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