Definitions
What is sensation?
A physical stimulation in the environment that activates receptors in our sense organs, creating neural messages sent to the brain.
What are the steps of transduction?
1. Detection of a sensory neuron of a physical stimulus, 2. Activation of receptors in the sense organ, 3. Conversion of the excitation of the receptors into a neural signal.
What is the optic nerve?
A bundle of nerve axons that carries messages from receptors in the eye to the brain.
What is the pupil?
The hole that allows light to enter the eye.
What is the auditory nerve?
Carries neural messages about sound from the cochlea in the ear to the auditory cortex in the brain.
What is perception?
A mental process that constructs and assigns meaning to incoming sensory patterns to form an inner representation of the outside world.
How do sensation and perception differ?
Sensation involves sensing the existence of a stimulus, while perception involves determining what a stimulus is.
What is the fovea?
The part of the eye that contains the greatest concentration of cones and is able to detect the sharpest detail.
What is the visual cortex?
The part of the brain that processes sight, located in the occipital lobe.
What is the eardrum?
The membrane of the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound waves.
What is transduction?
The sensory process that converts energy, such as light or sound waves, into the form of neural messages.
What is sensory adaptation?
The diminishing responsiveness of our sensory systems to prolonged sensory stimulation.
What is the retina?
The inner surface of the eye where photoreceptors are located.
What is the blind spot?
The part of the eye where the optic nerve exits, containing no rods or cones.
What is the olfactory bulb?
The part of the nose that has receptors to detect scent and translates smell molecules into neural messages.
What is absolute threshold?
The level of a stimulus that a sense organ can detect at least ½ of the time.
What is depth perception?
The ability to perceive the distance and depth of objects in the environment.
What is the cochlea?
A fluid-filled spiral in the inner ear that contains hair cells that produce nerve impulses in response to sound vibrations.
What are cones?
Photoreceptors that allow us to see fine detail and color.
What is gustation?
The scientific name for taste.
What is subliminal threshold?
Stimuli below the threshold for detection but that can still affect people’s responses some of the time.
What is perceptual set?
A predisposition to perceive things in a certain way based on expectations.
What are the three tiny bones in the ear?
Hammer, anvil, and stirrup.
What are rods?
Photoreceptors that allow us to see in dim light.
What are taste buds?
The receptors in your tongue designed to detect taste molecules.