Basic concepts
Information processing that begins with sensory receptors and works up to brain's integration of this information
What is bottom-up processing?
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light.
What is hue?
These retinal receptors are concentrated near the center (the fovea) of the retina, operate in daylight, and enable us to see color
What are cones
A tone's experienced highness or lowness, related to the frequency of sound waves
What is pitch?
The sense of smell
What is olfaction?
the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings
what is figure-ground
The stage of sleep when the brain is dreaming
What is REM?
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
What is top-down processing?
Determined by a wave's amplitude, the amount of energy in a light, or sound, wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness
What is intensity, or brightness?
Theory that the retina contains 3 different color receptors (red, green. blue) that, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.
What is the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory?
The region of the ear between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil and stirrup)
What is the middle ear?
The five basic tastes
What are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami?
the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups by proximity, continuity and closure
what is grouping
Daily Double!
Dream Interpretation
Our awareness of faint stimuli illustrates our...
What is absolute threshold?
The lens focuses the rays by changing its curvature in a process called
What is accomodation?
Theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, and white-black) enable color vision.
What is Opponent Process Theory?
The height, or amplitude, of a sound wave determines this sensation
What is volume, or loudness?
Our sense of movement-- our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts that interacts with our sense of vision
What is kinesthesia?
a binocular cue for perceiving depth between two objects
what is retinal disparity
The body's internal clock that regulates control of melatonin production.
What is the circadian rhythm?
Bonus 200: name 3 brain parts involved in this cycle
Our diminished sensitivity to constant or routine odors, sounds, and touches, to focus our attention on informational changes in stimulation.
What is sensory adaptation?
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye
What is the blind spot
Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.
What are feature detectors?
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells
What is sensorineural hearing loss?
Our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance-- created by movement of fluids in the inner ear
what is vestibular sense
perceiving objects as unchanging (e.g., color, brightness, size and shape) even as illumination and retinal images change
What is perceptual constancy
K-complexes and sleep spindles are found during this stage of sleep
What is NREM-2?
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information
What is perception
Retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray, and are necessary for peripheral and twilight vision
what are rods
Opponent processes explain the effect of seeing opposite colors after staring at an object, such as a flag.
What is the color after-effect?
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
what is frequency theory
The minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.
What is difference threshold?
failing to see visible objects when our attention is diverted
What is inattentional blindness?
A sleep disorder commonly known as sleep walking.
What is Somnambulism?
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage
What is Weber's Law?
The nerve the carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
What is the optic nerve?
Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even amidst changing illumination
What is color constancy?
In hearing, the theory that that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated
what is the place theory
The theory that the spinal cod contains a neurological "gate" that either blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
what is the gate-control theory of pain
The monocular depth cue that describes that linear lines appear to meet in the distance on the horizon
What is Linear Perspective?
The dream theory suggesting that dreams are purely the result of random brain activity.
What is Activation Synethesis?