Sensation Basics
What is the process by which sensory receptors and the nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment?
Sensation
What is the part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil?
Iris
What is the sense of smell called?
Olfaction
What is the type of processing guided only by sensory information?
Bottom-Up Processing
What is the ability to perceive an object as having the same shape even when viewed from different angles called?
Shape Constancy
What is the process of converting stimulus energy into neural signals called?
What is the clear outer covering of the eye that bends light to help focus images called?
Cornea
Gustation
This phenomenon describes the ability to focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment while still noticing personally relevant information, like hearing your name mentioned across the room.
Cocktail Party Effect
This binocular cue measures how much the eyes turn inward to focus on a close object.
Convergence
What is the weakest amount of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time?
Absolute Threshold
What is the area where the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a spot with no receptor cells called?
Blind Spot
What is the theory that links pitch to the specific place along the cochlea that is stimulated?
Place Theory
This term describes when a person fails to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because their attention is focused elsewhere
Inattentional Blindness
When closer objects block the view of farther ones.
Interposition
What is the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time called?
Just Noticeable Difference
What are the two kinds of photoreceptor cells and what do they do?
Cones - see in color and fine detail
The theory that the spinal cord contains a gate that blocks or allows pain signals to pass to the brain.
Gate Control Theory of Pain
What is the mental framework that influences how we interpret information called?
Schema
What do we call the tendency to perceive parallel lines as converging in the distance.
Linear Perspective
What is the law stating that two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion, not a constant amount, to be perceived as different?
Weber's Law
What is the disorder where people cannot recognize faces even though their vision is otherwise normal?
Prosopagnosia
What is the system for sensing body position and movement of individual body parts?
What do we call the tendency to perceive what we expect to see, based on experience or context?
Perceptual Set
What do we call the difference between images seen by the two eyes, used for depth perception.