Sensory Processes
This sense allows us to detect light, color, and movement in our environment.
Answer: What is vision?
This part of the eye controls the amount of light that enters by expanding or contracting.
Answer: What is the pupil?
The sound wave's height, or this, determines the perceived loudness of a sound.
Answer: What is amplitude?
This is the sense responsible for detecting pressure, temperature, and pain on the skin.
Answer: What is touch?
The tendency to perceive objects as unchanging despite changes in the sensory input is called this.
Answer: What is perceptual constancy?
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimuli from the environment is called this.
Answer: What is sensation?
This transparent structure in the eye bends light to focus it onto the retina.
Answer: What is the cornea?
This part of the ear vibrates when sound waves hit it and sends vibrations to the inner ear.
Answer: What is the eardrum (tympanic membrane)?
These specialized nerve endings in the skin are responsible for detecting pain.
Answer: What are nociceptors?
This Gestalt principle explains how we tend to group objects that are close together in space.
Answer: What is proximity?
The smallest amount of stimulus energy that can be detected 50% of the time is called this.
Answer: What is the absolute threshold?
These cells in the retina are responsible for color vision and fine detail.
Answer: What are cones?
This theory explains how we perceive high-pitched sounds based on the frequency of nerve impulses traveling to the brain.
Answer: What is the frequency theory?
This sense helps maintain balance and body position and is regulated by the inner ear.
Answer: What is the vestibular sense?
This depth cue, which involves comparing images from both eyes, helps us judge the distance of objects.
Answer: What is binocular disparity?
This phenomenon occurs when a stimulus is below the absolute threshold but still has some effect on our behavior.
Answer: What is subliminal perception?
This theory of color vision explains that the retina contains three types of cones, each sensitive to different wavelengths of light.
Answer: What is the trichromatic theory?
The place where high-frequency sounds stimulate the basilar membrane is called this.
Answer: What is the cochlea?
The phenomenon where a person continues to feel pain in a limb that has been amputated is called this.
Answer: What is phantom limb sensation?
This phenomenon occurs when we fail to notice a change in a stimulus due to focused attention.
Answer: What is change blindness?
The ability to distinguish between two stimuli based on the just noticeable difference is governed by this principle.
Answer: What is Weber’s Law?
The phenomenon where damage to the optic nerve causes a loss of vision in specific visual fields, often associated with glaucoma, is known as this.
Answer: What is a visual field defect?
This condition, often caused by prolonged exposure to loud sounds, leads to hearing loss due to damage to hair cells in the cochlea.
Answer: What is sensorineural hearing loss?
The system that detects changes in the body’s position, including the position of muscles and joints, is known as this.
Answer: What is proprioception?
The ability to perceive objects as three-dimensional despite the two-dimensional nature of retinal images is explained by this principle.
Answer: What is depth perception?