Module 16
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
Selective Attention
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
Perceptual Set
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.
Wavelength
Starts at the sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing.
Bottom-up Processing
Subliminal
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
Sensation
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light, such as the colors blue, green and so on.
Hue
Constructs perceptions from the sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations.
Top-down Processing
The minimum needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
Absolute Threshold
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Perception
The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and Psychokinesis
Parapsychology
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond.
Rods
Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.
Cones
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters
Pupil
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity and our psychological experience of them.
Psychophysics
Feature Detectors
The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision.
Opponent-process Theory
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster
Fovea
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
Priming
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and recognition.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
Accommodation
The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors-- one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue--which when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic (three-color) theory
The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.
Parallel Processing