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sensation

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The process by which we detect physical energy from the environment and encode it as neural signals is _.

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perception

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The process by which sensations are selected, organized, and interpreted is _.

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bottom-up processing

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Sensory analysis, which starts at the entry level and works up, is called _ _ _.

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top-down processing

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Perceptual analysis, which works from our experience and expectations, is called _ _ _.

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prosopognosia

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The perceptual disorder in which a person has lost the ability to recognize familiar faces is _.

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psychophysics

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The study of relationships between the physcial characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them is _.

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absolute threshold; 50

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The _ _ refers to the minimum stimulation necessary for a stimulus to be detected _ percent of the time.

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signal detection; psychological

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The theory of _ _ led to the concept that absolute thresholds depend not only on the strength of the signal but also on a person's _ state.

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subliminal

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Some entrepreneurs claim that exposure to "below threshold" or _, stimuli can be persuasive, but their claims are probably unwarranted.

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conscious

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Some weak stimuli may trigger in our sensory receptors a response that is processed by the brain, even though the response doesn't cross the threshold into _ awareness.

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prime; priming effect; automatically

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Under certain conditions, an invisible image or word can _ a person's response to a later question. The _ _ illustrates that much of our information processing occurs _.

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difference threshold; just noticeable difference

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The minimum difference required to distinguish two stimuli 50 percent of the time is called the _ _. Another term for this value is the _ _ _.

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Weber's law; stimulus

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The principle that the difference threshold is not a constant amount, but a constant proportion, is known as _ _. The proportions depends on the _.

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sensory adaptation

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After constant exposure to an unchanging stimulus, the receptor cells of our senses begin to fire less vigorously; this phenomenon is called _ _.

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neural; transduction

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Stimulus energy is converted into _ messages through the process of sensory _.

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electromagnetic

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The visual spectrum of light is a small portion of the larger spectrum of _ radiation.

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wavelength; hue

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The distance from one light wave peak to the next is called _. This value determines the wave's color, or _.

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intensity; amplitude; brightness

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The amount of energy in light waves, or _, determined by a wave's _, or height, influences the _ of a light.

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cornea; pupil; iris

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Light enters the eye through the _, then passes through a small opening called the _; the size of this opening is controlled by the colored _.

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lens; retina

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By changing its curvature, the _ can focus the image of an object onto the _, the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye.

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accommodation; acuity

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The process by which the lens changes shape to focus images is called _. Clarity, or sharpness, of vision is called _.

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distant; front; retina; nearby; distant

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In nearsightedness, light rays from _ objects converge in _ of the _, rather than on it, and _ objects are seen more clearly than _ objects.

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nearby; back; retina; distant; nearby

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In farsightedness, light rays from _ converge in _ of the _, and _ objects are more clearly seen than _ objects.

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rods; cones

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The retina's receptor cells are the _ and _.

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bipolar; ganglion; optic nerve; brain

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The neural signals produced in the rods and cones activate the neighboring _ cells, which then activate a network of _ cells. The axons of ganglion cells converge to form _ _, which carries the visual info to the _.

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blind spot

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Where this nerve leaves the eye, there are no receptors; thus the area is called the _ _.

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fovea; peripheral; bipolar

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Most cones are clustered around the retina's point of central focus, called the _, whereas the rods are concentrated in more _ regions of the retina. Many cones have their own _ cells to communicate with the visual cortex.

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cones; rods

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It is the _ of the eye that permit the perception of color, whereas _ enable black-and-white vision

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sensitive; 20

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Unlike cones, in dim light the rods are _. Adapting to a darkened room will take the retina approximately _ minutes.

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abstract; thalamus

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Visual info percolate through progressively more _ levels. In the brain, it is routed by the _ to higher-level brain areas.

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visual cortex; feature detectors

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Hubel and Wiesel discovered that certain neurons in the _ _ of the brain respond only to specific features of what is viewed. They called these neurons _ _.

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temporal

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Feature detectors pass their info to higher-level brain cells in the brain, including an area in the _ cortex, which responds to visual scenes.

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simultaneously; parallel processing; blindsight

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The brain achieves its remarkable speed in visual perception by processing several subdivisions of a stimulus _. This procedure called, _ _, may explain why people who have suffered a stroke, may lose just one aspect of vision. Other brain-damaged people may demonstrate _ by responding to a stimulus that is not consciously perceived.

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integration; gamma

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Once the distributed parts of the brain have processed sensory stimuli, EEG recordings reveal a moment of neural _, lasting for about a fourth of a second and creating _ waves.

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reflects (rejects); construction

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An object appears to be red in color because it _ the long wavelengths of red and because of our mental _ of the color.

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sex-linked

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One out of every 50 people is color deficient; this is usually a male because the defect is genetically _ _.

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Young-Helmholtz trichromatic; red; geen; blue; additive; subtractive

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According to the _ _ _ theory, the eys have three types of color receptors: on ereacts most strongly to _, one to _ and one to _. Mixing lights, as Young and von Helmholts did, is _ color mixing, unlike mixing paints, which is _.

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opponent; afterimage

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After staring at a green square for a while, you will see the color red, its _ color, as an _.

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opponent processing; green; blue; white

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Hering's theory of color vision is called the _ _ theory. According to this theory, after visual info leaves the receptors, it is analyzed in terms of pairs of opposing colors: red vs _; yellow vs _; black vs _.

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context

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The experience of color depends on the _ in which an object is seen.

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color transparency

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In an unvarying context, a familiar object will be perceived as having consistent color, even as the light changes. This phenomenon is called _ _.

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reflected; surrounding objects

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We see color as a result of our brains' computations of the light _ by any object relative to its _ _.

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audition; air molecules

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The stimulus for hearing, or _, is sound waves, created by the compression and expansion of _ _.

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loudness

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The amplitude of a sound wave determines the sound's _.

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frequency

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The pitch of a sound is derived from the _ of its wave.

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decibels; 0

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Sound energy is measured in units called _. The absolute threshold for hearing is arbitrarily defined as _ such units.

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outer; middle; inner

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The ear is divided into three main parts: the _ ear, the _ ear, and the _ ear.

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eardrum

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The outer ear channels sound waves toward the _, a tight membrane that then vibrates.

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ossicles; hammer, anvil, stirrup

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The middle ear (_)transmits the vibrations through a piston made of three small bones: the _, _, and _.

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cochlea

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In the inner ear, a coiled tube called the _ contains the receptor cells for hearing.

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oval window; basilar membrane; hair cells; thalamus; temporal; number

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The incoming vibrations cause the _ _ to vibrate the fluid that fills the tube, which causes ripples in the _ _, which is lined with _ _. This movement triggers impulses in adjacent nerve fibers that converge to form the auditory nerve, which carries the neural messages (via the _) to the _ lobe's auditory cortex. The brain interprets loudness from the _ of hair cells a sound activates.

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place; low

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One theory of pitch perception proposes that different pitches activate different places on the cochlea's basilar membrane; this is the _ theory. This theory has difficulty accounting for how we hear _-pitched sounds, because individual neurons cannot fire faster than 1000 times per second.

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frequency; high; 1000

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A second theory proposes that neural impulses sent to the brain at the same frequency as the sound wave, allow the perception of different pitches. This is the _ theory. This theory fails to account for the perception of _-pitched sounds, because individual neurons cannot fire faster than _ times per second.

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volley

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For the higher pitches, cells may alternate their firing to match the sound's frequency, according to the _ principle.

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speed (timing); loudness

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We locate a sound by sensing differences in _ and _ with which it reaches our ears.

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harder

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A sound that comes from directly ahead will be _ to locate than a sound that comes from off to one side.

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parallel processing

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As with visual info, the brain uses _ _ as specialized neural teams work on different auditory tasks simultaneously.

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conduction hearing loss

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Problems in the mechanical conduction of sound waves through the outer or middle ear may cause _ _ _.

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sensorineural hearing loss; aging

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Damage to the cochlea's hair cell receptors or their associated auditory nerves can cause _ _ _. It may be caused by disease, but more often, it results from the biological changes linked with _ and prolonged exposure to ear-splitting music.

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cochlear implant

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An electronic device that restores hearing among nerve-deafened people is a _ _.

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Deaf Culture; children; speak; disablitiy

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Advocates of _ _ object to the use of implants on _ before they have learned to _. The basis for their argument is that deafness is not a _.

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Sign language; read; write

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_ _ is a complete language, with its own grammar, syntax, and semantics. Those who learn it during childhood have difficulty later learning to _ and _.

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sensory compensation

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People who become deaf, or who lose another channel of sensation, often experience _ _ in another ability.

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pressure, warmth, cold, pain; variations

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The sense of touch is a mixture of at least four senses: _, _, _, and _. Other skin sensations (tickle, itch, hot, wet) are _ of the basic ones.

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top-down; somatosensory cortex

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The _ _ influence on touch is illustrated by the fact that a self-produced tickle produces less activation in the _ _ than someone else's tickle.

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injury; hyperalgesia

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People born without the ability to feel pain may be unaware of experiencing severe _. People with illness-related _ experience extreme sensitivity to things others find only mildly painful.

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senses; brain; expectations

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Pain is a property of the _ as well as of the _ and our _.

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phantom limb; tinnitus

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A sensation of pain in an amputated leg is referred to as a _ _ sensation. Another example is _, experienced by people who have a ringing-in-the-ears sensation.

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sensory input

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Pain-producing brain activity may be triggered with or without _ _.

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pain; doesn't

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The _ system is not triggered by one specific type of physical energy. The body _ have specialized receptor cells for pain.

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gate-control; gate; spinal cord; small; large; brain

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Melzack and Wall have proposed a theory of pain called the _ _ theory, which proposes that there is a neurological _ in the _ _ that blocks pain signals or lets them through. It may be opened by activation of _ nerve fibers and closed by activation of _ fibers or by info from the _.

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sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami

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The basic taste sensations are _, _, _, _, and a meaty taste called _.

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chemical; taste buds; pore

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Taste, which is a _ sense, is enabled by the 200 or more _ _ on the top and sides of the tongue. Each contains a_ that catches food chemicals.

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week or two; decreases; decreases; smoking; alcohol

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Taste receptors reproduce themselves every _ _ _. As we age, the number of taste buds _ and our taste sensitivity _. Taste is also affected by _ and by _ use.

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sensory interaction

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When the sense of smell is blocked, as when we have a cold, foods do not taste the same; this illustrates the principle of _ _.

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Mcguric; see; hearing

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The _ effect occurs when we _ a speaker saying one syllable while _ another.

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olfacation; chemical; can't

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Like taste, smell, or _ is a _ sense. Unlike light, an odor _ be separated into more elemental odors.

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early adulthood

answer

The ability to identify scents peak in _ _ and declines thereafter.

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learned

answer

The attractiveness of smells depend _ associations.

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limbic

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Odors are able to evoke memories and feelings because there is a direct link between the brain area that gets info from the nose and the ancient _ centers associated with memory and emotion.

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kinesthesis; muscles; tendons; oints

answer

The system for sensing the position and movement of body parts is called _. The receptors for this sense are located in the _, _, and _ of the body.

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vestibular sense; semicircular canals; vestibular sacs

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The sense that monitors the position and movement of the head (and thus the body) is the _ _. The receptors for this sense are located in the _ _ and _ _ of the inner ear.

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selective attention; Necker

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Our tendency to focus at any moment on only a limted aspect of all that we are capable of experiencing is called _ _. This is illustrated using a figure called a _ cube.

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cocktail party effect

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An example of this limited focus is the _ _ _- the ability to attend selectively to only one voice among many.

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inattentional blindness; visual; change blindness; change deafness; choice blindness

answer

One example of our lack of awareness of happenings around us is _ _, in which- after a brief _ interruption- we fail to notice a change in the environment. Two forms of this phenomenon that involve vision and hearing, respectively, are _ _ and _ _. Another example is _ _.

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organize; interpret

answer

Illusions reveal the ways we normally _ and _ our sensations.

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visual capture

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The tendency of vision to dominate the other senses is referred to as _ _.

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hearing

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In a contest between hearing and touch, _ dominates.

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Gestalt; whole

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According to the _ school of psychology, we tend to organize a cluster of sensations into a _, or form.

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bottom-up; top-down; experiences; expectations; fuzzy

answer

Our tendency to perceive complete forms involves sensory analysis, or _ _ processing of stimuli, as well as _ _ processing that uses our _ and _ to interpret our sensations The distinction between sensation/perception in terms of these two is _.

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figure; ground

answer

When we view a scene, we see the central object, or _, as distinct from surrounding stimuli, or the _.

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grouping

answer

Proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, and connectedness are examples of Gestalt rules of _.

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continuity

answer

The principle that we organize stimuli into smooth continuous patterns is called _.

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closure

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The principle that we fill in gaps to create a complete whole object is _.

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proximity

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The grouping of items that are close to each is the principle of _.

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similarity

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The grouping of items that look alike is the principle of _.

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connectedness

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The tendency to perceive uniform or attached items as a single unit is the principle of _.

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depth perception; distance

answer

The ability to see objects in 3D despite their 2D representations on our retinas is called _ _. It enables us to estimate _.

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visual cliff; 3 months

answer

Gibson and Walk developed the _ _ to test depth perception in infants. By _ _ infants demonstrate they are using Gestalt perception principles.

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binocular

answer

Any cue that requires both eyes:

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retinal disparity; perceptions; brains

answer

The greater the difference between the images received by the two eyes, the nearer the object: _ _. 3D movies stimulate this cue by photographing each scene with two cameras. This chapter's fundamental lesson is that our _ are the constructions of our _.

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convergance

answer

The more our eyes focus inward when we view an object, the nearer the object: _.

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monocular

answer

Any cue that requires either eye alone:

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relative size

answer

If two objects are presumed to be the same size, the one that casts a smaller retinal image is perceived as farther away:

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interposition

answer

An object partially covered by another is seen as farther away:

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relative clarity

answer

Objects the appear hazy are seen as farther away:

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texture gradient

answer

As an object becomes increasingly distant, it appears progressively less distinct:

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relative height

answer

Objects lower in t he visual field are seen as nearer:

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relative motion

answer

As we move, objects at different distances appear to move at different rates:

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linear perspective

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Parallel lines appear to converge in the distance:

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light and shadow

answer

Dimmer, or shaded objects seem farther away:

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speed; larger; smaller

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In general we are very good at quickly detecting the _ of moving objects. Sometimes we are fooled because _ objects seem to move slower than _ objects.

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movement; stroboscopic movement

answer

The brain interprets a rapid series of slightly varying images as _. This phenomenon is called _ _.

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phi phenomnon

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The illusion of movement that results when two adjacent stationary spots of light blink on and off in quick succession is called the _ _

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perceptual constancy

answer

Our tendency to see objects as unchanging while the stimuli from them change in size, shape, and lightness is called _ _.

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top-down; angle; distance; illumination

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This _ _ process enables us to identify things regardless of the _, _, or _ by which we view them.

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familiar; retinal

answer

Due to shape and size constancy, _ objects do not appear to change shape or size despite changes in our _ images of them.

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size; distance; diminished

answer

Several illusions are explained by the interplay between perceived _ and perceived _. when distance cues are removed, these illusions are _.

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Muller-Lyer

answer

People who have lived their lives in uncarpentered rural environments are less susceptible to the _ _ illusion.

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relative to

answer

The brain computes an object's brightness _ _ surrounding objects.

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relative luminance

answer

The amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings is called _ _

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color constancy

answer

Thanks to _ _ we see objects as having a constant hue relative to surrounding objects.

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familiar; can't

answer

Studies in which vision has been restored to a person who was blind from birth shows that upon seeing tactilely _ objects for the first time, the person _ recognize them.

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infancy; critical period; cataract

answer

Studies of sensory deprivation demonstrate that visual experiences during _ are crucial for perceptual development. Such experiences suggest that there is a _ _ for normal sensory and perceptual development. For this reason, human infants born with an opaque lens, called a _, typically have corrective surgery right away.

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adapt; perceptual adaptation

answer

Humans given glasses that shift or invert the visual field will _ to the distorted perception. This is called _ _.

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aftereffect

answer

When distorting goggles are first removed, most people experience a brief perceptual _, as their perceptual systems continue to compensate for the shifted visual input.

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perceptual set

answer

A mental predisposition that influences perception is called a _ _.

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schemas; caricatures

answer

Through experience, people acquire perceptual _, as reflected in children's drawings at different ages. This explains we more accurately recognize _ of famous faces than these people's actual faces.

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eyes; mouth

answer

Our recognition is especially attuned to the expressive areas of the _ and _.

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context

answer

How a stimulus is perceived depends on our perceptual schemas and the _ in which it is experienced.

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top-down; bottom-up

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The context of a stimulus creates a _ _ expectation that influences our perception as we match our _ _ signal against it.

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stereotypes; emotional

answer

Our perception is also influenced by _ about gender and the _ context of our experiences.

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extrasensory perception; parapsychologists

answer

Perception outside the range of normal sensation is called _ _. Psychologists who study ESP are called _.

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telepathy; clairvoyance; precognition; psychokinesis

answer

ESP abilities: reading minds = _; "senses" friends in danger = _; "see" the future = _;levitate and move objects = _.

question

blind spot

answer

The _ _ results from the lack of receptors at the spot where the optic nerve connects to the retina.

question

frequency

answer

_ theory relates to the rate at which the basilar membrane vibrates.

question

cochlea

answer

The ossicles transmit sound waves to the _.

question

vestibular

answer

Dizziness and a loss of balance might result from a disruption in your _ system.

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feature detectors

answer

Cells that can respond to specific edges, lines, angles, and movements are called _ _.

question

weak stimulus

answer

Signal detection theory states that the detection of a _ _ would depend on a person's experience, motivation, and expectations.

question

transduct

answer

Our rods and cones _ electromagnetic energy into neural messages.

question

ganglion cells; bipolar cells

answer

Other than rods and cones, the other two types of cells found on the retina are _ _ and _ _.

question

convergence; retinal disparity

answer

Two binocular depth cues are:

question

sensory interaction

answer

The fact that texture of food can influence the taste is an example of _.

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change blindness

answer

The gorilla selective attention test would best be described as an example of _ _.

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opponent-process theory

answer

Afterimages can be best explained by the _ _ _.

question

Nociceptors; Substance-P

answer

_ release a neurotransmitter called _ _ that sends signals of pain to the CNS.

question

trichromatic and Place theory

answer

the two theories developed by Helmholtz...

question

Place theory

answer

the location of the cochlea determines pitch...

question

selective attention and cocktail party effect

answer

ability to focus on one sound and tune out the rest are proposed by these two psychological phenomenons...

question

kinesthetic receptor cells

answer

located in muscles, tendons, and joints only...

question

signal detection theory

answer

the fact the fear may increase your sensitivity to a very small auditory signal is related to...

question

schema

answer

the mental representation of the world...

question

fovea

answer

highest concentration of cones are located on this part of the retina...

question

difference thershold

answer

Weber's law is most relevant to the understanding of...

question

olfactory bulbs

answer

smells are processed here...

question

cochlea

answer

neural tissues of the ear lines this...

question

McGurk Effect

answer

auditory illusion that clearly illustrates sensory interaction...

question

vestibular system

answer

semicircular canals are part of this system:

question

optic nerve

answer

When the _ _ meets the eye, it creates a blindspot.

question

pitch

answer

Soundwave intensity or frequency are perceived by us as...

question

gate-control theory

answer

this would explain the blocking and releasing of endorphins

question

retina; basilar membrane

answer

neural tissue of the eye: _; neural tissue of the ear _ _

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