Psychology Unit 4 Flashcards

Feature Detectors

• Nerve cells in the brain that are responsive to specific features of stimuli, including shape, angle, and movement.

Parallel Processing

• The simultaneous processing of multiple aspects of a problem, a natural brain function for various tasks, especially vision; contrasts with the sequential processing of computers.

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

• Proposes the retina contains three color receptors, sensitive to red, green, and blue, which combine to create the perception of any color.

Opponent-Process Theory

• Suggests that color perception is enabled through opposing processes in the retina.

Audition

• The sensory perception related to hearing.

Frequency

• Refers to the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a specific timeframe.

Pitch

• The perceived highness or lowness of a tone, determined by the frequency of sound waves.

Middle Ear

• The space between the eardrum and cochlea that houses three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) responsible for amplifying eardrum vibrations to the cochlea.

Cochlea

• A coiled, fluid-filled structure in the inner ear where sound waves are transformed into nerve impulses.

Inner Ear

• The deepest part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.

Place Theory

• Links pitch perception to the specific location on the cochlea's membrane where stimulation occurs.

Frequency Theory

• Indicates that the frequency of nerve impulses along the auditory nerve corresponds to the tone's frequency, enabling pitch perception.

Conduction Hearing Loss

• Results from damage to the mechanical system that transmits sound waves to the cochlea.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

• Caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or auditory nerves, also known as nerve deafness.

Cochlear Implant

• A device that converts sound into electrical signals to stimulate the auditory nerve through electrodes in the cochlea.

Kinesthesis

• Refers to the sensory system that detects the position and movement of body parts.

Vestibular Sense

• Involves awareness of body movement and position, crucial for balance.

Gate-Control Theory

• Proposes that the spinal cord has a neurological "gate" managing pain signals; small nerve fiber activity opens the gate, while larger fibers or brain signals close it.

Sensory Interaction

• The phenomenon where one sense influences another, exemplified by how smell can affect taste perception.

Gestalt

• Represents an organized whole; Gestalt psychology focuses on how we integrate pieces of information into meaningful entities.

Figure-Ground

• The principle of visual organization where we distinguish objects (figures) from their background (ground).

Grouping

• A perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent, easily recognizable groups.

Depth Perception

• The ability to perceive spatial relationships and distance, despite receiving two-dimensional images on the retina.

Visual Cliff

• A research tool used to assess depth perception in infants and young animals.

Binocular Cues

• Depth cues that arise from having two eyes, such as retinal disparity.

Retinal Disparity

• A depth perception cue based on the differences between the images from two retinas; greater disparity indicates closer objects.

Monocular Cues

• Depth perception cues available to one eye, including interposition and linear perspective.

Phi Phenomenon

• The optical illusion of motion created when adjacent lights blink in quick succession.

Perceptual Constancy

• The recognition that objects remain constant in terms of brightness, color, shape, and size, despite changes in illumination and retinal images.

Color Constancy

• The perception of familiar objects as having consistent color, regardless of varying illumination that may change the wavelengths reflected.

Perceptual Adaptation

• The ability to adjust visuals to artificial alterations or displaced visual fields.

Perceptual Set

• A mental predisposition influencing an individual's perception, leading them to favor one interpretation over another.