Psychology Chapter 3: Sensation and Perception

What occurs when a stimulus activates a receptor

• sensation

• perception

• feeling

• pscyhophysics

The organization of sensory information into meaningful experiences

• perception

• sensation

• arousal

• signal-detection theory

The study of the relationships between sensory experiences and the physical stimuli that cause them

• psychophysics

• difference threshold

• optic nerve

• psychology

The weakest amount of a stimulus that a person (or people) can detect half the time

• absolute threshold

• difference threshold

• 50/50 marker

• halfway indicator

The smallest change in a physical stimulus that can be detected between two stimuli

• difference threshold

• absoute threshold

• signal detection theory

• minimal threshold

The principle that the larger or stronger a stimulus, the larger the change required for an observer to notice a difference

• Weber's Law

• Wundt's Law

• Skinner's Law

• Freud's mother

The study of people’s tendency to make correct judgments in detecting the presence of stimuli

• signal-detection theory

• difference threshold

• absolute threshold

• psycho physics

The opening in the iris that regulates the amount of light entering the eye

• pupil

• iris

• lens

• retina

A flexible, transparent structure in the eye that changes its shape to focus light on the retina

• lens

• retina

• optic nerve

• pupil

The innermost coating of the back of the eye, containing the light-sensitive receptor cells

• retina

• lens

• pupil

• optic nerve