Chapter 5 Vocabulary Quiz

Sensation

• The process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information.
• The principle that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain.
• The detection, by sense organs, of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects

Perception

• Specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain.
• A psychophysical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process.
• A condition in which a sensation in one modality consistently evokes a sensation in another.
• The process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information.

Sense Receptors

• Specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain.
• Failure to consciously perceive something you are looking at because you are not attending to it.
• the dimension of visual experience related to the amount (intensity) of light emitted from or reflected by an object.
• The smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared (also called just noticeable difference; jnd).

Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

• Neurons in the retina of the eye that gather information from receptor cells (by way of intermediate bipolar cells) and whose axons make up the optic nerve.
• A theory of color perception that proposes three mechanisms in the visual system, each sensitive to a certain range of wavelengths, that interact to produce different experiences of hue.
• The principle that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain.
• A psychophysical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process.

Synesthesia

• The smallest quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer.
• A condition in which a sensation in one modality consistently evokes a sensation in another.
• A psychophysical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process.
• the dimension of visual experience related to the amount (intensity) of light emitted from or reflected by an object.

Absolute Threshold

• The smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared (also called just noticeable difference; jnd).
• The smallest quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer.

Difference Threshold

• The smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared (also called just noticeable difference; jnd).
• The smallest quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer.

Signal-Detection Theory

• A psychophysical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process.
• The process of focusing on selected aspects of the environment while blocking out others.
• The reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious.

Sensory Adaptation

• The slight difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen by the left eye and the right eye.
• The reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious.
• Principles that describe the brain's organization of sensory information into meaningful units and patterns.

Selective Attention

• Specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain.
• The smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared (also called just noticeable difference; jnd).
• The process of focusing on selected aspects of the environment while blocking out others.