Sensation: the process by which we receive physical energy from the environment and encode it
into neural signals.
Perception: the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.
Bottom-up processing: analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the
brain’s integration of sensory information.
Top-up processing: information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we
construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
Selective attention: the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. Also known as
the cocktail party effect.
Inattentional blindness: failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Ex. When attending to one task (counting basketball passes
by one of the three-person teams) about half the viewers
displayed inattentional blindness by failing to notice a
clearly visible gorilla passing through. This also happened
in an experiment with a woman walking across the screen
with an umbrella.
Change blindness: failing to notice changes in the environment. Ex. The bearded man not
noticing that the man giving directions was replaced by someone else after the board passed by.
Psychophysics: the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as
their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
Absolute threshold: the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the
time.
Signal detection theory: predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus
(signal) amid background stimulation (noise). This theory assumes there is no single absolute
threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation,
and alertness.
Subliminal: below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s
perception, memory, or response.
Difference threshold: the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of
the time. We experience this difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (jnd).
Weber’s law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant
percentage (rather than a constant amount).
Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. Ex. hot tub
no longer feeling hot because you have gotten “used” to it.
Transduction: the conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, this is the
transformation of sights, sounds, and smells into neural impulses our brain can interpret.
Wavelength: the distance from the
peak of one light or sound wave to
the next peak. Wavelengths in
light waves determine the hue
(color) and wavelengths in sound
waves determine the pitch
(sound).
Amplitude: the wave’s height. It
is measured from the peak of the
wave to the trough of the wave.
Amplitude measures the intensity
of the wave. In light it determines
the brightness of the color and in sound it determines the volume.
Vision: the sense of sight.
Pupil: the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
Iris: the ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye and that controls the size of
the pupil opening.
Lens: the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the
retina. This process of the lens changing shape is called accommodation.
Retina: the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye that contains the receptor rods and cones plus
layers of neurons that begin the processing of transduction for vision.
Rods: retinal receptors that detect black, white, and shades of gray that are necessary for
peripheral and twilight vision when cones don’t respond. The human eye has around 120 million
rods.
Cones: retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina that detect colors and
details and that function in the daylight or in well-lit conditions. The human eye has around 6
million cones.
Fovea: the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.
Optic nerve: the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.
Blind spot: the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind’ spot because there
are no receptor cells located there.
The process of transduction:
Bipolar cells: specialized neurons that connect the rods and cones w/the ganglion cells.
Ganglion cells: specialized neurons that connect to the bipolar cells. The bundled axons of the
ganglion cells form the optic nerve.
Feature Detectors: nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such
as shape, angle, or movement.
Parallel processing: the brain’s natural mode of information processing many things at once,
such as color, motion, form, and depth.
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory: the theory that the retina contains three
different color receptors (red, green, and blue) which, when stimulated in combination can produce
the perception of any color.
Opponent-process theory: the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue,
white-black) enable color vision. This explains the afterimage effect (staring at a yellow, green,
and black flag and when looking away, you see red, white, and blue).
Acuity: sharpness of vision.
Nearsightedness: a condition in which nearby objects are seen clearly but distant objects are
blurred because light rays reflecting from them converge in front of the retina.
Farsightedness: a condition in which distant objects are seen clearly but nearby objects are
blurred because light rays reflecting from them strike the retina before converging.
Audition: the sense of hearing.
Frequency: the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time. Frequency
determines the pitch.
Pitch: a tone’s highness or lowness. The shorter the waves, the higher the pitch; the longer the
waves, the lower the pitch.
Amplitude: the strength of a wave. This is measured from peak to trough. The taller the wave,
the louder the sound; the shorter the wave, the softer the sound.
Timbre: the sound of a tone. It allows you to distinguish between two similar sounds. Ex. Hearing
the difference between a flute and a piccolo.
Outer ear: the part of the ear that traps sound waves and channels them through the auditory
canal to the eardrum.
Pinna: the fleshy outside part of the ear.
Auditory canal: the canal in the outer part of the ear down which sound waves travel. At the end
of the auditory canal is the eardrum.
Eardrum: the tight membrane that vibrates when sound waves hit it.
Middle ear: the part of the ear that transmits the eardrum’s vibrations through a piston made of
three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) to the cochlea.
Inner ear: the innermost part of the ear that contains the cochlea, semicircular canals, and
vestibular sacs (important for balance). This is where transduction happens for sound.
Basilar membrane: A membrane inside the cochlea which vibrates in response to sound and
whose vibrations lead to activity in the auditory pathways.
Auditory nerve: the nerve that sends neural messages (via the thalamus) to the temporal lobe’s
auditory cortex.
Pinna
Place theory: links pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated. This
theory can explain how we high-pitched sounds, but now how we hear low-pitch sounds because
the neural signals generated by low-pitched sounds are not so neatly localized on the basilar
membrane.
Frequency theory: states that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches
the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch.
Volley principle: neural cells alternate firing. By firing in rapid succession, they can achieve a
combined frequency.
Conduction hearing loss: hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system, such as the
three bones, that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. A hearing aid may help amplify sounds
for someone who has conduction hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss: hearing loss caused by damage of the cochlea’s receptor cells or to
the auditory nerves. It is also called nerve deafness. This can be caused by disease, but are
more often the culprits of biological changes linked heredity, aging, and prolonged exposure to earsplitting noise or music.
Cochlear implant: a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the
auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
Epidermis: the outside layer of skin.
Dermis: the inside layer of skin.
Gate-control theory: the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain
signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals
traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming
from the brain.
Phantom limb sensations: feeling sensations or movement in limbs that have been removed.
Tinnitus: a phantom auditory sensation in which people hear ringing in the ears.
Nociceptors: sensory receptors that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals.
Endorphins: the body’s natural painkillers.
Gustation: the sense of taste. There are 5 basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami
(taste of meat).
Papillae: structures on the tongue in which the taste buds are located.
Sensory interaction: the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of
food influences its taste.
McGurk effect: a perceptual phenomenon which demonstrates an interaction between hearing
and vision in speech perception. This effect may be experienced when a video of one phoneme's
production is dubbed with a sound-recording of a different phoneme being spoken. Often, the
perceived phoneme is a third, intermediate phoneme. For example, a visual /ga/ combined with an
audio /ba/ is often heard as /da/.
Olfaction: the
sense of smell.
*Remember: an
old factory
smells bad.
Odorants: a chemical compound that has smell.
Olfactory bulb: the place in the nasal cavity where transduction occurs for smell. *Remember
that smell does not go to the thalamus. It goes directly to the amygdala and then the
hippocampus. Bad smells make people angry and smells make strong memories.
Vestibular sense: the sense of body movements and position, including the sense of balance.
Kinesthesis: the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
Proprioceptors: sensors that are located in the skin, joints, muscles, and tendons for kinethesis.