Chapter 6: Sensation and Perception

Dissociation theory

________ seeks to explain why, when no one is watching, previously hypnotized people may carry out posthypnotic suggestions (which are made during hypnosis but carried out after the person is no longer hypnotized)

Rods

________**: retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones dont respond.

William Molyneux

________ wondered whether "a man born blind, and now adult, taught by his touch to distinguish between a cube and a sphere "could, if made to see, visually distinguish the two.

cochlear implant

A(n) ________ is currently the only way to restore hearing.

Optic nerve

________ is an information highway from the eye to the brain.

David Hubel

________ and Torsten Wiesel showed that our visual processing deconstructs visual images and then reassembles them.

Gustav Fechner

________ (German philsophist and scientist) studied the edge of our awareness of these faint stimul.

volley principle

Enter the ________: Like soldiers who alternate firing so that some can shoot while others reload, neural cells can alternate firing.

Visual Cliff

________**: a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and.

Perception

________ is not just opening a shutter and letting a picture print itself on the brain.

central nervous systems

Dampening the ________ attention and responses to painful experiences- mimicking painkilling drugs.

Hue

________**: the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.

Daryl Bem

________ has made his research materials available to anyone who wishes to replicate his studies.

Depth Perception

________**: the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two- dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

Accommodation

________**: the process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

visual field

Figure- ground the organization of the ________ into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

Cones

________ detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

Clairvoyance

________: perceiving remote events, such as a house on fire in another state.

brain circuits

The ________ processing our physical sensations sometimes interact with ________ responsible for cognition.

Parapsychology

________:** the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.

Large fiber activity

________ (stimulated by massage, electric stimulation, or acupuncture) can close the gate, blocking pain signals.

register information

Claimed: Our brain does more than ________ about the world.

Signal detection theorists

________ seek to understand why people respond differently to the same stimuli.

Intensity

________ is determined by the waves amplitude (height)

Hypnosis

________**: a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors ANSWER: will spontaneously occur.

Transduction

________**: conversion of one form of energy into another.

Perceptual Adaptation

________**: the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

analysis

Bottom- Up Processing:** ________ that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information.

Smell

________ is a big part of taste.

Absolute Threshold

________**: the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

Axons

________ twine together like the strands of a rope to form the optic nerve.

Retina

________**: the light- sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.

pieces of information

Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate ________ into meaningful wholes.

Gibson

________ and Richard Walk designed a series of experiments in their Cornell University laboratory using a visual cliff.

rapid series

Perceives a(n) ________ of slightly varying images as continuous movement.

Melzack

________ and Wall theorized that when tissue is injured, the small fibers activate and open the gate.

Phi Phenomenon

________**: an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

Sensory Adaptation

________:** diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Ronald Melzack

Psychologist ________ and biologist Patrick Wall proposed the gate- conttrol theory.

Damage

________ to the cochleas hair cell receptors or the auditory nerve can cause sensorineural hearing loss (or nerve deafness)

Middle Ear

________**: the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochleas oval window.

Perceptual Constancy

________**: perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.

sensory receptors

Sensation**: the process by which our ________ and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Feature Detectors

________**: nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.

object relative

See color because of our brains computations of the light reflected by a(n) ________ to the objects surrounding it.

sound waves

Conduction Hearing Loss:** a less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts ________ to the cochlear.

constant brightness

We perceive an object as having a(n) ________ even as its illumination changes.

Control Theory

Gate- ________:** the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate "that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.

Cultural context

________ helps inform our perceptions, so its not surprising that people from different cultures view things differently.

relative luminance

Depends on ________- the amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings.