34 Key Terms of Sensation & Perception
- absolute threshold
- minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time
- afterimage
- continuation of a visual sensation after removal of the stimulus
- amplitude
- height of a wave
- basilar membrane
- thin strip of tissue within the cochlea that contains the hair cells which serve as the sensory receptors for the auditory system
- binaural cue
- two-eared cue to localize sound
- binocular cue
- cue that relies on the use of both eyes
- binocular disparity
- slightly different view of the world that each eye receives
- blind spot
- point where we cannot respond to visual information in that portion of the visual field
- bottom-up processing
- system in which perceptions are built from sensory input
- closure
- organizing our perceptions into complete objects rather than as a series of parts
- cochlea
- fluid-filled, snail-shaped structure that contains the sensory receptor cells of the auditory system
- cochlear implant
- electronic device that consists of a microphone, a speech processor, and an electrode array to directly stimulate the auditory nerve to transmit information to the brain
- conductive hearing loss
- failure in the vibration of the eardrum and/or movement of the ossicles
- cone
- specialized photoreceptor that works best in bright light conditions and detects colour
- congenital deafness
- deafness from birth
- congenital insensitivity to pain (congenital analgesia)
- genetic disorder that results in the inability to experience pain
- cornea
- transparent covering over the eye
- deafness
- partial or complete inability to hear
- decibel (dB)
- logarithmic unit of sound intensity
- depth perception
- ability to perceive depth
- electromagnetic spectrum
- all the electromagnetic radiation that occurs in our environment
- figure-ground relationship
- segmenting our visual world into figure and ground
- fovea
- small indentation in the retina that contains cones
- frequency
- number of waves that pass a given point in a given time period
- Gestalt psychology
- field of psychology based on the idea that the whole is different from the sum of its parts
- good continuation
- (also, continuity) we are more likely to perceive continuous, smooth flowing lines rather than jagged, broken lines
- hair cell
- auditory receptor cell of the inner ear
- hertz (Hz)
- cycles per second; measure of frequency
- inattentional blindness
- failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of attention
- incus
- middle ear ossicle; also known as the anvil
- inflammatory pain
- signal that some type of tissue damage has occurred
- interaural level difference
- sound coming from one side of the body is more intense at the closest ear because of the attenuation of the sound wave as it passes through the head
- interaural timing difference
- small difference in the time at which a given sound wave arrives at each ear
- iris
- coloured portion