| A | B |
|---|
| Sensation | the stimulation of sensory receptors and the transmission of sensory information to the brain |
| Perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information |
| Absolute threshold | the smallest amount of a particular stimulus that can be detected |
| Difference threshold | the minimum difference that an individual can detect between two stimuli |
| Signal-detection theory | the idea that distinguishing sensory stimuli takes into account not only the strength of the stimuli but also such elements as setting adn one's physical state, mood, and attitudes |
| Sensory adaptation | the process by which an organism becomes more sensitive to stimuli that are low in magnitude and less sensitive to stimuli that are constant |
| Pupil | the opening in the center of the eye that adjusts to allow light to enter |
| Lens | the transparent structure of the eye that focuses light on the retina |
| Retina | the light-sensitive inner surface of the ye that contains the rods, cones, and neurons that process visual stimuli |
| Photoreceptor | a neuron that reponds to light |
| Blind spot | the part of the retina that contains no photoreceptors |
| Visual acuity | keenness or sharpness of vision |
| Complementary | the colors acrosss from each other on the color circle |
| Afterimage | the visual sensation that occurs after the original stimulus has been removed |
| Cochlea | the fluid-filled structure of the inner ear that transmits sound impulses to auditory nerve |
| Auditory nerve | the cranial nerve that carries sound from the cochlea of the inner ear to the brain |
| Conductive deafness | hearing loss caused by damage to the middle ear, thus interfering with the transmission of sound waves to the cochlea |
| Sensorineural deafness | dearness that results from damage to the auditory nerve |
| Olfactory nerve | the nerve that transmits information about odors from olfactory receptors to the brain |
| Gate theory | the suggestion that only a certain amount of information can be processed by the nervous system at a given time |
| Kinesthesis | the sense that provides information about the position and movement of individual body parts |
| Vestibular sense | the sense that provides information about the position of the body |
| Closure | the tendency to perceive a complete or whole figure even when there are gaps in sensory information |
| Proximity | the perceptual tendency to group together visual and auditory events that are near each other |
| Similarity | the perceptual tendency to group together elements that seem alike |
| Continuity | the perceptual tendency to group stimuli into continuous patterns |
| Common fate | the tendency to perceive objects that are moving together as belonging together |
| Stroboscopic motion | a visual illusion in which the perception of motion is generated by the presentation of a series of stationary images in rapid succession |
| Monocular cue | a cue for distance that may be available to either eye alone |
| Binocular cue | a visual cue for depth that requires the use of both eyes |
| Retinal disparity | a binocular cue for perceiving depth based on the difference between the two images of an object that the retina received as the object moves closer or farther away |
