| absolute threshold | The minimum amount of stimulus energy that people can detect. p. 180
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| apparent movement | The perception that a stationary object is moving. p. 201
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| auditory nerve | Carries neural impulses to the brain's auditory area. p. 209
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| binding | The bringing together and integration of what is processed through different pathways or cells. p. 193
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| binocular cues | Depth cues that are based on the combination of the images on the left and right eyes and on the way the two eyes work together. p. 198
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| bottom-up processing | Processing that begins with sensory receptors registering environmental information and sending it to the brain for integration and cognitive processing. p. 177
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| cones | The receptors in the retina that process information about color. p. 190
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| depth perception | The ability to perceive objects three dimensionally. p. 198
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| difference threshold | Also called just noticeable difference, this concept refers to the smallest difference in stimulation required to discriminate one stimulus from another 50 percent of the time. p. 182
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| feature detectors | Neurons in the brain's visual system that respond to particular lines or other features of a stimulus. p. 192
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| figure-ground relationship | People organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out (figure) and those that are left over (background). p. 197
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| frequency theory | Perception of a sound's frequency is due to how often the auditory nerve fires. p. 207
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| gate-control theory of pain | The spinal column contains a neural gate that can be open (allowing the perception of pain) or closed (blocking the perception of pain). p. 214
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| gestalt psychology | People naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns. p. 197
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| inner ear | Consists of oval window, cochlea, and basilar membrane. p. 206
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| kinesthetic senses | Provide information about movement, posture, and orientation. p. 219
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| middle ear | Consists of eardrum, hammer, anvil, and stirrup. p. 206
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| monocular cues | Depth cues that can be extracted from the images in either eye. p. 198
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| noise | Irrelevant and competing stimuli. p. 000
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| olfactory epithelium | Located in the roof of the nasal cavity, a sheet of receptor cells for smell. p. 218
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| opponent-process theory | Cells in the visual system respond to red-green and blue-yellow colors; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another might be excited by yellow and inhibited by blue. p. 195
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| outer ear | Consists of the pinna and the external auditory canal. p. 206
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| pain | The sensation that warns us that damage to our bodies is occurring. p. 215
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| papillae | Bumps on the tongue that contain taste buds, the receptors for taste. p. 217
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| parallel processing | The simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways. p. 323
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| perception | The brain's process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to give it meaning. p. 177
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| perceptual constancy | Recognition that objects are constant and unchanging even through sensory input about them is changing. p. 201
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| perceptual set | A predisposition or readiness to perceive something in a particular way. p. 185
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| place theory | A theory of hearing that states that each frequency produces vibrations at a particular spot on the basilar membrane. p. 207
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| psychophysics | The field that studies links between the physical properties of stimuli and a person's experience of them. p. 180
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| retina | The light-sensitive surface in the back of the eye that houses light receptors called rods and cones. p. 189
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| rods | The receptors in the retina that are sensitive to light but are not very useful in color vision. p. 190
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| selective attention | Focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others. p. 184
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| semicircular canals | Located in the inner ear; contain the sensory receptors that detect head motion. p. 219
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| sensation | The process of receiving stimulus energies from the environment. p. 176
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| sensory adaptation | A change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation. p. 186
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| sensory receptors | Specialized cells that detect and transmit stimulus information to sensory neurons and the brain. p. 178
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| signal detection theory | Focuses on decision making about stimuli in the presence of uncertainty; detection depends on a variety of factors besides the physical intensity of the stimulus and the sensory abilities of the observer. p. 183
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| subliminal perception | The ability to detect information below the level of conscious awareness. p. 181
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| thermoreceptors | Located under the skin, they respond to increases and decreases in temperature. p. 214
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| top-down processing | Processing of perceptual information that starts out with cognitive processing at the higher levels of the brain. p. 177
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| transduction | The process of transforming physical energy into electrochemical energy. p. 177
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| trichromatic theory | Color perception is based on the existence of three types of receptors that are maximally sensitive to different, but overlapping, ranges of wavelengths. p. 194
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| vestibular sense | Provides information about balance and movement. p. 219
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| visual illusion | A discrepancy or incongruency between reality and the perceptual representation of it. p. 202
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| volley principle | A cluster of nerve cells can fire neural impulses in rapid succession, producing a volley of impulses. p. 209
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| Weber's law | The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as different. p. 183
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