Psychology—Chapter 4

Salt

____ is necessary for survival, as it operates nerve cells, helps keep body chemistry in balance, and is used for muscle contraction.

Color

_____ is seen only after waves of white light hit objects and bounce back to us at different speeds or frequencies. There really is no such thing as "_____."

Water

_____ molecules are very strangely shaped and complex. Because of this, they absorb the energy at the red end of the spectrum, and green and blue light bounces off of them.

Vision

______ dominates the human senses. We always believe what we see first.

Hearing

_______, like vision, depends on energy.

Infrared

________ light waves are examples of frequencies that are too slow for us to see.

Psychological

_____________ factors can control the iris muscles and thus the size of the pupil.

Decibels

A measure of how loud a sound is (its intensity)

Similarity

A perceptual cue that involves grouping like things together

Proximity

A perceptual cue that involves grouping together things that are near one other

Eardrum

A piece of skin stretched over the entrance to the ear; vibrates to sound

Cochlea

A snail-shaped part of the ear, filled with fluid and small hairs that vibrate to incoming sound

Constancy

A term that means holding steady

Healthy

A very low salt diet can make you dizzy and sick. In _______ people, excess salt is quickly and efficiently removed from the body in the urine with no ill effects.

Rod

A visual receptor most sensitive to the violet-purple wavelengths; very sensitive for night vision; sees only black and white

Cone

A visual receptor that responds only during daylight; sees color

8

About _ percent of males have color blindness in which they can only see color in the yellow-blue range (not reds or greens), and only 0.5 percent of women have this issue.

Meaningless

Adaptation allows us to ignore ___________ sensory input.

Red, blue, green

All the colors we see are: ___, ____, _____ (or a mixture of these three)

Poisons

Almost all _______ are bitter in some way, which is why sourness detection serves as a protective function.

Visual cliff

An apparatus used to demonstrate depth perception

Gestalt

An organized whole, shape, or form

Auditory nerve

Bundles of nerves carrying sound to the brain

Taste receptors

Chemical receptors on the tongue that decode molecules of food or drink to identify them

Fluid

Eyes appear shiny because of a reflection from the _____ behind the cornea.

Third

For the majority of people with colorblindness, only the red and green cone systems do not work in terms of seeing color. The receptors do respond to the light-wave energy, but they don't see it as "colored". People with this condition have a _____ color-receiving (cone) system that responds in the yellow-blue area.

Salt, sweet, sour, bitter

Four types of taste receptors

Cilia

Hairlike extensions on cells; these are found in the cochlea and are tuned to receive different frequencies of sound and in the mucous membranes of the nasal cavity to collect molecules of odor.

Pitch

How high or low a sound is

Intensity

How loud a sound is

Texture gradient

How rough or smooth objects appear; used in depth perception

Eyeglasses

If the lens is not shaped correctly, the image coming in will other overshoot or fall short of the receptors at the back of the eye, causing images to blur. __________ are designed to change the angle at which the light hits the lens, causing the incoming light waves to land properly on the receptors.

White

If you stare at a colored object for an extended period of time and then look away and stare at a _____ piece of paper, you will see the object in opposite colors.

Reversible figure

Illusion in which the same object is seen as two alternating figures—first one, then the other

Afterimage

Image that remains after stimulation of the retina has ended; cones not used fire to bring the visual system back in balance

Sugar

In addition to salt, _____ is also vital for energy to run the body. Too little _____ makes a person tremble, feel faint, and experience mental confusion. A desire for sweet foods is natural.

Color blindness

Inability to perceive certain colors, such as red and green

Illusions

Inaccurate perceptions

Cutaneous receptors

Nerve receptors in the skin that respond to pressure, temperature, or pain

Pheromones

Odor chemicals that communicate a message

Continuously after an injury

One kind of cutaneous receptor responds ______________ _____ __ ______, So it can cause painful feelings lasting for hours after a burn or major cut.

Temperature

One kind of cutaneous receptor responds to changes in ___________, so it can recognize drastic changes in hot and cold.

Pressure

One type of cutaneous receptor responds to ________, so it can register a pinprick, a bruise, or even an insect brushing up against a part of the body.

Assembling

Perception is the process of __________ sensory information so that we can understand what the incoming energy means. It is always a matter of interpretation and expectation.

Hair cells

Receptor cells for hearing found in the cochlea; the key to hearing

Texture

Refers to how smooth or rough something appears to be, or how clear its details are

Gradient

Refers to the different levels of texture we can see at different distances

Red eyes

Since it is dark inside your eye the opening of the pupil looks black, but if you flash a light inside, the colors coming back through the pupil can vary across the whole range depending on how the light is bent and what it hits there. This is what causes the "___ ____" effect you see in some flash color photographs.

Animal

Smell is the most ______-like of the human senses. Odors are very hard to define using words, but they can become unforgettable when associated with an emotional event. Smelling that odor again can recreate a strong emotional memory.

Ultraviolet

Some frequencies, such as ___________ light waves, are too rapid for our eyes to be able to see the light.

Specialize

Sound can have strong psychological implications. For instance, some cells __________, or gain the ability to recognize specific important sound patterns.

Visual

The ______ network can work independently once color of an object has been determined, as it can increase or decrease mentally the internal firing of visual receptors to equal what the brain tells it the color is, which is called color constancy. NOTE: the only works when we already know what color something is.

Newborn

The _______ does not like salt. After a few months, children develop an interest in salt which remains until late childhood. The desire for salt tapers off with age and reappears much later in life. Pregnant women need an extra supply of salt.

Color constancy

The ability to perceive an object as the same color regardless of the environment

Size constancy

The ability to retain the size of an object regardless of where it is located

Depth perception

The ability to see the relation of objects in space

Retina

The back of the eye, which contains millions of receptors for light

Odor

The cilia in the nose collect molecules of ____.

Cornea

The clear outer covering of the eye, behind which is a fluid

Timbre

The complexity of a sound

Outer ear

The cupped design of the _____ ___ catches the sound waves and funnels them in toward the eardrum.

Retinal disparity

The difference between the images provided by the two retinas; when the images are brought together in the brain, they provide a sense of depth

Sound waves

The energy form of hearing

Adaptation

The gradual loss of attention to unneeded or unwanted sensory information

Wavelengths

The key to color is white light waves hitting various objects in the environment and bouncing off at different ___________, which in turn hits receptors in our eyes.

Back

The lens of your eye is like a camera lens. It helps you focus the objects you see onto the ____ of the eye, where there are receptors.

Pupil

The opening in the eye

Lens

The part of the eye that focuses an image on the retina

Optic nerve

The place where all the nerve cells leave the eye; the part of the eye used by rods and cones to transmit impulses

Blind spot

The portion of the retina through which the optic nerve exists and where there are no receptors for light waves

Perception

The process of assembling and organizing sensory information to make it meaningful

Closure

The process of filling in the missing details of what is viewed

Sensation

The process of receiving information from the environment

Larger

The pupils of our eyes get ______ during strong emotional intensity, such as fear or excitement.

smaller

The pupils of our eyes get _______ if we are disgusted.

Audition

The sense of hearing

Olfaction

The sense of smell

Detect chemicals

The sense of smell, or olfaction, depends on the ability to ______ _________.

Solidity

The speed of movement of light waves varies depending on the texture and ________ of what they hit.

False (cattle have full color vision; the bull is responding to movement, not color)

True or False: Cattle don't have full color vision, but bulls are inflamed by the color red.

True

True or False: Continuous loud noises actually impair hearing by killing receptor cells in the ear.

False (but ear shape does have a purpose)

True or False: Ear size makes a difference in hearing.

True

True or False: Smell is more important in eating than is taste.

Rods

Truly color blind people are very rare, and they can only respond to light waves with ____.

Olfactory bulbs

Units that receive odor molecules and communicate their nature to the brain.

Should

We interpret things the way we think they ______ be, not the way they actually are.

pressure, temperature, pain

What are the three types of cutaneous receptors?

Self-motion, object motion

What are the two types of motion?

Red, green

What is the most common form of color blindness? (Two colors; yellow-blue range can be seen)

Dizziness

What occurs when both self-motion and object motion are recognized by the body? (When one of the two is not held constant)

130

When sounds reach a decibel level beyond ___, they can become painful.

Iris

a colored circular muscle that opens and closes, forming larger and smaller circles to control the amount of light getting into the eye

Monocular cues

depth cues available to either eye alone (example: texture gradient)

Muller-Lyer illusion

illusion in which one line in a picture with two equal-length lines seems longer

White light

light as it originates from the sun or a bulb before it is broken into different frequencies

Subliminal perception

stimulation presented below the level of consciousness

Brightness constancy

the ability to keep an object's brightness constant as the object is moved to various environments; made possible when the brain causes the rods and cones to compensate for brightness

Space constancy

the ability to keep objects in the environment steady by perceiving either ourselves or outside objects as moving

Shape constancy

the ability to perceive an object as having the same shape regardless of the angle at which it is seen

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input

Absolute threshold

the level of sensory stimulation necessary for sensation to occur