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