Synesthesia

synesthesia

Perceptual experience of one sense that is evoked by another sense

Visual acuity

ability to see fine detail

rods

become active under low-light conditions for night vision, more sensitive photoreceptors than cones

cornea

bends the light wave and sends through pupil, outer tissue

iris

controls size of pupil and amount of light that enters the light

cones

detect color, operate under daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail

hyperopia

farsightedness, eyeball is too short, images are focused behind the retina

pupil

hole in colored part of eye

perceptual sensitivity

how effectively the perceptual system represents sensory events and how signal detection theory is measured liberal decision- plethora of false alarms conservative decision- cut false alarms, but miss treatable things

intensity or amplitude

how high peaks are, brightness of light

length

hue, what humans perceive as color

retina

light-sensitive tissue lining back of the eyeball

psychophysics

methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observer's sensitivity to that stimulus

just noticeable difference

minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected fixed intensity- standard

absolute threshold

minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus

myopia

nearsightedness, eyeball is too long, images focused in front of the retina

purity

number of wavelengths that make up light, richness of color

Transduction

occurs when many sensors in the body convert signals from the environment into encoded neural signals to the central nervous system

perception

organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation. Happens after sensation

accommodation

process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina

sensory adaption

sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions Ex. wear hat, notice feeling, after 4 hours, forget

sensation

simple stimulation of a sense organ basic registration for light, sound, pressure, odor, taste

hit

sound it there, observer hears it

correct rejection

sound not there, dont hear it

false alarm

sound not there, observer thinks it is

miss

sound there, observer misses it

Weber's law

the just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity

Signal detection theory

the response to a stimulus depends both on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise on a person's decision criterion