| Term | Definition |
| Parallel Processing | processing many things at once |
| Young-Hemholtz Trichromatic Theory | 3 Color receptors: red, blue, green |
| Opponent-Process Theory | red-green, yellow-blue, white-black, enable vision. |
| Audition | act of hearing |
| Frequency | the number of complete wavelengths at a given time |
| Pitch | tone's highness or lowness |
| Middle Ear | between the eardrum and the cochlea (hammer, anvil, stirrup) |
| Cochlea | coiled, bony, liquid filled inner ear |
| Inner Ear | innermost part of ear (cochlea, semicircular canals, vestibular sacs |
| Place Theory | pitch related to stimulus on cochlea membrane |
| Frequency Theory | rate of nerve impulse= tone frequency |
| Conduction Hearing Loss | hearing loss by damage to the cochlea receptors |
| Sensorineural Hearing Loss | hearing loss damage to the cochlea nerves |
| Cochlear Implant | device that replaces cochlea and converts sound |
| Kinethesis | sensing whereabouts of individual parts |
| Vestibular Sense | body sensory movement, position, and balance |
| Gate-control Theory | spinal cord has "gates" impulses pass through for pain |
| Sensory Interaction | one sense influences another (smell and taste) |
| Gestalt | organized whole |
| Figure-ground | organizing visual fields to objects |
| Grouping | organize stimuli into similar groups |
| Depth Perception | seeing in 3-D |
| Visual Cliff | device to test depth perception |
| Binocular Cues | depth cues |
| Retinal Disparity | sensing depth by comparing to slightly different pictures |
| monocular cues | depth cues by interposition and linear perspective |
| Phi Phenomenon | movement illusion from standstill objects |
| Perceptual Consistancy | perceiving unchanging objects |
| Color Constancy | perceiving same objects with the same color |
| Perceptual Adaption | adjust and artificially displace |
| Perceptual Set | perceive one thing and not anohter |
| Human Factors Psychology | explores how people and machines interact |
| Extrasensory Perception | perceive other than sensory input (telepathy, clairvoyance) |
| Parapsychology | study of paranormal phenomenon (ESP, psychokinesis) |
| Sensation | process environment stimuli are received |
| Perception | organizing and interpreting sensory into understanding |
| Bottom-up Processing | focusing with sensory receptors then other information |
| Top-down Processing | Higher mental process by constructing drawings on experience and expectations |
| Psychophysics | study relation between stimuli and psychological experience |
| Absolute Threshold | minimal stimuli needed to perceive fifty percent of the time |
| Signal Detection Theory | predicts how and when detection of faint stimuli begins to fail |
| Subliminal | hidden message |
| Priming | unconsciously activating perception, memory, and response |
| Difference Threshold | smallest difference between stimuli that is detectable |
| Weber's Law | for perception stimuli must have constant minimal perception |
| Sensory Adaptation | more constant stimulation equals less sensing it |
| Transduction | converting energy into another form of energy |
| Wavelength | the length between toe two crests of waves |
| Hue | the color created by wavelength |
| Intensity | the amount of energy we perceive |
| Pupil | adjustable opening in center of eye |
| Iris | Muscle around the pupil |
| Lens | clear film behind pupil |
| Retina | inner surface of eye that is light sensitive |
| Accomodation | eye lens changes shape to focus |
| Rods | retinal receptors that detects black, white, and gray |
| Cones | retinal receptors that function in daylight and detect color |
| Optic Nerve | carries neural impulse from eye to brain |
| Blind Spot | the optic nerve leaves the eye at this point and there are no receptors there |
| Fovea | center focus of retina |
| Feature Detectors | nerve cells in brain that respond to specific stimuli, shape, angle and movement |
