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The absolute threshold is the minimum stimulus intensity required for a sensory receptor to experience a sensation. It marks the boundary at which a stimulus goes from undetectable to detectable. Psychologists use the concept to understand sensory processes and their limitations.

Also known as the Just Noticeable Difference (JND), it is the smallest difference in stimulus intensity that a person can detect. It is described by Weber's Law, which states that the JND is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity, thus playing a crucial role in understanding sensory adaptation.

Sensory adaptation refers to the diminished sensitivity to a stimulus as a result of constant exposure. It allows organisms to focus on changes in the sensory environment, conserving energy and cognitive resources by tuning out constant stimuli.

This theory explains how individuals detect stimuli under different conditions and posits that detecting a signal is a decision-making process that involves distinguishing a signal from noise with the presence of uncertainty. It considers both the strength of the signal and the observer's decision criteria, influenced by various factors like experience and expectations.

Visual acuity refers to the clarity or sharpness of vision, which is measured by one's ability to identify letters or numbers on a standardized eye chart from a specific viewing distance. Visual acuity is important for everyday tasks requiring detail recognition and is affected by factors like lighting and contrast.

Perceptual constancy is the psychological phenomenon where people perceive the size, shape, and color of objects as unchanging despite changes in their retinal images, such as when an object moves closer, further away, or under different lighting conditions. This stability in perception is crucial for us to recognize objects under varying circumstances.

Depth perception is the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions (3D) and to judge the distance of objects. It's essential for tasks such as driving, sports, and simple navigation. Depth cues, either binocular or monocular, help in the estimation of distance.

Gestalt principles describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied, such as similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure. These principles are fundamental in explaining how individuals perceive visual information as meaningful patterns rather than just separate parts.

Bottom-up processing is a type of information processing based on incoming data from the environment to form a perception. It begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the complex integration of information in the brain. This processing is data-driven and helps in detecting features of stimuli.

Top-down processing is guided by cognitive factors such as experiences, knowledge, and expectations rather than by sensory input. It involves higher cognitive processes that influence how we interpret sensory information, often leading to perception that is influenced by context and prior knowledge.

Retinal disparity is a binocular cue for perceiving depth. It involves the difference in images between the two eyes, which the brain interprets for distance information. It is the basis for stereopsis, or three-dimensional perception, and is important in fields like 3D movie technology and virtual reality.

Color vision is the capacity of an organism to distinguish objects based on the wavelengths of the light they reflect, emit, or transmit. Humans perceive color through photoreceptors in the retina called cones, which are sensitive to different wavelengths associated with red, green, and blue light. Theories like the trichromatic theory and opponent process theory explain how we perceive color.

Auditory localization is our ability to identify the location of a sound source in space. It relies on auditory cues such as the time difference in sound arrival between the ears (interaural time difference) and the difference in the loudness of sounds (interaural level difference), allowing individuals to react quickly to the environment.

Olfaction, or the sense of smell, is the process of detecting chemicals in the environment. This chemical sense is linked to flavor perception and memory, often evoking emotional responses due to its connection to the limbic system. The olfactory system includes receptors in the nasal cavity that bind to specific molecules and send signals to the brain.