compound eye

the type of eye found in certain lower forms of animals (e.g., insects), which is composed of a number of separate visual units (ommatidia). Compare simple eye.

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Psychology term of the day

December 27th 2024

self-organizing system

any system whose elements spontaneously interact in such a way as to create a higher level structure as a result of their intrinsic properties. Many biological molecules show spontaneous self-organization, but purely physical systems do so as well, as in phase changes in water at different temperatures.