AP Psychology - Chapter 6 Vocbaulary

Derived from Myer's Psychology Textbook 10th Edition

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and event.

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and event.

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.

Top-down processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience.

Transduction

Conversion of one form of energy into another.

In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret.

Psychophysics

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.

Absolute threshold

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.

Signal detection theory

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise).

Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

Subliminal

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Difference threshold

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.

Experienced as a just noticeable difference (jnd)

Weber’s law

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, rather than a constant amount.

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Perceptual set

A mental predispostiion to perceive one thing and not the other

Wavelength

The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next wave

Hue

The dimension of colour that is determined by the wavelength of light.

What we know as the colour names blue, green, and so forth.

Intensity

The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude.

Pupil

The adjustable opening in the centre of the eye through which light enters.

Iris

A ring of muscle tissue that forms the coloured portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.

Lens

The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.

Retina

The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.

Accommodation

The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

Rods

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey.

Necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.

Cones

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the centre of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions.

Detect fine detail and give rise to colour sensations.

Optic nerve

The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

Blind spot

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a ____ ____ because no receptor cells are located there.

Fovea

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster.

Feature detectors

Nerve cells (specialized neurons) in the brain that respond to specific feature of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.

Parallel processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously.

The brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem-solving.

YoungHelmholtz trichromatic (three-colour) theory

The theory that the retina contains three different colour receptors — one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue — which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any colour.

Opponent-process theory

The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable colour vision.

Eg. Some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.

Gestalt

An organized whole.

_____ psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Figure-ground

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).

Grouping

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Depth perception

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional.

Allows us to judge distance.

Visual cliff

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

Binocular cues

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes.

Monocular cues

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.

Phi phenomenon

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession. —> stroboscopic movement (like stop motion video)

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, brightness, and colour) even as illumination and retinal images change.

Colour constancy

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent colour, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

Perceptual adaptation

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

Audition

The sense or act of hearing.

Frequency

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time.

Eg. per second

Pitch

A tone’s experienced highness or lowness

Depends on frequency

Middle ear

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window.

Cochlea

A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear.

Sound waves travelling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.

Inner ear

The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlear, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.

Sensorineural hearing loss

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves

Also called nerve deafness.

Conduction hearing loss

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

Cochlear implant

A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.

Place theory

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane ins stimulated.

Frequency theory

In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch.

Gate-control theory

The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.

The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibres or by information coming from the brain.

Sensory interaction

The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.

Embodied cognition

In psychological science, the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.

Kinesthesis

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

Vestibular sense

The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.

Includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

Parapsychology

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.