AP Psych: unit 3 vocab

intensity

the amount of energy in a light/sound wave, determined by wave's amplitude (ex. brightness or loudness)

absolute threshold

minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time (ex. hearing tests w/ beeps)

accommodation

process when the eye's lens changes shape to focus on near/far objects on the retina, adapts to our schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information (ex. eye is accomidating to understand new information)

audition

sense or act of hearing (ex. audio)

binocular cues

depth cues (retinal disparity), that depend on the use of 2 eyes (ex. BI-nocular)

blind spot

point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, no receptor cells are there

bottom up processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works UP to the brains interrogation of sensory information (ex. if I flash a random picture on the screen, your eyes detect the features, your brain pieces it together, and you perceive a picture)

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment (ex. observers often fail to notice major differences introduced into an image while it flickers off and on again)

cochlea

coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

cochlear implant

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

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by an object

conduction hearing loss

hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea (ex. loss due to a middle-ear infection combined with a sensorineural loss caused by aging)

cones

retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina, they detect Color (ex. Color - Cones)

depth perception

ability to see objects in 3D images that strike the retina are 2D (ex. helps us judge distance)

difference threshold

amount of change needed to notice that a change has occurs (ex. turing up music in the car, starting off quiet & getting louder = noticeable difference)

extrasensory perception (ESP)

controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input (Ex. telepathy)

feature detectors

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of stimulus (ex. shape, angle, movement)

figure ground

the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from surroundings (ex. In Gestalt psychology it is known as identifying a figure from the background)

fovea

central focal point in the retina, eye's cones cluster around this

frequency

number of wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

frequency theory

hearing theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, enabling us to sense it's pitch

gate control theory

states that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals/allows them to pass into the brain

gestalt

organized whole, psychologists integrate pieces of info into a whole

grouping

tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

hue

dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light (ex. blue, green,etc.)

inattention blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

inner ear

innermost part of our ear (containing cochlea, semicircular, canals, vestibular sacs)

iris

ring of muscular tissues that form the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening

kinesthesis

the system for sensing the position and movement of body parts (ex. helps us detect weight, body position, or the relationship between movements in our body parts such as joints, muscles and tendons)

lens

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

middle ear

the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea that concentrates the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window (contains 3 bones: hammer, anvil, stirrup)

monocular cues

depth cues available to the eye ALONE (ex. interposition, linear perspective, MONO = 1)

apponet process theory

states that opposing retinal processes enable colored vision (ex. red-green, yellow-blue, black-white)

optic nerve

nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

parallel processing

processing many aspects of a problem at the same time (ex. vision)

parapsychology

study of paranormal phenomena (ex. ESP, psychokinesis)

perception

organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize events (ex. the way we view things in a good/bad way)

perceptual adaptation

in vision, ability to adjust to an artificially displaced field of vision (ex. one rests one's hand on a table, one immediately feels the table's surface on one's skin)

perceptual consistency

perceiving objects as unchanging (Ex. consistency in shapes, size and lightness)

perceptual set

mental dispostion to perceive one thing and not another (ex. young woman and old lady in picture)

phi phenomenon

illusion of movement created when 2 or more lights blink on and off quickly (ex. christmas lights)

pitch

tone's experienced (highness/lowness) depends on frequency

place theory

audio, theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochleas membrane is stimulated

priming

activation of certain associations predisposing ones (Ex. memory and response)

psychophysics

study of relationships between physical characteristics of stimuli (ex. intensity) and our psychological experience of them

pupil

adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

retina

light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, contains: rods, cones and neurons

retinal disparity

binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing images of the retinas in 2 eyes, the brain computes this distance (Ex. greater the difference between 2 images = closer the object)

rods

retinal preceptors that detect black, white and gray; needed for peripheral and twilight vision

selective attention

focusing on conscious awareness on a particular stimulus (ex. not paying attention to something on purpose)

sensation

process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment (ex. 5 senses)

sensorineural hearing loss

hearing loss caused by damage to the cochleas receptor cells or the auditory nerves (ex. nerve deafness)

sensory adaptions

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation (Ex. light and dark adaption)

sensory interaction

states that one sense may influence another (Ex. smell of food influences taste)

signal detection theory

theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus with background noise (ex. mother hears the cry of her baby in a crowd)

subliminal

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unconscious mind

top down processing

info processing guided by higher level mental processes (ex. Your brain applies what it knows and what it expects to perceive and fills in the blanks)

transduction

conversion of one form of energy to another (ex. changing physical energy into electrical signals that can make their way to the brain.)

vestibular sense

the sense of body movement/position including sense and balance

visual cliff

lab device for testing depth perception in infants

wave length

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

webers's law

to be seen as different, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant percentage

(young-helmotz) trichromatic theory

retina sees 3 different colors (red, green, blue) and when combined, they create any color