AP Psychology Sensation and Perception Flashcards - Terms & Definition

REM Rebound

The increase in frequency, depth, and intensity after a period of REM sleep deprivation.

Prosopagnosia

Neurological condition in which a person has difficulty remembering known faces.

Sensation

The physical result of something coming into contact with your body.

Sensory receptors

Sensory nerve endings that collect stimuli and send it to the nervous system.

Perception

The brain's process of making sense of sensory information.

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that starts with sensory receptors and ends with analysis

Top-down processing

Analysis that starts with prior knowledge and influences perception.

Transduction

Physical sensory stimuli in converted into electrical signals the brain can interpret.

Psychophysics

The study of what physical stimuli produce and how it is processed and what sensations it produces.

Absolute threshold

The minimum intensity needed of a stimulus.

Signal detection theory

How we make decisions to detect a faint stimuli ***

Subliminal threshold

When stimuli is below one's absolute threshold.

Difference Threshold

Minimum amount of difference two stimuli must differ to be detected 50% of the time.

Weber's Law

ΔI / I = k; two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

Sensory Adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation.

Wavelength

Physical property of wavelength associated with a color.

Hue

The actual color we can perceive

Intensity

Strength of a stimuli.

Cornea

Transparent, dome-shaped, front layer of the eye, focuses light onto retina.

Pupil

Adjustable opening opening in the center of the eye.

Iris

Colored; muscular; part that controls pupils.

Lens

The transparent, flexible structure behind the pupil, allows us to see at different distances.

Retina

Innermost part of the eye, contains photoreceptors which can detect and convert light.

Accommodation

The process when prior knowledge is remolded into a new one.

Rods

Photoreceptor cells located in the retina; responsible for detecting motion and light.

Cones

Photoreceptor cells located in the retina; responsible for detecting color and detail.

Optic nerve

Cranial nerve that carries visual information from the retina to the brain.

Blind spot

Point on the retina where optic nerve exits the eye and carries information to the brain.

Fovea

Small pit in the center of the retina that has the highest concentration of cones.

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

There are three types of cones that are each sensitive to wavelengths (red, green, and blue).

Opponent-process theory

Color vision and emotions are process in opponent pairs, when one color or emotion inhibits the other.

Feature detectors

Cells and other mechanisms that specialize in identifying and extracting features from stimuli.

Parallel processing

The brain's ability to process/handle multiple aspects of sensory information simultaneously.

Audition

Sound waves are converted into neural signals and interpreted by the brain as sound.

Frequency

The number of sound waves cycles per second (Hertz;Hz)

Pitch

How high or low a sound is.

Middle Ear

Chamber with three bones that transmits sound vibration to inner ear's cochlea.

Cochlea

Snail-shaped, fluid-filled, structure in the inner ear that transforms sound vibrations into neural signals.

Inner ear

Converts mechanical vibrations from middle ear into electrical signals for the brain.

Sensorineural hearing loss

Permanent hearing loss caused by damage to inner ear.

Conduction hearing loss

Inability to hear because fluid or earwax is blocking the pathway.

Cochlear implant

Surgically implanted device that bypasses damaged parts and stimulates auditory nerves, allowing hearing.

Place theory

We hear different pitches because specific sound frequencies stimulate different places along the cochlea's basilar membrance.

Frequency theory

We perceive pitch based on the rate at which the auditory nerves receives impulses.

Gate-control theory

The spinal cord contains a "gate" that can open and close in order to modulate the intensity of pain signals from reaching the brain.

Placebo

Inert substance used as control to see psychological effects.

Gustation

Biological process of tasting

Olfaction

The biological process of smelling

Kinesthesis

The body's sense of perceiving the movement of limbs.

Vestibular sense

Sense that perceives balance, movement, and body position.

Sensory interaction

Where one sense influences with another.

Embodied cognition

Cognition is not limited to the brain but also interacts with the body's experiences.