ap psych unit 3

Sensation

Process of receiving stimulus energies from environment

Analyzing

Examining information for understanding

Sensory receptors

Nerve endings that respond to stimuli

Perception

Organizing and interpreting sensory information

Bottom-up processing

Analysis starting with sensory receptors

Top-down processing

Information processing guided by experience and expectations

Selective attention

Focusing conscious awareness on particular stimulus

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see objects when attention is elsewhere

Change blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Transduction

Conversion of energy into neural impulses

Psychophysics

Study of relationship between physical stimuli and psychological experience

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a stimulus

Signal detection theory

SDT states that a person's ability to detect a stimulus depends on: he intensity of the stimulus and the physical/psychological state of the individual

Difference threshold

Minimum difference between stimuli required for detection

Weber's Law

Perceived difference between stimuli depends on percentage difference

Subliminal

Below conscious awareness

Priming

a technique in which the introduction of one stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity due to constant stimulation

Perceptual set

Mental predisposition to perceive one thing over another

extra sensory perception

Claim that perception can occur without sensory input

Parapsychology

Study of paranormal phenomena

Wavelength

Distance between peaks of light or sound waves

Hue

Color determined by wavelength

Intensity

Amount of energy in a wave

Cornea

Clear outer layer of the eye

Pupil

Adjustable opening through which light enters the eye

Iris

Ring of muscle controlling pupil size

Lens

Transparent structure behind the pupil

Retina

Light-sensitive inner surface of the eye which also transduces the things into electrical impulses

Accommodation

Process of lens changing shape to focus on objects

Rods

Retinal receptors detecting black, white, and gray

Cones

Retinal receptors detecting fine detail and color

Optic nerve

Nerve carrying visual information to the brain

Blind spot

Area with no receptor cells in the eye

Fovea

Central focal point in the retina which helps make us see sharp vision with its many photoreceptors

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

Theory of color vision based on three types of receptors

Opponent-process theory

Theory of color vision based on opposing processes

Feature detectors

Nerve cells responding to specific features of stimuli

Parallel processing

Processing multiple aspects of a problem simultaneously

Gestalt

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Figure-ground

the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into meaningful groups

Depth Perception

the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions

Visual cliff

a lab 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

Retinal disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth

Monocular cues

depth cues available to either eye alone

Phi phenomenon

the illusion of movement created by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession

Perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

color constancy

the ability to recognize colors despite changes in lighting

Perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Audition

Frequency

the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Pitch

How high or low a sound is

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 traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses

Inner ear

contains cochlea, 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

Conduciton hearing loss

Effects of rupture of the eardrum

Cochlear implant

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

Place theory

the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

Frequency theory

theory of pitch that states that pitch is related to the speed of vibrations in the basilar membrane

Gate-control theory

the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain

Olfaction

sense of smell

Embodied cognition

the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements

Kinesthesia

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

Vestibular sense

sense of balance

Sensory interaction

the principle that one sense may influence another