Chapter 6 - Sensation and Perception AP Psych

Sensation P 231

Process of where sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represents stimulus energies from our environment

Perception P.231

Process of organising and interpreting sensory info, helps recognise meaning

Bottom up processing P.231

Analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain is integration of sensory information

Top down processing P.231

Infra processing guided by higher level mental processes

Psychophysics P. 231

Study of: psychological experience of stimuli

Absolute threshold P.231

Minimum stimulus needed to detect it 50% of the time

Signal detection theory P.231

Predicts when we will detect weak signals (depends on person and their condition)

Subliminal P.232

Below absolute thresholds and awareness

Priming P.232

Activation of association

Difference threshold P.234

Minimum difference between two stimuli to detect at 50% of time

Weber’s law P.234

Difference threshold is based on percentage difference, not amount difference

Sensory adaptation P.234

Brain ignoring persistent, unchanging stimulus

Transduction P. 236

Conversion of energy (ex: sight to brain)

Wavelength P.237

Distance from one peak of a wave to another (Determines hue)

Hue P.237

Colour we experience from wavelength

Intensity P.237

Amount of energy in light waves, determines brightness

Pupil P.237

Small adjustable opening – surrounded by Iris

Iris P.237

Coloured muscle around pupil, adjusts light intake

Lens P.237

Focuses incoming light rays from pupil onto retina

Retina P.237

Tissue on eyeball’s inner surface, begins the processing of visual information

Accommodation P.237

Process of lens changing shape to focus

Rods P.238

Retinal receptors – detects black & white

Cones P.238

Retinal receptors that detect detail and colour

Optic nerve P.238

Carries information from eye to brain

Blindspot P.238

Where optic nerve leaves eye, and no receptor cells means blindspot

Fovea P.238

Retina’s area of central focus

Feature detectors P.241

Part of brain that responds to scene’s specific features

Parallel processing P.242

Brain processing many things at once – multitasking

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory p.244

The retina contains red, green and blue receptors that can produce any colour

Opponent process theory P.244

Opposing retinal processes enable colour vision

Audition P.245

The act of hearing

Frequency P.246

Number of wavelengths in a time period (ex: per sec)

Pitch P.246

High or lowness of a tone – depends on frequency

Middle ear P.246

Three bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) after ear eardrum that transmit vibrations to cochlea

Cochlea P.246

Snail shaped tube with liquid which triggers nerves

Inner ear P.246

Innermost part of ear – made of cochlea and canals

Place theory P.249

Pitch we hear is linked with the place where cochlea is stimulated

Frequency theory P.249

Number of nerve impulses matches frequency of tone

Kinesthesis P.254

System for sensing position and movement of body parts

vestibular sense P.254

The sense of body movement position, plus balance

Gate-control theory p.255

Spinal cord has gate block/allows signals to brain through nerve fibers

Sensory interaction P.259

One sense can influence another (ex: smell of food and it’s taste)

gestalt P.263

Integrating pieces of information into a whole image

figure-ground P.265

Visual field – objects (figures) stand out from surroundings (ground)

Grouping P.265

Tendency to or visual stimuli into groups

Depth Perception P.266

Ability to see 3-D and judge distance

Visual cliff P.266

Device for testing depth perception (infants and young animals)

Binocular cues P.266

Depth cues (E.G.retinal disparity) when using two eyes

Retinal disparity P.266

Perceiving depth with two eyes to compute difference

Monocular cues P.266

Each eye – depth cues, position and perspective

Phi phenomenon P.269

Illusion of lights blinking on and off

Perceptual constancy P.269

Perceiving objects as unchanging – even when retinal images change

Colour constancy p.270

Perceiving objects as having constant colour – even when wavelength are altered

Perceptual adaptation, P.274

Ability to adjust vision to a displaced or inverted visual field

Perceptual set P.275

Mental predisposition to perceive one thing over another