AP Psychology Unit 3

Sensation

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus energies from our environment

perception

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

figure-ground

the tendency to focus on one object or sound and, in doing so, perceiving the other objects or sounds as being in the background.

Gestalt

an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

continuation

A line or edge that continues from one form to another, allowing the eye to move smoothly through a composition

similarity

the tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group

closure

the tendency to complete figures that are incomplete

connectedness

spots, lines, and areas are seen as unit when connected

proximity

group nearby figures together

depth perception

allows you the ability to determine the distance between you and an object and to perceive the world in three dimensions

visual cliff experiment

created by E.J. Gibson, used to determine when infants can perceive depth (showed that depth perception is perceived at a very young age)

monocular cues

depth cues available to either eye alone (you don't need both eyes to perceive these cues)

linear perspective

a monocular cue (a cue that can be seen with just one eye) that perceives that parallel lines appear to converge with distance

binocular cues

depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes

retinal disparity

a binocular cue (requiring both eyes) that perceives the differences between the images stimulating each eye

convergence

A binocular cue - the extent to which the eyes converge/move inward the closer an object is (cross eyed)

absolute threshold

the minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before you experience a sensation (i.e. sounds that one person can hear but another can't)

difference threshold (just noticeable difference)

the amount something must be changed in order for a difference to be noticeable, detectable at least half the time.

sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation (i.e. becoming "nose blind" to a scent that you are used to smelling, or not noticing you are wearing a mask all day).

top-down processing

the use of preexisting knowledge to guide your perception and organize individual features into a unified whole (i.e. the woman not liking clam chowder once she found out it had seafood)

bottom-up processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information (i.e. the woman liking clam chowder before knowing it had seafood in it)

perceptual set (perceptual expectancy)

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another based on several factors such as expectation and culture

Schema

a conceptual framework a person uses to make sense of the world, based on expectation and influences our perceptual set.

perceptual adaptation

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

Rods

receptors in the retina that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision

Cones

receptor cells in the retina that detect fine detail (the fovea) and color sensations.

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.

layers of retina

rods/cones --\> bipolar cells --\> ganglion cells

Vision Transduction

occurs in the retina and travels to the occipital lobe

opponent processing theory

Helps to explain negative afterimages. This is because the chemical reaction reverses once you've seen one of the colors.

monochromatic

seeing only one color

dichromatic

seeing only two colors. people who are color blind typically see in this way.

trichromatic theory

theory of color vision that proposes three types of cones: red, blue, and green

Frequency

also known as pitch

Amplitude

also known as volume

outer ear

where sound waves travel through the pinna --\> auditory canal --\> hit the eardrum

middle ear

the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that vibrate to the impact of the eardrum

inner ear

the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea (with the cilia) and the semicircular canals. this is where transduction occurs (specifically in the hair like cilia)

taste buds

sensory organs in the mouth (below the papillae) that contain the receptors for taste/ where taste is transduced

What are the 5 tastes?

sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami

olfactory transduction

conversion of chemical molecules in the air into neural impulses by attaching to receptors in the olfactory epithelium

olfaction and memory

(1) Olfaction doesn't pass through the thalamus, so smell triggers the strongest memories. (2) olfactory bulb is very close to the hippocampus

gate control theory of pain

based on the idea that signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped, or gated, by interneurons in the spinal cord due to external factors (i.e. medication, physically alleviating through massaging)

somatosensory cortex

registers and processes body touch and movement sensations

vestibular sense

a sensory system located in structures of the inner ear (semicircular canals) that registers the orientation of the head and sense of balance

Homunculus Man

The more sensitive the body part, the more space/activation that body part activates in the somatosensory cortex.

example of just noticeable difference

If you change the color of your packaging from very light blue to light blue, customers might not notice. If you change the color of your packaging from light blue to red, your customers will notice

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment