A.P Psychology Chapter 4 Study Guide Sensation and Perception

Sensation

The process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.

Perception

The way we interpret signals or sensations and make sense of everything around us.

Transduction

The process of transforming stimuli from the environment into neural impulses, as in the example of the brain receiving the sensory stimulus of smelling smoke.

Sensory Adaptation

A decreasing responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation.

Sensory Habituation

Our perception of senses is partially due to how focused we are on them.

Cornea

Controls and focuses light entering the eye.

Pupil

Black hole in the middle of the iris. Regulates the amount of light entering the eye by adjusting its size. light affects its size

Iris

what gives the eye color, the pupil is IN THE IRIS

Lens

Focuses light onto the retina by changing shape.

Retina

Converts light into electrical signals via photoreceptors.

Rods

Detect low light levels and enable black-and-white vision.

Cones

Detect color and fine details in bright light.

Fovea

Provides the highest visual acuity for sharp focus.

Optic Nerve

Transmits visual information from the retina to the brain for interpretation.

Vitreous Humor

Maintains the eye’s shape and allows light to pass to the retina.

Trichromatic Theory

Three types of cones in our retina detect blue, red, and green, combining their activation to produce all colors.

Opponent Process Theory

Sensory receptors in the retina come in pairs; when one sensor is stimulated, its pair is inhibited.

Sound Processing

The process by which sound waves enter the outer ear, vibrate the eardrum, amplify through tiny bones, and are processed in the cochlea.

Place Theory

The different hair cells in the cochlea respond to different frequencies by their location.

Frequency Theory

Lower tones are sensed by the rate at which hair cells fire.

Vestibular Sense

Responsible for how our body is oriented in space, involving semicircular canals filled with fluid.

Taste Buds

Sensors for taste located on the papillae of the tongue, detecting types like sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory.

Olfaction

The sense of smell processed in the olfactory bulb, linked to emotion and memory.

Gate Control Theory

Explains that some pain messages have higher priority than others and can block lower priority messages.

Kinesthetic Sense

Gives feedback about the position and orientation of specific body parts.

Absolute Threshold

The smallest amount of a stimulus that can be detected.

Difference Threshold

The amount a stimulus must change before we notice a difference.

False Positives

When a stimulus that is not there is perceived.

False Negatives

When a stimulus that is there is not perceived.

Top-Down Processing

Using previously acquired knowledge to fill in perceptual gaps.

Schema

A cognitive framework that helps organize and interpret information.

Bottom-Up Processing

Analysis of the stimulus begins with sense receptors and works up to the level of the brain.

Gestalt Principles

Principles governing how we perceive objects as organized wholes: proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, and connectedness.

Perceived Motion

The perception of movement through phenomena like stroboscopic effect, phi-phenomenon, and autokinetic effect.

Monocular Cues

Depth perception cues based on one eye, including linear perspective, relative size, interposition, texture gradient, and shadowing.

Binocular Disparity

The difference in image location seen by the left and right eyes, used by the brain to extract depth information.