AP Psychology Chap 6-7

Transduction

process in which stimulus energy into neural impulses such as sights, sounds and smells

Sensory adaptation

the decrease in sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time

Cocktail party effect

a phenomenon where in brain forces a person’s attention on one paticular stimulus

Synesthesia

When smelling a stimulus leads it to connect to a experience

Prosopagnosia

inability to recognize faces or can’t interpret facial expressions and cues.

Wavelengths

Distance from the peak or one light for sound/ always determines the color

Amplitude

the intensity of the color

Accommodation

process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Lens

Transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus the images on the retina

Nearsightedness

difficulty seeing distant objects

Farsightedness

difficulty seeing close objects

Retina

Light-sensitive inner surface of the eye containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information, goes through transduction

Thalamus

Responsible for all 5 senses it Is a sensory switch board in the brain. expect smell

Photoreceptors

specialized and light-sensitive cells found at the outermost layer of the eye section

Cones

near the center of the retina or fovea this helps to see color roughly 5-6 million on the eyes.

Blind Spot

point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind spot” because there are no receptor cells located there.

Fovea

central point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster. The central is responsible for visual acuity.

Optic nerve

nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

Stimulus

light energy

Rods

on the peripheral retina can detect black, white and gray/twilight or low light roughly 120 million.

Ganglion cells

the projection neuron of the vertebrate retina

Trichromatic theory

the human eye has three cone receptor sensitive to different wavelentghs

Dichromatism

males are more likely to get two color blindness, red and green are most common, genetic illness

Monochromatism

no color

Opponent-process theory

when one cone becomes fatigue and the opposite of the color is seen.

Frequency

the rate of nerve pulses

Loudness

the amount of auditory sensation that a person experiences in sound.

Pitch

how high or low it is

Sound localization

Since we have two ears sounds that reach one ear faster than the other ear cause us to locate sound

Place theory

Pitch is determined by location of vibration along the basilar membrane

McGurk Effect

auditory illusion where our eyes override the ears.

Frequency theory

Pitch is determined by the frequency hair cells produce action potentials.

Conduction deafness

hearing loss due to sound waves not reaching

Nerve deafness

result in which cells in the brain are damaged leading to lost of feel.

Sensorineural deafness

hair cells in the inner ear of the brain is damaged leading to hearing lost

Gate control theory

Melzakand Wall said that their is a gate in which pain is blocked or allowed to be sensed.

Taste preceptors

papillae roughly 5-8k regrows a week to two

Supertasters

sensitive to taste 25% have more papillae than the average human

Nontaster

genetically unable to taste

Medium taster

average sense of taste

Semicircular canals

three loop shaped organ responsible for control and stability a fluid helps to detect sound

Kinesthesis

muscle memory

Ossicles

two bones in the ear

Gustation

sense of taste

Olfaction

sense of smell

Vestibular sense

provides info to the body about its position and maintaining equilibrium

Sweet

1st taste

Sour

3rd taste

Salty

2nd taste

Bitter

4th taste

Umami

5th savory taste

Oleogustus

6th sense of taste, fatty taste, recently discovered.

Skin

is the largest sense organ.

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

sensation

To represent the world, we must detect physical energy (a stimulus) from the environment and convert it into neural signals

perception

When we give meaning by selecting, organizing, and interpreting our sensations

Bottom-up Processing

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

Top-Down Processing

Information processing is guided by higher-level mental processes as we construct perceptions, drawing on our experience and expectations.

Absolute Threshold

Smallest detectable level of a stimulus.

just noticeable difference

The smallest detectable CHANGE in a stimulus

Weber’s Law

To perceive a difference between two stimuli, the two stimuli must differ by a constant %, not a constant amount.

Perceptual set

Setting up to perceive things in a certain way

Subliminal

means a stimulus is below a threshold.

Gestalt Psychology

the study of human perception and self-organizing tendencies

Figure-ground

We organize the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground).

Closure

We organize the visual field into a complete object even if there are gaps.

Similarity

We organize the visual field according to the likeness of objects. Like objects belong together.

Proximity

We organize the visual field according to the closeness of objects. Objects closest to one another belong together.

Perceptual Constancy

Our tendency to perceive objects as stable and unchanging despite changing sensory information Size constancy, Shape constancy, Color constancy

Vestibular

sense of balance

Selective Attention

Focusing on a specific stimulus

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see visible objects because attention is directed elsewhere.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment.

Autokinetic illusion

Perceived motion of a single object due to eye movements on an

Stroboscopic motion

Created by a rapid series of still pictures.

Phi phenomenon

Apparent motion created by lights flashing in sequence.

Retinal Disparity

Images from the two eyes differ. The amount of disparity (difference) between the two images can be used as a cue for distance.

Convergence

Inward turning of the eye when looking at near objects. Our eyes converge as an objects gets closer.

Relative size

if two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts a smaller retinal image to be farther away.

Interposition

objects that occlude (block) other objects tend to be perceived as closer.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues to either eye alone.

Depth perception

that you have because you have two eyes.

Texture gradient

Tcloser objects tend to have a coarser texture than to far away objects.

Linear perspective

parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, appear to converge in the distance. The more the lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.

Motion parallax

objects closer to a fixation point move faster than objects that are further.