AP Psych sensation and Perception

Cocktail Party Effect

The brains ability to focus on a single voice or conversation while filtering out a loud and crowded background.

Selective Attention

Focusing on a specific stimulus in the environment while filtering out other irrelevant o distracting information

Sensory Adaptation

We are programmed to tune out non- changing aspects of our environments

Change Blindness

Observer fails to notice a major or minor alteration in a visual scene

Inattentional blindness

Where you fail to notice fully visible, unexpected or event because your attention is focused on something

Gestalt Psychology

The whole organizational patterns we tend to perceive

Phi phenomenon

Light flashing in quick succession displaying movement

Stroboscopic motion

Quick succession of still images with slight changes

Kinesthesis

System for sensing the position and movement for individual body parts

Perceptual adaptation

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificial displaced or inverted visual field

Transduction

Changing one form of sensory energy into something our brains can use

Weber’s Law

The amount of change in a stimulus needed to detect a difference is given by a constant ration or fraction called constant of original stimulus

Autokinetic effect

Starting at a stationary light in a dark room, our eye movement makes the light seem to move

Gestalt Principles

How the brain organizes visual information into patterns and meaningful objects

Figure Ground

Organizing our visual field into objects that stand out

Proximity

If objects are close together, we place them in the same group

Similarity

Put items that look similar in the same group

Perceptual Constancy

The cognitive phenomenon where the brain perceived familiar objects to have stable size, shape, and color even when sensory input or lighting changes

Color constancy

An objects color has not changed under different light

Shape

An object shape hasn’t changed even though the angle has

Light constancy

Even thought lighting changes we know the color of objects stays the same

Size

Objects remain same size, only distance changes

Binocular cues

Allow for depth perception ( 2 eyes)

Retinal disparity

The difference between the images you see with the retinas in your right and left eyes

Convergence

Tension in the eye muscles when the eyes track inward to focus on objects close the viewer

Monocular cues

Depth perception using ( 1 eye)

Linear perspective

Parallel lines seem to converge in the distance

Relative size

The closer an object is the larger it appears

Relative Clarity

Distant objects are less clear

Texture Gradient

Distant objects have a much smoother surface than closer objects

Interposition

Closer objects block further objects

Role of Vestibular system

Sense of head and body movement and position including the sense of balance

6 types of taste receptors

• sweet

• Salty

• Bitter

• Sour

• Umami

• Oleogustus

Chemical Senses

Taste and Smell

Parallel processing (dual processing)

The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously, the brains natural mode of information processing

Bottom up processing

Info processing that focuses on raw material entering trough our sensory organs

Top Down Processing

Info processing that focuses on expectations and experiences in interpreting incoming sensory info

Pain Gate Theory

Spinal Cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.

• the gate is opened by the activating pain signals

Visual cliff experiment

Infants wouldn’t crawl across glass floors

Cornea

Eyes clear protective outer layer

Iris

Colored muscle that changes pupil size to regulate incoming light

Pupil

Opening where light enters eye

Lens

Transparent structure behind pupil, changed size to focus image on retina

Fovea

Central focal point of retina where eye cones cluster

Retina

Light sensitive tissue, at the back of the eye, contains rods and cones

Optic Nerve

Nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to brain

Blind spot

Location where optic nerve leaves eye creating a blind sport b/c no receptor cells are located

Bipolar cells

Sensory neurons located in the retina of the eye that collect and pass visual signals from photoreceptors ( rods and cones) on to ganglion cells

Ganglion cells

Neuron in the retina that receives visual information from the bipolar and amarine cells and transmit it through the optic nerve to the brain

Tympanic Membrane

• Eardrum

• Cone shaped membrane that separates external ear from middle ear

Malleus

• Hammer

• First middle ear ossicle ( bone)

Malleus

• Hammer

• First middle ear ossicle ( bone)

Stapes

• stirrup

• 3rd middle ear bone

Cochlea

• a coiled, bony, fluid filled tube in the inner ear , sound waves travel trough cochlear field

Basilar membraine

Membrane full of hair cells lining its surface

• Bends hairs in the cochlea causing transduction

Frequency of Sound

• Frequency determines pitch

• Higher frequency= higher pitch

• Amplitude relates to loudness

• Greater amp= louder sound

• High freq= shorter wavelength

Frequency of light waves

• Différent Colors visible wavelengths correspond to different perceived colors

• High freq= visible light has shorter wavelength

• Amplitude= brightness/ intensity