Ap pssssyych unit 4

Sensation

Receiving information from our environment

Perception

Organizing information into meaningful objects and events

Bottom up processing

Analysis that begins at sensory receptors and works up to the brain

Top down processing

Information gathered in higher order thoughts, drawn from our experiences

Cocktail party affect

Focused attention on a stimulus, ability to focus on one conversation among others, we will pick up on a familiar voice/name

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change blindness

Failing to see a change in the environment

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulus needed to detect something, unique for each person and sense

Age can affect this

Smell, taste, hearing deteriorate over time

Signal detection theory

Detecting signals among background stimulation, assumes there is no absolute threshold, based on experiences, expectations, motivation, alertness

Subliminal messages

Below the absolute threshold of conscious awareness

Priming

Activation of unconscious associations, predisposes us to memory/response, most info processing is done without conscious awareness

“Just noticeable” difference

Minimum stimulus a person can detect ½ of the time

Webers law

How much it takes to notice a change in stimulus

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Perpetual set

Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Telepathy

A mind to mind communication

Clairvoyance or “Spidey-Sense”

Perceiving remote events currently happening

Precognition

Seeing future events

Psychokinesis

Moving objects with your mind

Cornea

Bends light, outer coating

Pupil

Opening for light, can adjust size

Iris

Colored part, muscle of pupil

Lens

Changes shape to focus image (if fogged, it is a cataract)

Fovea

Point of central focus, where all light is directly focused

Retina

Inner surface, converts light into neural impulses

Order of the structure of the eyeball

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Ganglion cells

Send info to the brain

Rods

Detect movement, work best in low light

Cones

Detect color, work best in bright light

Bipolar cells

Transmit messages to ganglion cells

Neural impulse order

Rods, cones, bipolar cells, ganglion cells, optic nerve

Transduction

Receive light energy that creates a neural impulse

What we see

We see reflection of light off objects

Wavelengths

Distance between one wave and another wave length, helps us see color or hue

Height of waves

Intensity, brightness

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

R, B, G, are the only colors in retina, blends 3 colors into multiple

Color blindness

Inability to distinguish certain colors or any at all

Monochromatic

1 color blind

Dichromatic

2 color blind

Opponent process theory

Theory that opponent retinal processes enable color vision, if cells tired, you’ll see opposite color

Feature detectors

Nerve cluster respond to certain features of the stimulus

What happens when feature detectors are disrupted by magnetic pulse?

They may not recognize faces but they can still identify objects b/c those detectors are in a different part of the brain

Parallel processing

Allows us to see motion, depth, form, color

Process of vision

Retinal processing→feature detectors→parallel processing→recognition

Feature detectors

Edges,lines, angles

Recognition

Brain sees the full image

gestalt

Our tendency to integrate pieces of info into a meaningful whole

Figure and ground

Allows us to pick out objects from their surroundings

Proximity

Group nearby figures together

Continuity

See smooth continuous patterns, not discontinuous

Closure

We fill in gaps to see a complete whole object

Depth perception

Ability to see objects in 3D, allows us to judge distance

Crawling experiences helps us develop what?

Depth perception

Binocular cues

Images to both eyes provide depth

Monocular

Use one eye only and use linear perspective to see depth

Retinal disparity

Contrast from images hitting both eyes at slightly different angles

Stroboscopic movement

A perceived rapid series of images of a continuous movement

Color constancy

Where we perceive dimmer color as farther away

Brightness constancy

We perceive objects as having the same brightness even in dim light

Interposition

Monocular cue; one object covers another makes it seem farther away

Context effects

Our brain fills in with context

Transduction

Change of energy; light rays changing into nerve impulses

Remembering pain

We remember the height and before it ends

Linear perspective

Parallel lines meet

Sensory interaction

The process by which our senses work with and influence each other

Size constancy

Perceptions of size are relatively constant despite the fact that the size of objects on the retina are larger

Shape constancy

Ability to perceive an objects shape as constant even when the retinal images change

Perceptual adaptation

Humans can adapt to changes in sensation unlike animals

Frequency

Length of wave is pitch

Amplitude

The height/volume

Cochlea

Snail shaped inner ear fluid filled

Basilar membrane

Where hair cells in cochlea are

Sesnsorineural hearing loss

Damage to hair cells in the cochlea, prevents impulse from going to auditory nerve

conductive hearing loss

damage to middle ear (HAS)

place theory

we hear different pitches b/c of different part of the basilar membrane are activated

frequency theory

the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve may h the frequency (volume) of a tone

what do we feel

pressure, warmth, cold, pain

pain helps us what?

know when there is trauma to the body

social cultural influence on pain

we experience pain when others experience it with us

we can’t explicitly remember pain, but we CAN

describe it

nociceptors

sensory receptors that respond to harmful temps, chemicals or pressure

what we taste

salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami

what is the only sense that is chemical

taste

which two senses can you not have without the other?

smell and taste

what is the only sense that doesn’t go through the thalamus

smell

kinesthasia

sense of body movement and position of body parts

vestibular sense

the fluid in our ears helps us maintain balance

sight influences…

balance