AP Psych Unit 4-1 Vocab

Sensation

Process of detecting, converting into electrical signals, and transmitting this raw sensory information from the sense receptors to the brain

Perception

Experience from our brain assembling and combining raw sensory input into a meaningful pattern image

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Top-down processing

a cognitive process that involves using existing knowledge and expectations to interpret new sensory information

Selective attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Psychophysics

The study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the corresponding sensations they evoke in a human observer

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus at least 50% of the time

Signal detection theory

Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a stimulus (signal) among the background (noise)

Subliminal

Below one absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

Difference threshold

Minimum difference between two stimuli that a subject can detect 50% of the time

Weber's law

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Transduction

The process by which an energy is changed into a neural signal

Sensory interaction

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

Sensory Habituation

A decrease in perceptual response to a repeated stimulus

Perceptual hypothesis

An initial guess regarding how to perceive a stimulus pattern

Perceptual habits

Ingrained patterns of organization and attention that affect our daily experience

Divided attention

Allotting mental space or effort to various tasks or parts of a task