Unit 1.5, 1.6, and 2.1 AP Psych

Sleep, Sensation, and Perception

Consciousness

Being aware of your environment, and yourself (without knowing)

Cognitive Neuroscience

The (integrative) study of cognitive brain activity

Dual Processing

The principle that information is processed on 2 separate tracks (conscious and unconscious)

Blindsight

A condition which results in responding to a visual stimulus but not being conscious of it

Parallel Processing

Processing multiple things at once automatically

Sequential Processing

Processing one thing at a time

Sleep

A biological loss of consciousness, needed for organisms to process information and rest

Circadian Rhythm

Humans' biological clock; The body's daily schedule on a 24 hour cycle

REM Sleep

A period of sleep which includes rapid eye movement; vivid dreams usually occur

Alpha Waves

Slow brain waves that occur right before falling asleep (shown on an EEG)

NREM Sleep

Holds all sleep stages except REM sleep; the period of sleep that doesn't involve rapid eye movement

Hallucinations

Illusions of sensory experiences that may occur in the 1st sleep stage

Hypnagogic Sensations

Weird feelings and experiences like the feeling of falling while going to sleep

Delta Waves

Slow waves that the brain emits in deep sleep

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

Paired cell clusters in the hypothalamus that manage the body's circadian rhythm; when exposed to light this body part tampers with the production of melatonin which changes feelings of sleepiness

Insomnia

A sleep disorder that causes the inability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder that includes random sleep attacks where someone would go into REM sleep at any moment

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder that disallows one to breathe while sleeping, causing one to wake up multiple times to breathe

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

A sleep disorder where muscles are not paralyzed during REM sleep which causes one to act out their dream

Dream

A movie the brain plays during REM sleep which includes feelings and thoughts

REM Rebound

The body catching up on lost REM sleep time by increasing the amount of REM sleep

Sensations

How sensory receptors and the nervous system collect information from the environment

Sensory Receptors

The ends of sensory nerves that detect and reply to stimuli

Perception

How the brain chooses to organize and receive sensory information which allows things and events to be meaningful or not

Bottom-up Processing

A way the brain processes information by starting with sensory receptors and creates a better understanding

Top-Down Processing

A way the brain processes information using higher mental processes along with prior knowledge to influence perspective and perception

Transduction

Converting energy from the outside and environment into energy that the brain can utilize

Psychophysics

The study of how physical energy that we interpret can effect our experiences psychologically

Absolute Threshold

The minimum amount of energy needed from a stimulus to detect a stimulus half of the time

Signal Detection Theory

The theory that predicts the how and when a faint stimulus can be detected

Subliminal

Lower than the absolute threshold

Priming

An unconscious process in which a response to a stimulus was influenced by the previous exposure of another stimulus

Difference Threshold

The minimum amount of change between 2 stimuli needed for it to be detected half of the time

Weber's Law

For 2 stimuli to be perceived as different they must differ by a specific percentage, not a constant amount

Sensory Adaptation

The sensitivity to something depleting because the something was stimulated constantly

Wavelength

The distance in-between 2 wave peaks (light waves or sound waves)

Hue

The color experienced that is determined by wavelengths

Intensity

The amount of energy in a wave, determined by the height of the wave

Cornea

The outer layer of the eye that protects and covers the iris and pupil

Pupil

The opening in the eye that is adjustable that light enters through

Iris

The portion of the eye with color that surrounds the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening

Lens

A transparent structure that lays behind the pupil and allows focus on the retina by changing shape

Retina

The tissue in the back surface of the eyeball that starts the processing of visual information; it has receptor rods, cones, and layers of neurons

Accommodation

The lens changing to focus on either near or far objects on the retina

Rods

Receptors in the retina that detect black, gray, and white; used for peripheral and twilight when cones can't

Cones

Receptors in the retina that detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations; focused in the middle of the retina and work in well-lit areas

Optic Nerve

A nerve that takes neural impulses from the eye and carries them to the brain

Blind Spot

The spot where the optic nerve exits the eye which creates a blind spot due to lack of receptor cells

Fovea

The part of the retina with central focus that cones cluster around

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

The theory that there are 3 different types of color receptors in the retina: one for green, one for red, and one for blue; this theory proposes that when the 3 receptors are combined, they can produce any color

Opponent-Process Theory

The theory that opposing retinal processes allow color vision

Feature Detectors

Nerve cells that respond to certain parts of a stimulus-like shape, angle, or movement

Audition

The action of hearing

Frequency

The number of wavelengths passing a point at 1 time

Pitch

The highness or lowness in a tone

Middle Ear

The part of the ear between the cochlea and the eardrum that holds 3 bones that read vibrations and communicates them to the cochlea

Cochlea

A tube inside the inner ear that is filled with fluid; sound waves move through to trigger nerve impulses

Inner Ear

The innermost part of the ear that holds the cochlea, semicircular sacs, and vestibular sacs

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Nerve deafness; hearing loss due to damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or the auditory nerve

Conduction Hearing Loss

Hearing loss due to damage to the mechanical system which conducts sound waves to the cochlea

Cochlear Implant

An implant in the cochlea that turns sounds into electrical signals and then stimulates the auditory nerve with electrodes to promote hearing

Place Theory

The theory that the pitch we hear is determined by where sound waves trigger activity in the cochlea's basilar membrane

Frequency Theory

The theory that the brain senses pitch by monitoring the rate of nerve impulses as they travel up the auditory nerve

Gate-Control Theory

The theory that the spinal cord either blocks or lets in pain signals to report to the brain

Gustation

The sense of taste

Olfaction

The sense of smell

Kinesthesis

The sense of movement

Vestibular Sense

The sense of balance

Sensory Interaction

The idea that senses can influence each other

Embodied Cognition

Physical sensations influencing cognition and judgements

Selective Attention

Particularly choosing a stimulus to focus on

Inattentional Blindness

Not visually recognizing objects when attention is directed somewhere else

Change Blindness

Not noticing changes in the environment

Perceptual Set

A mental assumption that affects the way something is perceived

Gestalt

A form or whole; the brain organizes and interprets information into a "whole"

Figure-Ground

How the visual system organizes information into figures (objects) that stand out from the ground (surroundings)

Grouping

The brain organizing stimuli into coherent groups

Depth Perception

Seeing objects in 3 dimensions which is how distance can be judged

Visual Cliff

A lab device used to examine depth perception in babies and baby animals

Binocular Cue

A depth cue that uses both eyes

Convergence

The combining of retinal images in the brain

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue that perceives depth by putting both retinal images from each eye together to produce one image

Monocular Cue

A depth cue using one eye which allows us to perceive things at a farther distance

Stroboscopic Movement

The illusion that something is moving continuously

Phi Phenomenon

The illusion that two flickering lights are creating movement

Autokinetic Effect

An illusion that a stationary light is moving in a dark room

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving objects to remain the same, even after illumination and retinal images change

Color Constancy

Perceiving objects to remain the same color even while their color changes

Perceptual Adaptation

The ability to adapt to sensory input, even when the visual field is altered