AP Psych Chapter 6 Vocab

Adaptation level

An internal or mental “average” or “medium” point that is used to judge amounts.

Bottom-up processing

Organizing perceptions by beginning with low-level features.

Brightness constancy

The apparent (or relative) brightness of objects remains the same as long as they are illuminated by the same amount of light.

Clairvoyance

The purported ability to perceive events at a distance or through physical barriers.

Context

Information surrounding a stimulus.

Depth cues

Perceptual features that impart information about distance and three-dimensional space.

Depth perception

The ability to see three-dimensional space and to accurately judge distances.

Dishabituation

A reversal of habituation.

Divided attention

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

Extrasensory perception

The purported ability to perceive events in ways that cannot be explained by known capacities of the sensory organs.

Figure-ground organization

Part of a stimulus appears to stand out as an object (figure) against a less prominent background (ground).

Frame of reference

An internal perspective relative to which events are perceived and evaluated.

Habituation

A decrease in perceptual response to a repeated stimulus.

Hallucination

An imaginary sensation—such as seeing, hearing, or smelling something that does not exist in the external world.

Inattentional blindness

Failure to perceive a stimulus that is in plain view, but not the focus of attention.

Illusion

A misleading or distorted perception.

Müller-Lyer illusion

Two equal-length lines tipped with inward or outward pointing V’s appear to be of different lengths.

Natural design

Human factors engineering that makes use of naturally understood perceptual signals.

Orientation response

Bodily changes that prepare an organism to receive information from a particular stimulus.

Parapsychology

The study of extranormal psychological events, such as extrasensory perception.

Perception

The mental process of organizing sensations into meaningful patterns.

Perceptual features

Important elements of a stimulus pattern, such as lines, shapes, edges, spots, and colors.

Perceptual expectancy (or set)

A readiness to perceive in a particular manner, induced by strong expectations.

Perceptual learning

Changes in perception that can be attributed to prior experience.

Perceptual hypothesis

An initial guess regarding how to organize (perceive) a stimulus pattern

Perceptual reconstruction

A mental model of external events.

Pictorial depth cues

Features found in paintings, drawings, and photographs that impart information about space, depth, and distance.

Precognition

The purported ability to accurately predict future events.

Psi phenomena

Events that seem to lie outside the realm of accepted scientific laws.

Psychokinesis

The purported ability to mentally alter or influence objects or events.

Reality testing

Obtaining additional information to check on the accuracy of perceptions.

Replicate

To reproduce or repeat.

Selective attention

Giving priority to a particular incoming sensory message.

Shape constancy

The perceived shape of an object is unaffected by changes in its retinal image.

Size constancy

The perceived size of an object remains constant, despite changes in its retinal image.

Stage ESP

The simulation of ESP for the purpose of entertainment.

Stereoscopic vision

Perception of space and depth caused chiefly by the fact that the eyes receive different images.

Stroboscopic movement

Illusion of movement in which an object is shown in rapidly changing series of positions.

Telepathy

The purported ability to directly know another person’s thoughts.

Top-down processing

Applying higher-level knowledge to rapidly organize sensory information into a meaningful perception.