Unit 2.1 Cognition Terms AP Psychology

Bottom-Up Processing

Relies on external sensory information → is made from what is sensed

Top-Down Processing

Relies on experience —> is made from past experience/knowledge

Attention

Interaction between sensation and perception

Schema

Repetitive actions that allow one to construct meaning

Perceptual Set

mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Cocktail-party effect

brain focuses attention on a particular stimulus, usually auditory

Inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our vision is drawn elsewhere

Change Blindness

occurs when changes to the environment are not perceived due to inattention

Selective Attention

Allow an individual to select and focus on particular input

Gestalt Psychology

Emphasizes that the whole of something is greater than its parts

Synesthesia

A disorder where a color/stimulation of one sensory pathway opens up a second pathway

Constancy

Perceptual constancies maintain the perception of an object (size, shape, color)

Apparent Motion

A series of still images in rapid succession seems to be moving

Depth perception

enables one to judge distances

Monocular cues

We can judge depth with one eye

Binocular cues

In order to see 3D, we need two eyes

Trichromatic Theory of vision

eyes only perceives the 3 colors of light - RGB

Opponent Process Theory of Vision

Four primary colors are processed and combined in pairs

Color blindness

Genetic disorder in which people have a decreased ability to perceive color differences

Prosopagnosia

condition where you have difficulty recognizing people’s faces

is a disorder of the ocipital lobe

Blindsight

a defense mechanism, caused by a self-protective need to deny visual info

Place Theory of Audition

Sound frequencies stimulate the basilar membrane of the cochlea at specific planes in perceived pitch

Frequency Theory of Audition

Rate of nerve impulses traveling along the auditory nerve matches the frequency of tone

Volley Theory of Audition

multiple neurons in the cochlea fire simultaneously

→ How many cicilia’s are being activated?

Sound Localization

Ability to discover the location of something based on direction

Conduction hearing loss

Damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

Sensorineural hearing loss

damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerve

Pain

Unpleasant sensory/emotional experience

→ endorphins limit this feeling of pain, endorphins gained by exercise

Gate Control Theory

Spinal nerves act as “gates'“ that either block pain or allow it to be sensed

Phantom Limb Syndrome

Patients experience sensations in a limb that does not exist

• Caused by mixed signals in the brain

Figure and ground

• organization of the visual field into objects (figure) that stand out from the surroundings

Proximity

Similarity

Closure

• Close together = same group

• Similar appearance = same group

• recognizable in image = same group

Interposition

objects that block other objects tend to be perceived as closer

Texture Gradient

Fine texture signals an increasing distance