AP Psych Unit 3 - Sensation and perception - Details - Kahoot!

Sensation

Detecting physical energy from the environment and encoding it as neural signals.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.

Top-Down Processing

Information guided by higher-level mental processes.

Bottom-Up Processing

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

Selective Attention

Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Transduction

The process by which our sensory systems convert stimulus energies into neural messages.

Absolute Threshold

The minimum amount of stimulation a person needs to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.

Difference Threshold

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

Figure-Ground

One of the ways we perceive images by organizing stimuli into an object seen against its surroundings.

Depth Perception

The organization of two-dimensional retinal images into three-dimensional perceptions.

Kinesthesis

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

Sensory Adaptation

Diminishing sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus.

Opponent-Process Theory

A theory that explains color vision based on pairs of opposing retinal processes.

Frequency Theory

A theory that explains how the pitch of a sound is determined by the frequency of the sound wave.

Gate-Control Theory

A theory that proposes that the spinal cord contains a neurological 'gate' that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass.

Cognitive Load

The total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory.

Change Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Inattentional Blindness

Failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task.

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue for perceiving depth based on the difference between the images seen by each eye.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to pay attention to only one voice at a time.

Vestibular System

The sensory system that contributes to balance and enables spatial orientation.

Color Receptors

Cells in the retina that respond to specific wavelengths of light to enable color vision.