AP Psychology Chapter 4 Vocabulary Terms

Cocktail Party Effect

• two people could be talking at a cocktail party and they are just focused on each other; they drowned out the other people

• The second someone says their name, they are unfocused and are paying attention to that person now (why are they talking about me, something bad, etc.)

Sensation

• The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

• Vision, hearing, Touch, pain, smell

Perception

• the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful object and events

• Every day experiences - sensation and perception blend into one continuous process

• Our sensory and perceptual processes work together to help us decipher the world around us

Bottom-up Processing

• analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information

• Sensory receptors works up to higher levels of processing

• When we have no prior knowledge - we start at the bottom and work our way up

• Example, new job or new house

Top-down Processing

• info processing, guided by higher level mental processes, as when we construct perception drawing on our experience and expectations

• We have prior knowledge

• Example, have already been to a high school grade; Have already been around the college before attending

Selective Attention

• the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

• Through this, your awareness focuses, like a flashlight beam, on a minute aspect of all that you experience

• Five senses - 11,000,000 bits of info per second; we only consciously process around 40

ADHD Theory

• idea that people with ADHD lack selective attention

• Instead of filtering out unimportant info, they attend to all stimuli

• This can make it very difficult to process info and focus

Inattentional Blindness

• failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed somewhere else

• So focus on one thing that you miss another obvious

• Example: when told to look at a specific object on the screen and count how many there are, you might miss an obvious object that is moving back-and-forth on the screen

Change Blindness

• failing to notice changes in the environment

Transduction

• conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sites, sounds, and spells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret

• Example: when you see a friend and you’re able to recognize their face based on the visible light that your photo receptors intake to be converted into electrical signals in your retina

Psychophysics

• the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

Absolute Thresholds

• The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.

• Example: How many sprays of perfume needs to be sprayed for people to notice?

• Example: how bright does the candle have to be to see it in the dark from far away?

• Absolute threshold applies to site smell and really anything

Signal Detection Theory

• A theory predicting how, and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). assumes that there is no single absolute threshold, and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

• Example: a parent being able to detect their child’s voice/cry (signal) in a household full of noise (noise)

Subliminal

• Below ones absolute threshold for conscious awareness

• Example: The FedEx logo contains an arrow hidden between the "E" and the "x," implying direct delivery

Prime

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

• Example: semantic priming, where hearing "doctor" speeds up recognition of the word "nurse," and perceptual priming, where seeing an incomplete word like "b__t_r" makes you more likely to complete it as "butter" after smelling a bakery

Difference Threshold

• the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experienced the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (or JND)

• Example: commercials are louder at halftime - it is noticeable

• Extremely similar to just noticeable difference (JND)

Just Noticible Difference (JND)

• The minimal amount of change in the signal that is still recognizable

• Very similar to difference threshold

Weber’s Law

• The principal that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)

• Example: when you are in a noisy environment, you have to shout to be heard. However, being quiet in a quiet room works

Sensory Adaptation

• diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

• Focuses our attention on informative changes in our environment

• Example: when you first get into the ocean, it’s freezing, but after you have been in it for a while, it doesn’t feel that bad

• Not changing, so I don’t have to worry about it as much - diminished sensitivity

Perceptual Set

• A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

• Can influence what we hear, taste, feel, and see (photo 17.1 page 164)

• Can also affect what we hear

• Example: a pilot can hear cheer up or gear up at the same

• Think to brain games - when you didn’t know what word the girl was saying, you didn’t know what sound to hear. However, when you did, didn’t know what she was saying, you were able to understand it

Synesthesia (Joined Senses)

• signals are interpreted as more than one sensation because they go to the places in the brain they weren’t originally meant to be

• Letters have a specific color, numbers have a specific color, etc.

• Sound and sight - one of the most common subtypes (between 60 and 80)

Wavelength

• the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the next peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short lips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.

• Example: wavelength is the color for vision and the pitch for sound

• Light’s wavelength determines it’s hue

Hue

• The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names, blue, green, and so forth

Indensity

• The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude or height

Pupil

• the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

• Light enters the eye through the cornea, which protects the eye and bends light to provide focus

• It then passes through the pupil

Iris

• A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening

• Dilate or constrict in response to light, intensity, and inner emotions

Lens

• The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

Retina

• The light-sensitive inner service of the eye, contain the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

Accommodation

• The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far object objects on the retina

• Behind the pupil is a lens that focuses incoming light rays into an image on the retina

• The lens focuses on the rays by changing its curvature in a process called accommodation

• Example: a child adjusting their focus from a distant whiteboard to a close-up book, or an adult shifting their gaze from a computer screen to a colleague across the room

Photoreceptors

• Light sensitive cell; response to light falling on it

Rods

• Retinal receptors, that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond

Cones

• Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and the function in daylight or in well-lit conditions

Blind Spot

• The point where the optic nerve exits the eye and where there are no photoreceptors (rods and cones). Any stimulus that falls on this area cannot be seen.

• An optic nerve creates a Blindspot

Optic Nerve

• The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

• Bundle of neurons

Fovea

• The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster

Feature Detectors

• Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, an angle, or movement

Parallel Processing

• The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for any functions, including vision

• Example: driving a car (processing visual cues like color and motion, and auditory input from conversation) or looking at an object (analyzing its color, shape, and movement at the same time)

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic (Three Color) Theory

• The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue - which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color

Opponent - Process Theory

• The theory that opposing retinal processes (red/green, yellow/blue, white/black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.

• These two theories that were stated, and the research supporting them, show that color processing occurs in two stages

Gestalt

• an organized whole. Gestalt psychologist, emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful whole

• German word meaning a “form” or a “whole”

• All about how you perceive things

Figure - Ground

• The organization of the visual field into object objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

• The figure is what you see/focus on

• The background is what is left in the back

Grouping

• the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

• Three types of grouping…

• Proximity, continuity, and closure

Proximity

• we group nearby figures together

• Example: we see three sets of two lines, not six lines

Continuity

• we perceived smooth, continuous patterns, rather than discontinuous ones, this pattern could be a series of alternating semicircles, but we perceive it as two continuous lines - one wavy and one straight

Closure

• we will fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object; thus, we assume that the circle is on the right are complete but partially blocked by the (illusory) triangle

Theories of Constancy

• The idea that the context in which you see a shape or color can change and you continue to see the same image

• Example: perceptual, color, size, and shape

• Perceptual and color are the two most important ones

Depth Perception

• The ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike, the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

• Example: think back to the brain games - the golf ball and the soccer ball. The golf ball seemed smaller because it was further away, but it was actually bigger.

Visual Cliff

• A laboratory device for testing depth, perception in infants and young animals

• Example: what a toddler peeing over the rim perceived the dangerous drop off and drawback? (picture in book module 19)

Binocular Cues

• depth, cues, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes.

• Two eyes are better than one

Retinal Disparity

• a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance - the greater the disparity/difference between the two images, the closer the object

Monocular Depth Cue of Interposition

• if one object partially blocked our view of another, then we perceive it as closer.

• Example: the image of the deer; the frontier is closer to us because it is in front of the other deer

Monocular Cues

• depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone

Phi Phenomenon

• an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Perceptual Constancy

• receiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, brightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change

Color Constancy

• perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination, alters wavelengths, reflected by the object

Chain of Command

• Rods / Cones

• Bipolar Cells

• Ganglion Cells (the axons of which became the optic nerve)

• Thalamus (directs things)

• Visual Cortex in the Ocipital Lobe

Perceptual Adaptation

• In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaces or even inverted visual field

Audition

• The sense or act of hearing

• Highly adaptive sense

Frequency

• The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

• Example: Per second

  • Low Frequency = Longer wavelengths and lower pitch

  • High Frequency = Shorter wavelengths and higher pitch

Pitch

• A tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

The middle ear

• The camber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window

Cochlea

• A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses

Inner Ear

• The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

• Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness

Conduction Hearing Loss

• Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

Cochlear Implant

• A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

Place Theory

• In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated

• Example: high-pitched sounds like a cymbal crash activate the base of the membrane, while low-pitched sounds like a tuba stimulate the apex

Frequency Theory

• In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone thus enabling us to sense its pitch

• a 600 Hz sound will be perceived as higher in pitch because it generates 600 nerve impulses per second, while a lower frequency sound generates fewer impulses

Nociceptors

• Sensory receptors that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, and chemicals

• Competitive Inhibition - When you are hurt and someone rubs it, you confuse your brain into thinking you are in less pain than you really are

Gate-control Theory

• The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain

• The brain can ignore / block off pain signals at this gate in the spinal cord

• Similar to placebos (fake medicine to make you feel better)

• Example: Can fight through an injury in times of danger

Supertasters

• A person who tastes certain flavors and foods more strongly than other people

• Have more taste buds and receptors

• Mainly sensitive to bitter flavors

Smell means…

Olfacation

Kinesthesia

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

• Your body knows what to do without looking

• Example: Typing on a keyboard without learning

Vestibular Sense

• The sense of body movement and position including the sense of balance

  • Monitors your head’s position and movement

  • Example: the feeling of spinning on a ride, the ability to walk on a curb without falling, and keeping your vision steady while running

Sensory Interaction

• The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste

  • Smell + Texture + Taste = Flavor

Oleogustus

• The unique taste of fat - rancid / disgusting

Embodied Cognition

• In psychological science, the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments