With over 450 new terms to memorize, many AP Psychology term definitions can often be mistaken for others. Below, I have listed and explained the most frequently confused pairs of terms (Command+G or Command+F to find any specific terms)!

UNIT 6: SENSORY AND PERCEPTION

Absolute Threshold VS Difference Threshold (+Weber’s Law)

Absolute threshold talks about the minimum energy needed to detect any stimulus 50% of the time, whereas difference threshold talks about the minimum difference needed between two stimuli to detect it 50% of the time. The confusion may lie in how both definitions include the words “minimum” and “50% of the time” but the first one calls for the energy required to notice a stimulus and the second calls for the difference between two stimuli in order to be able to notice that difference.

Weber’s Law: Similar to the difference threshold, this law also looks at the difference needed between two stimuli. However, unlike DT, it claims that it must differ by a constant minimum percentage rather than 50%.

Sensory Adaptation VS Sensory Habituation

Think about the last crazy party you have been to. Sensory adaptation is when you think that the music at that party is BLASTING when you arrive, but after an hour, you have grown to the loudness and you don’t find it loud anymore. Sensory habituation is when your drunk friend throws up in front of you and you’re startled (and quite frankly disgusted) the first time it happens but after the third time they have hurled, you aren’t as reactive anymore. Just think that sensory habituation is the “behavioral” version of sensory adaptation.

Sensory Adaptation/Habituation VS Perceptual Adaptation

If we use the same party scenario from above, perceptual adaptation would be if you were drunk that your visual field was spinning like a wheel and so you couldn’t walk straight, but you adjust to that displaced visual field and manage to start walking better.

Sensual Hearing Loss VS Conduction Hearing Loss

To put it simply: sensual hearing loss occurs from damage to the inner ear, whereas conduction hearing loss occurs from damage to the middle ear. These two terms are not likely to appear on your FRQs, but it is good to know lightly about them for the sake of the MCQ portion.

Retinal Disparity VS Depth Perception

These can both be categorized under binocular visual cues. However, it’s very important to know that retinal disparity IS NOT depth perception. Retinal disparity is when your brain computes the distance of a specific object/person/whatnot by comparing the images from both eyes. So the greater the difference in both eyes is, the closer that thing is (try it out yourself! close one or the other eye). Depth perception is simpler than this. It is to see objects in 3D, allowing us to judge distance. Yes, both compute distance, but THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. One of them is calculating distance by comparing your visual images/fields and the other is just judging the distance. You may come across an MCQ question about this so it is important to be able to distinguish between the two.