Untitled Flashcards Set

Behaviorism

• The study of behavior.

Confounds

• Factors that undermine the ability to draw causal inferences from an experiment.

Consciousness

• Awareness of ourselves and our environment

Correlation

• Measures the association between two variables; how they go together.

Dependent variable

• The variable the researcher measures but does not manipulate in an experiment.

Independent variable

• The variable a researcher manipulates and controls in an experiment.

Empiricism

• The belief that knowledge comes from experience.

  • Empiricism, also referred to as the empirical method or empirical research, involves using evidence from the senses (sight, hearing, touch) or from instruments that assist the senses (such as thermometers, timers, photographs, weight scales, and questionnaires) as the basis for conclusions. 

Experimenter expectations

• When the experimenter's expectations influence the outcome of a study.

Introspection

• A method of focusing on internal processes.

Longitudinal study

• A study that follows the same group of individuals over time

Demand characteristics

• A cue that leads participants to guess a study's hypotheses or goals; a threat to internal validity

• When participants behave in a way that they think the experimenter wants them to behave.

Reactivity

• The phenomenon where individuals alter their behavior or performance due to the awareness of being observed or studied.

Placebo effect

• When a person's belief in the effectiveness of a treatment or intervention leads to improvements in their condition, even though the treatment itself has no therapeutic effect.

Quasi-experimental design

• Experiments where researchers lack full control over the experiment and cannot randomly assign participants to different levels of the independent variable. 

• These designs are used when it is not feasible or ethical to manipulate variables in a true experiment.

• Does not require random assignment to conditions

Random Assignment

• Assigning participants to receive different conditions of an experiment by chance.

• Assigning participants to different experimental groups randomly to minimize the impact of individual differences and ensure that each group is representative of the population being studied.

Binocular depth cues

• Depth cues that are created by retinal image disparity — that is, the space between our eyes — and which thus require the coordination of both eyes 

Blind spot

• A hole in our vision where the optic nerve leaves the retina 

Computer vision

• Machines or algorithms that are built to mimic the human sensation and perception system.

Photoreceptors

• Specialized cells in the retina responsible for detecting light and initiating the process of vision.

Rods

• Textbook- Visual neurons that specialize in detecting black, white, and gray colors. 

• GPT- Photoreceptors in the retina responsible for low-light vision and peripheral vision.

Cones

• Textbook- Visual neurons that are specialized in detecting fine detail and colors.

• GPT- Photoreceptors in the retina responsible for color vision and detail in well-lit conditions.

Spectral sensitivity function

• In human vision there is one type of rod and three types of cones which have different photopigments. These photopigments differ in spectral sensitivity (ability to absorb light of different wavelengths).

• The spectral sensitivity function is the probability that a photoreceptor’s photopigment will absorb a photon of light at any given wavelength. This property underlies color vision.

Photopic vision

• Slides- Cones are responsible for vision under photopic (high light) conditions and have high spatial acuity, and allow for our perception of color.

• GPT- Vision under well-lit conditions, primarily mediated by cones.

Scotopic vision

• Slides- Rods are responsible for vision under scotopic (low light) conditions and have low spatial acuity.

• GPT- Vision under low-light conditions, primarily mediated by rods.

Convergence

• The inward turning of our eyes that is required to focus on objects that are less than about 50 feet away from us

Cornea

• A clear covering that protects the eye and helps to focus light onto the retina.

Depth cues

• Messages from our bodies and the external environment that supply us with information about space and distance.

Occlusion

• A depth cue where one object partially obstructs the view of another, indicating that the obstructed object is farther away (contextual cues help us to perceive depth)

Linear perspective

• A monocular depth cue where parallel lines appear to converge as they recede into the distance.

Texture gradient

• A monocular depth cue where the texture of surfaces becomes denser and less detailed as they recede into the distance.

Position relative to horizon

• monocular depth cue where objects higher in the visual field are perceived as farther away than objects lower in the visual field.

Depth perception

• The ability to perceive three-dimensional space and to accurately judge distance. 

Embodied

• The particular environment that we sense and perceive becomes built into and linked with our cognition 

Fovea

• The central point of the retina (responsible for high acuity vision)

Gestalt

• A meaningfully organized whole

• The theory that the whole of perception is greater than the sum of its parts, emphasizing the organization and integration of perceptual elements.

Human factors

• The field of psychology that uses psychological knowledge, including the principles of sensation and perception, to improve the development of technology .

Iris

• The coloured part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil by constricting or dilating in response to light intensity.

Lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)

• A relay center in the thalamus that receives and processes visual information from the retina before transmitting it to the visual cortex.

Lens

• A transparent structure behind the iris that focuses light onto the retina.

McGurk effect

• An error in perception that occurs when we misperceive sounds because the audio and visual parts of the speech are mismatched 

Monocular depth cues

• Depth cues that help us perceive depth using only one eye 

Mueller-Lyer Illusion

• An illusion in which one line segment looks longer than another based on converging or diverging angles at the ends of the lines. 

Optic nerve

• A collection of millions of ganglion neurons that sends vast amounts of visual information to the brain 

Perception

• The process of interpreting and organizing the incoming information so that we can understand it and react accordingly 

Perceptual constancy

• The ability to perceive a stimulus as constant despite changes in perception

Pupil

• The adjustable opening in the center of the iris that regulates the amount of light entering the eye.

Retina

• The light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye that contains photoreceptor cells and converts light into neural signals.

Saccades

• The rapid shifting of the eyes from one fixation point to another 

Sensation

• The process of receiving information from the environment through our sensory organs; detecting and encoding sensory information from the external environment.

Sensory adaptation

• A decreased sensitivity to stimu;i after prolonged or constant exposure

• The phenomenon where sensory receptors become less responsive to constant or repetitive stimuli over time.

Sensory interaction

• The working together of different senses to create experience

• The principle that multiple sensory systems work together to process and integrate sensory information.

Synesthesia

• An experience in which one sensation (e.g., seeing a number) creates experiences in another (e.g., hearing a sound) 

• A neurological condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in another pathway.

Transduction

• The conversion of light detected by receptor cells into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain 

Attention

• The cognitive process of selectively focusing mental resources on specific stimuli or tasks; our ability to choose what we pay attention to.

Cognitive control

• The ability to control how we deploy our cognitive resources to achieve our goals 

Cognitive flexibility

• How we adapt our cognition to new or changing environments or goals

Dichotic listening

• Textbook: An experimental task in which two messages are presented to different ears.

• GPT: A task where different auditory stimuli are presented simultaneously to each ear, typically used to study selective attention.

Inattentional blindness

• Textbook: The failure to notice a fully visible object when attention is devoted to something else. 

• GPT: The failure to notice unexpected stimuli when attention is focused on other aspects of the environment.

Inhibitory control

• The suppression of goal-irrelevant stimuli

Limited Capacity

• Textbook: The notion that humans have limited mental resources that can be used at a given time. 

• GPT: The idea that cognitive systems have a finite capacity for processing information, leading to limitations in attention, memory, and other cognitive functions.

Selective attention

• The ability to select certain stimuli in the environment to process, while ignoring distracting information. 

Early-selection theory

• The theory that attention operates as a selective filter early in the information processing stream, limiting the amount of information that reaches higher cognitive processes.

Late-selection theory

The theory that attention operates as a selective filter later in the information processing stream, after information has been analyzed for meaning and relevance.

Attenuation theory

• Attention weakens (attenuates) activation of information from unattended ear prior to recognition. Words that get through filter have a lower threshold for recognition

• This threshold can be based on subjective importance–NAME, NAME, HELP

• This threshold can be based on context.

• And, certain stimuli automatically get past the filter. (Anne Treisman)

Shadowing

• A task in which an individual is asked to repeat an auditory message as it is presented.

Subliminal perception

• The ability to process information for meaning when the individual is not consciously aware of that information.

Cerebral cortex

• The outer layer of the brain's cerebrum, responsible for higher cognitive functions such as perception, thought, memory, and voluntary movement. It is divided into four lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital.

Frontal lobe

• Located at the front of the brain, the frontal lobe is involved in various cognitive functions such as decision-making, planning, problem-solving, and voluntary movement control.

Parietal lobe

• Situated at the top and back of the brain, the parietal lobe is responsible for processing sensory information, spatial awareness, and perception of stimuli related to touch, pressure, and temperature.

Temporal lobe

• Positioned on the sides of the brain, the temporal lobe plays a crucial role in auditory processing, language comprehension, memory formation, and emotional regulation.

Occipital lobe

• Located at the back of the brain, the occipital lobe primarily processes visual information received from the eyes, enabling perception of shapes, colors, and motion.

Primary visual cortex

• Also known as V1 or the striate cortex, it is located in the occipital lobe and is responsible for the initial processing of visual stimuli received from the eyes.

Feature integration theory

• A theory proposed by Anne Treisman, which explains how the brain combines individual features of objects (such as color, shape, and orientation) into unified perceptual experiences.

Feature search

• In visual perception, a process where an individual looks for a target based on a single distinguishing feature, such as color or shape, amidst distractors that lack the feature.

Conjunction search

• In visual perception, a process where an individual searches for a target that is defined by the combination or conjunction of multiple features (e.g., color and shape), amidst distractions that may share some individual features but not the conjunction.

Spotlight metaphor of attention

• A metaphorical concept describing attention as a mental spotlight that can be selectively focused on specific regions of space or stimuli, enhancing perception and processing of information within that focus while reducing attention to peripheral or irrelevant stimuli.

  • Proposed by William James, it emphasizes the selective nature of attention.