AP PSYCH UNIT 3 Flashcards

1. **Sensation**: The process of detecting and encoding stimuli through sensory organs.

2. **Perception**: The organization and interpretation of sensory information.

3. **Transduction**: Conversion of sensory stimuli into neural signals that the brain can interpret.

4. **Absolute Threshold**: The minimum amount of stimulus needed for detection.

5. **Difference Threshold**: The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection.

6. **Signal Detection Theory**: A theory explaining how stimuli are detected under different conditions.

7. **Weber’s Law**: The principle that the noticeable difference between two stimuli is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity.

8. **Sensory Adaptation**: Diminished sensitivity to constant and unchanging stimuli.

9. **Sensory Habituation**: The brain's tendency to ignore environmental factors that remain constant.

10. **Cocktail Party Effect**: The ability to focus attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out other stimuli.

11. **Subliminal Sensation**: Sensory stimulation below a person's threshold for conscious perception.

12. **Bottom-up Processing**: Processing sensory information as it is coming in.

13. **Top-down Processing**: Using past experiences and knowledge to understand sensory information.

14. **Schema**: Mental frameworks that help interpret and organize information.

15. **Perceptual Set**: A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

16. **Context Clues**: Environmental cues that assist perception.

17. **Selective Attention**: Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

18. **Divided Attention**: Ability to attend to multiple stimuli simultaneously.

19. **Inattentional Blindness**: Failing to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere.

20. **Change Blindness**: Failing to notice changes in the environment.

21. **Wavelength**: The distance between successive peaks of a wave.

22. **Amplitude**: The height of a wave, determining its intensity.

23. **Anatomy of the Eye**: The structure and components involved in vision.

24. **Cornea**: The transparent outer covering of the eye.

25. **Pupil**: The adjustable opening in the center of the eye.

26. **Iris**: The colored part of the eye surrounding the pupil.

27. **Lens**: Focuses light rays onto the retina.

28. **Accommodation**: The eye's ability to adjust its focus.

29. **Retina**: The innermost layer of the eye containing photoreceptors.

30. **Photoreceptors**: Cells in the retina that respond to light.

31. **Rods**: Photoreceptors responsible for black-and-white vision in low light.

32. **Cones**: Photoreceptors responsible for color and detail vision.

33. **Optic Nerve**: Carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

34. **Blind Spot**: Area of the retina lacking photoreceptors.

35. **Feature Detectors**: Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus.

36. **Parallel Processing**: Simultaneously analyzing different aspects of a sensory stimulus.

37. **Trichromatic Theory**: Theory of color vision proposing three types of cones: red, green, and blue.

38. **Color Deficient Vision/Color Blindness**: Inability to perceive certain colors due to missing or defective cones.

39. **Gestalt Principles**: Principles that describe the brain's organization of sensory information into meaningful wholes.

40. **Figure-Ground**: Distinguishing between an object and its background.

41. **Proximity**: Grouping nearby figures together.

42. **Similarity**: Grouping similar figures together.

43. **Continuity**: Perceiving continuous patterns.

44. **Closure**: Filling in gaps to complete a whole object.

45. **Perceptual Constancy**: Perceiving objects as unchanging despite changes in sensory input.

46. **Brightness/Color Constancy**: Perceiving brightness/color as constant despite changes in illumination.

47. **Size Constancy**: Perceiving objects as having a constant size despite changes in distance.

48. **Shape Constancy**: Perceiving objects as having a constant shape despite changes in orientation.

49. **Perceived Motion**: Perception of movement without physical motion.

50. **Phi Phenomenon**: Illusion of movement created by rapidly displayed images.

51. **Stroboscopic Effect**: Perceived motion in a series of still images presented rapidly.

52. **Autokinetic Effect**: Perceived movement of a stationary light in a dark room.

53. **Depth Perception**: Ability to perceive the distance of objects.

54. **Monocular Cues**: Depth cues that require one eye.

55. **Linear Perspective**: Parallel lines appear to converge with distance.

56. **Interposition**: Overlapping of objects to perceive depth.

57. **Relative Size**: Perception of depth based on the size of objects.

58. **Relative Clarity**: Perception of less clear objects as farther away.

59. **Relative Height**: Objects higher in the visual field are perceived as farther away.

60. **Light and Shadow**: Use of shadows and light to perceive depth.

61. **Texture Gradient**: Gradual change in texture indicating distance.

62. **Binocular Cues**: Depth cues that require both eyes.

63. **Retinal Disparity**: Difference in the images seen by each eye.

64. **Convergence**: The closer the object, the more inward our eyes need to turn.

65. **Optical Illusion**: False or misleading perceptions caused by errors in the brain's interpretation of sensory information.

66. **Hearing (Audition)**: The sense of sound perception.

67. **Sound Wave**: Vibrations that travel through the air and are interpreted as sound.

68. **Frequency**: The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time.

69. **Anatomy of the Ear**: The structure and components involved in hearing.

70. **Outer Ear**: Collects and funnels sound waves into the ear canal.

71. **Pinna**: Visible part of the outer ear.

72. **Auditory Canal**: Passageway that leads from the pinna to the eardrum.

73. **Eardrum**: Membrane that vibrates in response to sound waves.

74. **Middle Ear**: Transmits vibrations from the eardrum to the cochlea.

75. **Hammer, Anvil, Stirrup**: Three tiny bones in the middle ear that amplify vibrations.

76. **Inner Ear**: Contains the cochlea, responsible for hearing.

77. **Cochlea**: A coiled, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear containing hair cells.

78. **Place Theory**: Different areas of the cochlea respond to different frequencies.

79. **Frequency Theory**: Rate of nerve impulses matches the frequency of a tone.

80. **Sound Localization**: Ability to locate the source of a sound.

81. **Conduction Hearing Loss**: Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

82. **Sensorineural Hearing Loss**: Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or auditory nerves.

83. **Cochlear Implant**: Device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve.

84. **Somatosensation**: The body's system for touch, temperature, and pain sensations.

85. **Gate-Control Theory of Pain**: Theory that a "gate" in the spinal cord controls the transmission of pain signals to the brain.

86.

**Taste (Gustation)**: The sense of taste perception.

87. **Taste Buds and Papillae**: Structures on the tongue that contain taste receptors.

88. **Five Taste Sensations**: Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami (savory).

89. **Smell (Olfaction)**: The sense of smell perception.

90. **Olfactory Receptor Cells**: Cells responsible for detecting airborne molecules.

91. **Olfactory Bulb**: Structure in the brain responsible for smell.

92. **Motion Senses**: Senses responsible for perceiving movement.

93. **Kinesthesia**: The sense of body position and movement.

94. **Vestibular Sense**: The sense of body orientation and balance.

95. **Opponent-Process Theory**: Theory explaining color vision as processed by opponent pairs (e.g., red-green, blue-yellow).

96. **Afterimage**: A visual sensation that remains after a stimulus is removed.

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