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AP Psych Unit 3
Chapter 6: Sensation & Perception
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sensation | The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment |
| Perception | The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events |
| Bottom-up processing | Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
| Top-down processing | Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations |
| Prospagnosia | Cognitive disorder that affects the ability to recognize facial features. |
| 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 percent of the time |
| Signal detection theory | A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Assumes that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue |
| Subliminal stimuli | Stimuli below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness |
| Priming | The activation often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. |
| Difference threshold | The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference. |
| Weber's law | The principle that, to be perceived as different the two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage |
| Sensory adaptation | Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation |
| Transduction | Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation we talk about photo-transduction the act of seeing energy in the world and then translating that into neural impulses |
| Electromagnetic spectrum | Spectrum of light that ranges from gamma rays to radio waves, and includes the part of light that is visible to the human eye. |
| Wavelength | The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.Short wavelengths equal blueish colors and high-pitched sounds. Long wavelengths equal reddish colors and low-pitched sounds |
| Hue | The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light. |
| Intensity | The amount of energy in a light or sound wave which we perceive as brightness or loudness. Measured by a wave's amplitude |
| Amplitude | The distance from the bottom of the wave to the top of the same wave. Short amplitudes create dull colors and soft sounds. Great amplitudes create bright colors and loud sounds. |
| Cornea | Protective covering of the eye that bends light to provide focus |
| Pupil | The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters |
| 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 |
| Lens | The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina |
| Accomodation | The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina |
| Retina | The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information. |
| Acuity | The sharpness of vision |
| Nearsightedness | A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects because distant objects focus in front of the retina |
| Farsightedness | A condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly than near near objects because the image of near objects is focused behind the retina |
| 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 that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations |
| Optic nerve | The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain |
| Blind spot | The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there |
| 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, angle, or movement |
| Parallel processing | The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving |
| Serial processing | Step-by-step processing used by most computers and conscious problem solving |
| Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory | The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors-one sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue- which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color |
| Subtractive color mixing | Mixing red, blue, and yellow means you will see brown or black. |
| Additive color mixing | Combining red, blue, and green lights makes white light |
| Opponent-process theory | The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green. |
| Audition | The sense or act of hearing |
| Frequency | The number of complete wave-lengths that pass a point in a given time. The higher the frequency of waves the higher pitch the sound will be. The lower the frequency the lower the pitch of sound will be. |
| Pitch | A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency. |
| Outer ear | The structure that funnels sound waves to the eardrum. |
| Middle ear | The chamber 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 through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses. |
| Basilar membrane | The cochlea's membrane, which is lined with hair cells, as they ripple they trigger impulses in the nerve fibers and help turn sound into a neural signals which can be read by the brain |
| Place theory | In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated |
| 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. |
| Color constancy | Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wave-lengths reflected by the object |
| Conduction hearing loss | Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea |
| Sensorineural hearing loss | Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness |
| Cochlear implant | A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea |
| Gate-Control theory | The theory that the spinal cord contains a neuro. 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 information coming from the brain |
| Sensory interaction | The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences taste |
| Kinesthesis | The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts |
| Vestibular senses | The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance |
| Perceptual set | A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
| Context effects | A stimulus or sensation can create radically different perceptions depending upon the surrounding perceptions and the immediate context. |
| Bipolar and Ganglion Cells | Part of the retina these cells receive info from the rods and cones.They help change the image into a neural impulse. The message then goes to the optic nerve which transmits the image to the thalamus and then the visual cortex. |
| Visual cortex | Acts as an information highway sending messages about visual images from the retina to the thalamus and eventually finally to the visual cortex for processing |
| Gestalt psychologists | Psychologists who studied sensation and perception. They looked at the "whole" and focused on things like figure-ground which teach us about how people integrate pieces of information into meaningful whole images or ideas. |
| Immanuel Kant | Believed that knowledge comes from our inborn ways of organizing sensory experiences. |
| Visual capture | The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses |
| Gestalt | An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. |
| Figure-ground relationship | The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground) |
| Grouping | The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. There are five types of groups. Remember: Penelope Sings Christmas Carols Carelessly stands for Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Connectedness, and Closure |
| Proximity | One of the five types of grouping, we group nearby figures together |
| Similarity | One of the five types of grouping, we group together figures that are similar to each other |
| Continuity | One of the five types of grouping, we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than disconeinuous ones |
| Connectedness | One of the five types of grouping, because they are uniform and linked |
| Closure | One of the five types of grouping, we fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object. |
| Depth perception | The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimension; allows us to judge distance. |
| Gibson and Walk | The psychologists who designed the visual cliff |
| Visual cliff | A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals designed by psychologists Gibson and Walk |
| Binocular cues | Depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes. |
| Retinal disparity | A binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computes distance -the greater the difference (disparity) the closer the object |
| Convergence | A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object. The greater the inward strain, the closer the object. |
| Monocular cues | Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone, there are eight monocular cues |
| Relative size | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, if two objects are similar in size then we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away |
| Interposition | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer. |
| Relative clarity | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, we perceive hazy objects as further away than sharp, clear objects. In fog or snow, the car in front of you may therefore seem farther away than it is. |
| Texture gradient | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, objects that are far away appear smaller and more densely packed. |
| Relative height | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, objects that appear higher in our field of vision are seen as further away |
| Relative motion | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, as we move objects that are actually stable may appear to move, the farther away the faster they will move. |
| Linear perspective | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, parallel lines, appear to converge with distance, the more they converge the greater their perceived distance |
| Light and shadow | A monocular cue for perceiving depth, nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes |
| Phi phenomenon | An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession |
| Perceptual constancy | Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent lightness, color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change |
| Size constancy | We perceive objects as having a constant size even while our distance from them varies |
| Shape constancy | We perceive the form of familiar objects as constant even while our retinal images of them change |
| Light constancy | We perceive an object as having a constant lightness even when the illumination varies |
| Perceptual adaptation | In our vision it is our ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field |
| Perceptual set | A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
| Human factors psychology | A branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use |
| Extrasensory perception (ESP) | The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition |
| Parapsychology | The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis |
| Hammar, Anvil, Stirrup | These are the three bones that transmit sound in the ear. They are a part of the middle ear. They are also known as the malleus, incus, and stapes |
| Auditory Nerve | Sends neural messages related to sound first to the thalamus and then to the auditory cortex (located in the temporal lobes) |
| Volley principle | when high frequency sounds are experienced too frequently for a single neuron to process and fire for each sound event, the ear, combines the multiple stimuli into a "volley" in order to process the sounds. |
| McGurk effect | An auditory illusion that proves that sensory interaction exists. In this case it is the idea that vision influences our perception of what is being said. |
| Synaesthesia | A rare condition in which one sort of sensation produces another. |
| Olfaction | Sense of smell. The oldest sense. It is a chemical sense. It is not processed by the thalamus and is deeply connected to a person's memories and thus probably is connected to the limbic system |
| Psychokinesis | Study of paranormal phenomena |
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