Ap Psych Unit 4 Vocab Cards

Front 1

sensation

Back 1

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

Front 2

perception

Back 2

process of organizing and interpreting sensory info, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Front 3

bottom-up processing

Back 3

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory info

Front 4

top-down processing

Back 4

info processing guided by higher level mental precesses, as when we constructed perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Front 5

selective attention

Back 5

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Front 6

inattentional blindness

Back 6

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Front 7

change blindness

Back 7

failing to notice changes in the environment

Front 8

psychophysics

Back 8

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

Front 9

absolute threshold

Back 9

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

Front 10

signal detection theory

Back 10

theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation(noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a persons experience and expectations

Front 11

priming

Back 11

the activation, unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory or response

Front 12

difference threshold

Back 12

minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference

Front 13

weber's law

Back 13

principle that to be perceived as different, 2 stimuli must differ by constant percentage

Front 14

sensory adaption

Back 14

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Front 15

prospagnosia

Back 15

face blindness

Front 16

transduction

Back 16

conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret

Front 17

wavelength

Back 17

distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pushes of radio transmission

Front 18

hue

Back 18

dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light- what we know as the color names, blue, green etc

Front 19

intensity

Back 19

amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which as we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the waves amplitude

Front 20

pupil

Back 20

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

Front 21

iris

Back 21

ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored part of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening

Front 22

lens

Back 22

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

Front 23

retina

Back 23

light sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the precessing of visual information

Front 24

accomodation

Back 24

process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Front 25

rods

Back 25

retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray- necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond

Front 26

cones

Back 26

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

Front 27

optic nerve

Back 27

nerve that carries neural impulses from the eyes to the brain

Front 28

blind nerve

Back 28

point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot because no receptor cells located there

Front 29

fovea

Back 29

central focal point in the retina, around which the eyes cones cluster

Front 30

feature detectors

Back 30

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

Front 31

parallel processing

Back 31

processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously, the brains natural mode of info processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step by step precessing of most computers and of conscious problem solving

Front 32

young-helmholtz trichromatic theory

Back 32

theory that the retina contains 3 different color receptors which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color

Front 33

opponent-process theory

Back 33

theory that opposing retinal precesses enable color vision, red-green, yellow-blue, white-black,

Front 34

audition

Back 34

sense of act of hearing

Front 35

frequency

Back 35

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

Front 36

pitch

Back 36

a tones experience highness or lowness, depends on frequency

Front 37

middle ear

Back 37

chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones that concentrate vibrations of the eardrum

Front 38

cochlea

Back 38

coiled bony fluid filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

Front 39

inner ear

Back 39

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

Front 40

place theory

Back 40

theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochleas membrane is stimulated

Front 41

frequency theory

Back 41

theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of at one, thus enabling us to sense its pitch

Front 42

conduction hearing loss

Back 42

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

Front 43

sensorineural hearing loss

Back 43

hearing loss caused by damage to the cochleas receptor cells or to the auditory nerves

Front 44

cochlear implant

Back 44

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

Front 45

kinesthesis

Back 45

system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Front 46

vestibular sense

Back 46

sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance

Front 47

gate-control theory

Back 47

theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allow 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 by info coming from the brain

Front 48

sensory interaction

Back 48

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

Front 49

gestalt

Back 49

organized whole. gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes

Front 50

figure- ground

Back 50

organization of visual field into objects hatstand our from their surroundings

Front 51

grouping

Back 51

perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Front 52

depth perception

Back 52

ability to see objects in 3 dimensions although the images that strike the retina are 2 dimensional, allows us to judge distance

Front 53

visual cliff

Back 53

laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

Front 54

binocular cues

Back 54

depth cues, like retinal disparity, that depend on the use of 2 eyes

Front 55

retinal disparity

Back 55

binocular cue for perceiving depth

Front 56

monocular cues

Back 56

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

Front 57

phi phenomenon

Back 57

an illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent lights blink on and off quickly

Front 58

perceptual constancy

Back 58

perceiving objects as unchanging shapes, size, even illumination and retinal images change

Front 59

color constancy

Back 59

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

Front 60

perceptual adaptation

Back 60

ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Front 61

perceptual set

Back 61

mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Front 62

extrasensory perception

Back 62

controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input, includes telepathy