Psychology Exam 3

Front 1

sensation

Back 1

The process through which the senses pick up visual auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit them to the brain.

Front 2

perception

Back 2

The process by which sensory information is actively organized and interpreted by the brain

Front 3

absolute threshold

Back 3

the minimum amount of sensory stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time

Front 4

difference threshold

Back 4

a measure of the smallest increase or decrease in a physical stimulus that is required to produce a difference in sensation that is noticeable 50% of the time

Front 5

Just noticeable difference (JND)

Back 5

The smallest change in sensation that a person is able to detect 50% of the time

Front 6

Weber's Law

Back 6

The law stating that the just noticeable (JND) for all the senses depends on a proportion or percentage of change in a stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of change

Front 7

sensory receptors

Back 7

Highly specialized cells in the sense organs that detect and respond to one type of sensory stimuli - light, sound or odor, for example - and transduce (convert) the stimuli into neural impulses

Front 8

Transduction

Back 8

the process through which sensory receptors convert the sensory stimulation into neural impulses.

Front 9

sensory adaptation

Back 9

The process in which sensory receptors grow accustomed to constant, unchanging levels of stimuli over time.

Front 10

Electromagnetic energy

Back 10

energy that is produced by various sources (light bulbs, fire, the sun, etc.) in the form of radiation. It flows in waves and is made up of packets of energy called photons.

Front 11

Mechanical energy

Back 11

energy produced by moving objects or particles

Front 12

Sensory nerves

Back 12

lead from sense organs to the central nervous system

Front 13

Gestalt

Back 13

A German word that roughly refers to the whole form, pattern, or configuration that a person perceives

Front 14

real motion

Back 14

Perceptions of motion tied to movements of real objects through space

Front 15

apparent motion

Back 15

Perceptions of motion that seem to be psychologically constructed in response to various kinds of stimuli

Front 16

attention

Back 16

The process of sorting through sensations and selecting some for further processing

Front 17

in attentional blindness

Back 17

The phenomenon in which we shift our focus from one object to another and, in the process, fail to notice changes in objects to which we are not directly paying attention

Front 18

selective attention

Back 18

Screening out irrelevant sensory input in order to attend to a single source of information

example: It helps us concentrate when taking an exam in a noisy classroom or working on a sudoku puzzle in a busy doctor's waiting room

Front 19

bottom up processing

Back 19

Information processing in which individual components of a stimulus are combined in the brain and prior knowledge is used to make inferences about these patterns.

Front 20

top-down processing

Back 20

Information processing in which previous experience and conceptual knowledge are applied in order to recognize the nature of a "whole" and then logically deduce the individual components of that whole.

Front 21

perceptual set

Back 21

An expectation of what will be perceived, which can affect what actually is perceived.

Front 22

opponent-process theory

Back 22

The theory of color vision suggesting that three kinds of cells respond by increasing or decreasing their rate of firing when different color are present.

Front 23

trichromatic theory

Back 23

The theory of color vision suggesting that there are three types of cones in the retina that make a maximal chemical response to one of three colors - red, green, or blue

Front 24

consciousness

Back 24

Everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions of the external environment.

Front 25

Altered states of consciousness

Back 25

Changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs

Front 26

circadian rhythms

Back 26

Within each 24 hours period, the regular fluctuation from high to low points of certain bodily functions and behaviors

Front 27

suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

Back 27

A pair of tiny structures in the brain's hypothalamus that control the timing of circadian rhythms the biological clock

Front 28

restorative theory of sleep

Back 28

The theory that the function of sleep is to restore body and mind

Front 29

circadian theory of sleep

Back 29

the theory that sleep evolved to keep humans out of harm's way during the night, also known as the evolutionary theory

Front 30

NREM sleep

Back 30

Non-rapid eye movement sleep, which consists of four sleep stages and is characterized by slow, regular respiration and heart rate, little body movements, and blood pressure and brain activity that are at their 24 hour low points

Front 31

REM sleep

Back 31

A type of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, paralysis of large muscles, fast and irregular heart and respiration rates, increased brain-wave activity, and vivid dreams.

Front 32

Sleep cycle

Back 32

A period of sleep lasting about 90 minutes and including one or more stages of NREM sleep, followed by REM sleep

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REM rebound

Back 33

The increased amount of REM sleep that occurs after REM deprivation often associated with unpleasant dreams or nightmares

Front 34

REM dreams

Back 34

Dreams that occur almost continuously during each REM period and have a storylike quality; typically more vivid, visual, and emotional than NREM dreams.

Front 35

NREM dreams

Back 35

Dreams occurring during NREM sleep that are typically less frequent and memorable than REM dreams

Front 36

hypnosis

Back 36

A procedure through which one person, the hypnotist, uses the power of suggestion to induce changes in thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, or behavior in another person, the subject

Front 37

neodissociation theory of hypnosis

Back 37

A theory proposing that hypnosis induces a split, or dissociation, between two aspects of the control of consciousness: the planning function and the monitoring function

Front 38

encoding

Back 38

the conversion of incoming information into a form that can be stored in memory.

Front 39

storage

Back 39

maintaining information in memory over a period of time.

Front 40

retrieval

Back 40

the process of searching for stored information and bringing it to mind.