Psychology Test Chapter 4

Front 1

Sensation

Back 1

whena person receives stimulus energy from the external environment.

Front 2

transduction

Back 2

Theprocess of transferring physical energy into electrochemical energy

Front 3

Perception

Back 3

whena person organizes and interprets sensory information in order to give itmeaning

Front 4

Bottom-up processing

Back 4

whenthe information from the external environment is registered and sent up to thebrain for interpretation. Bottom-up processing occurs with first-timeinformation, meaning information that a person is not familiar with.

Front 5

Top-down processing

Back 5

occurs with higher levels of cognitive processing, starting with the cognitive processes in the brain. Top-down processing occurs with information that a person is already familiar with.

Front 6

Thepurpose of perception

Back 6

totake information from the outside world and represent it internally.

Front 7

Sensory receptors

Back 7

are cells that detect and transmit information to sensory nerves in the brain. setoff action potentials in sensory neurons, which then carry the information tothe central nervous system.

Front 8

photoreception

Back 8

whichinvolves the detection of light

Front 9

mechanoreception

Back 9

whichis the detection of pressure, vibrations, and movement perceived as touch,hearing

Front 10

chemoreception

Back 10

the detection of chemical stimuli that is detected as smell and taste.

Front 11

Synaesthesia

Back 11

anexperience in which one sense induces an experience in another sense

Front 12

Phantom limb pain

Back 12

Individualswho have lost limbs report “feeling” pain in the limb that no longer exists.Research on mirror therapy has mixed results in treating phantom leg syndrome

Front 13

Extrasensory perception ESP

Back 13

someonecan detect information from the world without receiving any concrete sensoryinput.

Front 14

Psychophysics

Back 14

thestudy of linking the physical properties of stimuli with a person’s experienceof them

Front 15

absolute threshold

Back 15

theminimum amount of energy needed for a person to detect something. If a stimulusfalls below the threshold, then a person does not experience it.

Front 16

Noise

Back 16

theterm given to irrelevant and competing stimuli

Front 17

Difference threshold

Back 17

thedifference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference isdetected a. justnoticeable difference.

Front 18

Weber's law

Back 18

the idea that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, rather than a constant amount, to be perceived as different.

Front 19

Subliminal perception

Back 19

whenpeople are affected by information that is presented below their level ofawareness

Front 20

Signal detection theory

Back 20

focuses on decision making about stimuliwhile in the presence of uncertainty. It depends on the individual andcontextual variations such as fatigue, expectancy, and the urgency of themoment.

Front 21

Information acquisition

Back 21

the information that is produced in a brainscan.

Front 22

Criterion

Back 22

thebasis for making a decision about the available information.

Front 23

signaldetection theory

Back 23

Hit,Miss, False Alarm, and Correct Rejection.

Front 24

Selective attention

Back 24

focusing in on a specific aspect of an experience while ignoring the others.

Front 25

Attention

Back 25

notonly selective, but is also shiftable, meaning that a person can be focusingattention on one thing, but then switch attention to something else

Front 26

TheStroop effect

Back 26

Aperson attempts to name the colors in which words are presented, but the wordsdo not state the color of the meaning of the word.

Front 27

perceptual set

Back 27

the predisposition to perceive something ina particular way.

Front 28

Sensory adaptation

Back 28

occurs when there is a change in theresponsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surroundingstimulation.