AP Psych Chapter 3 Flashcards
Synesthesia
Disorder in which the signals from the various sensory organs are processed in the wrong cortical areas, resulting in the sense information being interpreted as more than one sensation
Sensation
The process that occurs when special receptors in the sense organs are activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain.
Transduction
The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity.
Just Noticeable Difference
The smallest difference between two stimuli that is detectable 50 precent of the time.
Absolute Threshold
The lowest level of stimulation that person can consciously detect 50 percent of the time the stimulation is present.
Habituation
tendency of the brain to stop attending to constant, unchanging information.
Sensory adaptation
Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.
Visual Accommodation
The change in the thickness of the lens as the eye focuses on objects that are far away or close.
Rods
Visual sensory receptors found at the back of the retina, responsible for noncolor sensitivity to low levels of light.
Cones
Visual sensory receptors found at the back of the retina, responsible for color vision and sharpness of vision.
Blind Spot
Area in the Retina where the axons of the three layers of retinal cells exit the eye to form the optic nerve, insensitive to light
Dark Adaptation
The recovery of the eye’s sensitivity to visual stimuli in darkness after exposure to bright lights.
Light adaptation
The recovery of the eye’s sensitivity to visual stimuli in light after exposure to darkness
Trichromatic Theory
Theory of color vision that proposes three types of cones: red, blue, green
Afterimages
Images that occur when a visual sensation persists for a brief time even after the original stimulus is removed.
Opponent-process Theory
Theory of color vision that proposes four primary colors with cones arranged in pairs: red and green, blue and yellow
Hertz (Hz)
Cycles or waves per second, a measurement of frequency
Pinna
The visible part of the ear
Auditory Canal
Short tunnel that runs from the pinna to the eardrum
Cochlea
Snail-shaped structure of the inner ear that is filled with fluid
Auditory nerve
Bundle of axons from the hair cells in the inner ear
Pitch
Psychological experience of sound that corresponds to the frequency of the sound waves; higher frequencies are perceived as higher pitches.
Place Theory
Theory of pitch that states that different pitches are experienced by the stimulation of hair cells in different locations on the organ of Corti
Frequency theory
Theory of pitch that states that pitch is related to the speed of vibrations in the basilar membrane
Volley Principle
Theory of pitch that states that frequencies from about 400 Hs to 4000 Hz cause the hair cells (auditory neurons) to fire in a volley pattern, or take turns in firing.
Olfaction Sense
The sensation of smell
Olfactory Bulbs
Areas of the brain located just above the sinus cavity and just below the frontal lobes that receive information from the olfactory receptor cells.
Somesthetic senses
The body senses consisting of the skin senses, the kinesthetic sense, and the vestibular senses.
Skin Senses
The sensations of touch, pressure, temperature and pain.
Kinesthetic sense
Sense of the location of body parts in relation to the ground and eachother
Vestibular senses
The sensation of movement, balance, and body position.
Sensory Conflict Theory
An explanation of motion sickness in which the information from the eyes conflicts with the information from the vesitibular senses, resulting in dizziness, nausea, and other physical discomfort.
Perception
The method by which the sensations experiences at any given moment are interpreted and organized in some meaningful fashion.
Size Constancy
The tendency to interpret an object as always being the same actual size regardless of its distance.
Shape constancy
The tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant even when is shape changes on the retina
Brightness Constancy
The tendency to perceive the apparent brightness of an object as the same even when the light conditions change.
Figure-Ground
The tendency to perceive objects, or figures, as existing on a background
Reversible Figures
Visual Illusions in which the figure and ground can be reversed
Proximity
The tendency to perceive objects that are close to each other as part of the same grouping
Similarity
The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group
Closure
The tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.
Continuity
The tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than with a complex, broken-up pattern
Contiguity
The tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related.
Depth Perception
The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions
Monocular cues (Pictorial depth cues)
Cues for perceiving depth based on one eye only
Binocular Cues
Cues for perceiving depth based on both eyes.
Linear perspective
The tendency for parallel lines to appear to converge on eachother.
Relative Size
Perception that occurs when objects that a person expects to be of a certain size appear to be small and are, therefore, assumed to be much farther away
Overlap (interposition)
The assumption that an object that appears to be blocking part of another object is in front of the second object and closer to the viewer
Aerial Perspective
The haziness that surrounds objects that are farther away from the viewer causing the distance to be perceived as greater.
Texture Gradient
The tendency for textured surfaces to appear to become smaller and finer as distance from the viewer increases.
Motion Parallas
The perception of motion of objects in which close objects appear to move more quickly that objects that are farther away.
Accomadation
As a monocular clue, the brain’s use of information about the changing thickness of the lens of the eye in response to looking at objects that are close of far away.
Muller-Lyer Illusion
Illusion of length that is distorted by inward-turning or outward turning corners on the ends of the lines, causing lines of equal length to appear to be different
Perceptual set (Perceptual Expectancy)
The tendency to perceive things a certain way because previous experiences or expectations influence those perceptions
Top-Down processing
The use of pre-existing knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole.
Bottom-up processing
The analysis of the smaller features to build up to a compete perception
Parapsychology
The study of ESP, ghosts, and other subjects that do not normally fall into the realm of ordinary psychology.
Gustation
The sensation of a taste
Convergence
The rotation of the two eyes in their sockets to focus on a single object, resulting in greater convergence for closer objects and lesser convergence if objects are distant
Binocular Disparity
The difference in images between the two eyes, which is greater for objects that are close and smaller for distant objects
