AP TEST unit 3 sensation and perception

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

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

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

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

Question 3

bottom up processing

Answer 3

beings with sensory receptors and works up to brain’s integration of sensory information (detect lines, angles, colors)

Question 4

top down processing

Answer 4

guided by higher level mental processes; constructs perceptions from sensory input by drawing on experience andexpectatio (interpreting what our senses detect); if you’re nevus moving into a new apartment, you might mistake a coat rack for a person

Question 5

selective attention

Answer 5

focusing of attention on selected aspects of environment and blocking out of others

Question 6

cocktail party phenomenon

Answer 6

even with background noise, you will hear your name among it; weeding out background noise, filtering everything out

Question 7

inattentional blindness

Answer 7

failing to see stimuli/visual objects because attention is directed elsewhere

Question 8

change blindness

Answer 8

2/3 of direction giving individuals failed to notice a change in the individual asking for directions (rooted in memory, not focused on how something looked earlier)

Question 9

sensory adaptation

Answer 9

stimulation that is repetitious or unchanged eventually disappears (not noticing a bandaid day after u put it on)

Question 10

habituation

Answer 10

process of gradually adapting to stimuli that do not change

Question 11

dishabituation

Answer 11

reappearance of one’s initial response to original stimulus once stimulus changes

Question 12

sensory deprivation

Answer 12

absence of normal levels of sensory stimuli

Question 13

psychophysics

Answer 13

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

Question 14

absolute threshold

Answer 14

smallest detectable level of stimulus; weakest amount of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time; (second u can start hearing volume when its turned up from 0)

Question 15

subliminal threshold

Answer 15

when stimuli is below one’s absolute threshold (TOSTITOS has two people eating chips and salsa)

Question 16

difference threshold

Answer 16

just noticeable difference; minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time; easier to tell if you cranked up radio from 10 to 20 vs 10 to 11; thinsfg that explain the reason why there’s a difference; you can tell if whether is between 60 and 90 better than 79 and 82

Question 17

priming

Answer 17

activation of certain associations, predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response

Question 18

sensory adaptation

Answer 18

when we are constantly exposed to a stimulus that doesn’t change, we become less aware of it became our nerve cells fire less frequency

Question 19

signal detection theory

Answer 19

predicts when we will detect weak signals

Question 20

transduction

Answer 20

transformation of stimuli into neural impulses that brain can understand

Question 21

lens

Answer 21

changes shape to help focus images on retina

Question 22

retina

Answer 22

light sensitive inner surface; rods and cones that process visual information

Question 23

rods

Answer 23

detect black, white, gray; necessary for peripheral and night visions

Question 24

cones

Answer 24

function in daylight or well lit conditions, detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations

Question 25

optic nerve

Answer 25

carries neural impulses from eye to brain (thalamus)

Question 26

fovea

Answer 26

central focus point in retina, around whi8ch eye’s cones cluster; where we see the best

Question 27

parallel processing

Answer 27

processing of several aspects of the stimulus simultaneously (brian divided into subdivisions, color, depth, movement)

Question 28

trichromatic theory

Answer 28

retina contains three receptors sensitive to red, blue, and green

Question 29

opponent process theory

Answer 29

as our receptor cells sense colors, cones fire opponent color

Question 30

dark adaptation

Answer 30

prices by which rods and cones adjust to changes in levels of light; fovea blind to dim light, walking throng house in middle of night, adjustment

Question 31

night blindness

Answer 31

insufficient adaptation to dark environment

Question 32

color constancy

Answer 32

color of an object remains the same under different illuminations, but when context changes color of object may look different

Question 33

frequency

Answer 33

detemines pitch (highness or lowness of a sound); longer wavelength/low frquenciy = lower pitched sounds

Question 34

intensity

Answer 34

loudness

Question 35

quality (timbre)

Answer 35

characteristics of sound allows ear to distinguish between two sources

Question 36

place theory

Answer 36

sound frequencies stimulate basilar at specific places

Question 37

frequency theory

Answer 37

the rate of nerve impulses during up auditory nerve matches rfreuqnecy of tone

Question 38

conduction hearing loss

Answer 38

caused by disease, infections, can be corrected with surgery or hearing aids; damage to mechanical system conducting sound waves to cochlea

Question 39

sensorineural hearing loss

Answer 39

damage to cochlea’s receptors cells or auditory nerve; permanent damage, can be inherited or caused by prenatal problems

Question 40

gate control theory

Answer 40

spinal cord contains neurological gates that block pain or allow it to be sensed

to close gates- additional sensory information prevents passage of pain messages (rub area around injury and rubbing sensation reduces signals)
- sending signals down spinal cord (distractions, emotions) (see her ho ho while giving birth release endorphins)

Question 41

smell and memory

Answer 41

conjure up memories associated with a smell because factory bulb lays close to limbic system

Question 42

vestibular sense

Answer 42

sense of body movement and position, including sense of balance

Question 43

vertigo

Answer 43

vision, vestibular system converge onto brain system, dizziness or motion sickness

Question 44

extrasensory perception

Answer 44

perception without sensory input (not real: telepathy, clairvoyance)

Question 45

figure ground

Answer 45

orgnaization of visual field into objects that stand out from their surrounding (separate main object from background)

Question 46

perceptual set

Answer 46

predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Question 47

grouping

Answer 47

tendency to organization stimuli into coherent groupsp

Question 48

proximity

Answer 48

we group nearby figures together; do not see six seperate lines, but three sets of two lines

Question 49

continuity

Answer 49

perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones; alternating semicircles percievied as two continuous lines

Question 50

depth perception

Answer 50

ability to see objects in 3D despite images being 2D; allows us to judge distance

Question 51

phi phenomenon

Answer 51

illusion of movement when 2+ lights blink on and off

Question 52

closure

Answer 52

we fill in caps to create a complete object

Question 53

perceptual constancy

Answer 53

perceiving objects as unchanging.\m consistent shapes, size, brightness, color

Question 54

perceptual adaptation

Answer 54

ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or inverted visual fear (if u tried a dramatic pair of new glaSses, you could adapt)

Question 55

schemas

Answer 55

concepts that organize and interpret unfamiliar information; expands as you gain more knowledge and info (if you’ve never eaten african food u dont know what it tastes like)