unit 4 ap psych

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

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

Question 2

sensory receptors

Answer 2

sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli.

Question 3

perception

Answer 3

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

Question 4

bottom-up processing

Answer 4

starts at sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing.

Question 5

top-down processing

Answer 5

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, constructions of perceptions draw from our experiences and expectations.

Question 6

selective attention

Answer 6

focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimuli.

Question 7

inattentional blindness

Answer 7

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed somewhere else.

Question 8

change blindness

Answer 8

failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness.

Question 9

transduction

Answer 9

conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, ex. sights, sounds, smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret.

Question 10

psychophysics

Answer 10

study of relationships between physical characteristics of stimuli, ex. intensity, and our psychological experience of them.

Question 11

absolute threshold

Answer 11

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

Question 12

signal detection theory

Answer 12

theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noises). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

Question 13

Subliminal

Answer 13

below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Question 14

difference threshold

Answer 14

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

Question 15

priming

Answer 15

activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Question 16

weber’s law

Answer 16

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

Question 17

sensory adaptation

Answer 17

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
perceptual set―mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Question 18

extrasensory perception (ESP)

Answer 18

controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

Question 19

parapsychology

Answer 19

study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.

Question 20

cones

Answer 20

retinal receptors concentrated near the center of retina and function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

Question 21

optic nerve

Answer 21

nerve that carries neural impulses from eye to brain.

Question 22

blind spot

Answer 22

point where optic nerve leaves the eye, creating “blind” spot due to no receptor cells located there.

Question 23

fovea

Answer 23

central focal point in retina, around which eye’s clones cluster.

Question 24

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory

Answer 24

theory that retina contains 3 different types of color receptors; one most sensitive to red, one to gree, another to blue- when stimulated in combination, can produce any perception of any color.

Question 25

opponent process theory

Answer 25

theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. Ex. Some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others stimulated by red and inhibited by green.

Question 26

feature detectors

Answer 26

nerve cells in brain’s visual cortex responding to specific features of stimulus, ex. shape, angle, or movement.

Question 27

parallel processing

Answer 27

processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

Question 28

gestalt

Answer 28

organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Question 29

figure-grounding

Answer 29

organization of visual field into objects(figures) standing out from their surroundings(ground).

Question 30

grouping

Answer 30

perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Question 31

depht perception

Answer 31

ability to see objects in 3 dimensions although images striking retina are 2 dimensions; allows us to judge distance.

Question 32

visual cliff

Answer 32

laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

Question 33

binocular cue

Answer 33

depth cue, such as retinal disparity, depending on use of two eyes.

Question 34

retinal disparity

Answer 34

binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from 2 eyes, brain computes distance-greater the disparity(difference) between two images, the closer the object.

Question 35

monocular cue

Answer 35

depth cue, ex. interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone.

Question 36

phi phenomenon

Answer 36

illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

Question 37

perceptual constancy

Answer 37

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.

Question 38

color constancy

Answer 38

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

Question 39

perceptual adaptation

Answer 39

ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

Question 40

audition

Answer 40

sense or act of hearing.

Question 41

frequency

Answer 41

number of complete wavelengths passing a point in a given time, ex. per second.

Question 42

pitch

Answer 42

tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

Question 43

middle ear

Answer 43

chamber between eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window.

Question 44

cochlea

Answer 44

coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in inner ear; sound waves traveling through cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.

Question 45

inner ear

Answer 45

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

Question 46

sensorineural hearing loss

Answer 46

hearing loss caused by damage to cochlea’s receptor cells or to auditory nerves; most common form of hearing loss and also called nerve deafness.

Question 47

conduction hearing loss

Answer 47

less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to mechanical system that conducts sound waves to cochlea.

Question 48

cochlear implant

Answer 48

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

Question 49

gate-control theory

Answer 49

theory that spinal cord contains neurological “gate” blocking pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. “Gate” opened by activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and closed by activity in large fibers or information coming from brain.

Question 50

olfaction

Answer 50

sense of smell

Question 51

kinesthetisia

Answer 51

our movement sense-our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body arts.

Question 52

vestibular sense

Answer 52

our sense of body movements and position enabling our sense of balance.

Question 53

sensory interaction

Answer 53

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

Question 54

embodied cognition

Answer 54

influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.

Question 55

rods

Answer 55

retinal receptors that detect black, white, gray, and are sensitive to movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond.