Back to AI Flashcard MakerPsychology /AP Psychology ALL Terms Part 8
AP Psychology ALL Terms Part 8
This deck covers essential terms and concepts from AP Psychology, focusing on perception, sensation, and related phenomena.
lightness constancy (aka brightness constancy)
perceiving the same lightness for objects, even if retinal image changes; perceived lightness depends on relative luminance
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Key Terms
Term
Definition
lightness constancy (aka brightness constancy)
perceiving the same lightness for objects, even if retinal image changes; perceived lightness depends on relative luminance
perceptual adaptation
in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
perceptual set
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
human factors psychologists
psychologists that help design appliances, machines, and work settings that harness natural perception sets.
extrasensory perception (ESP)
the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition
parapsychology
the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
lightness constancy (aka brightness constancy) | perceiving the same lightness for objects, even if retinal image changes; perceived lightness depends on relative luminance |
perceptual adaptation | in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field |
perceptual set | a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
human factors psychologists | psychologists that help design appliances, machines, and work settings that harness natural perception sets. |
extrasensory perception (ESP) | the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition |
parapsychology | the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis |
telepathy | mind-to-mind communication |
clairvoyance | perceiving remote events, ie that a friend's house is on fire |
precognition | perceiving future events, ie a political leader's death or a sporting event's outcome |
psychokinesis | "mind over matter" ie levitating a table or influencing the roll of a die |
cocktail party effect | ability to attend to only one voice among many |
proximity | the effect of grouping nearby figures together |
similarity | the effect of grouping similar figures together |
continuity | the effect of perceiving smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones |
connectedness | the effect of perceiving spots, lines, or areas as a single unit |
closure | the effect of filling in gaps to create a complete whole object |
sensation | the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment |
perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events |
bottom-up processing | analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
top-down processing | information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations |
psychophysics | the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. |
absolute threshold | the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time |
signal detection theory | predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise"). Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue |
subliminal | below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness |
difference threshold | the minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (aka jnd) |
Weber's Law | the principle that, to perceive their difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) |
sensory adaptation | diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation |
transduction | conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies into neural impulses |
wavelength | the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission |
hue | the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth |
intensity | the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude |
pupil | the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters |
iris | a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening |
lens | the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus images on the retina |
accommodation | the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus the image of near objects on the retina |