AP Psychology: Sensation and Perception (Modules 17-22)

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

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

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

A frog’s receptor cells in the eyes fire only in response to small, dark moving objects. If the frog is surrounded by motionless flies, it could starve to death.

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Ex. Smelling a single drop of perfume in a three-room apartment

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends on experience.

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

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

Ex. Liking someone more because they give you free food

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

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

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Ex. Moving your watch up your wrist an inch and feeling it only for a few moments

It gives us the freedom to focus on informative changes in our environment.

Frequency

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light, or the colors as we know them (blue, green, etc.)

Intensity of colors

The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude

The transparent layer forming the front of the eye

The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening

The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and allow color sensations.

Neural signals from chemical changes in rods and cones activate bipolar cells.

Bipolar cells activate ganglion cells.

The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster

Thalamus

Hubel and Wiesel. Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle or movement.

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing

Ex. Recognizing a face

The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color

Red, Green and Blue

Lack of functioning red- or green-sensitive cones or both.

Hering. The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision.

Red-green, yellow-blue, black-white

The image you see after staring at something for a while then looking at a white surface. The afterimages are in the inverse color. If the original color was red, the afterimage would be green.

The sense or act of hearing

Volume

Pitch

Decibels

Thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear

Hammer, anvil, stirrup

A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

Basiliar membrane, hair cells

auditory nerve, auditory, temporal

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when there is damage to the inner ear whereas conductive hearing loss occurs when sound is not conducted efficiently through the outer ear.

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

Number of activated hair cells

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch

Neural cells can alternate firing

One ear hearing a sound slightly more intense and slightly sooner

Pressure, warmth, cold and pain

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance

Inner ear

It is a signal that something is wrong.

For pain, the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass onto the brain

When the body misinterprets the spontaneous central nervous system activity that occurs in __

1) Visibly seeing a rubber finger bend backwards and feeling pain
2) Immersing hand in cold water for longer even though there is more net pain

1) Feeling empathy for another's pain

| 2) Seeing someone else get hurt and feeling pain

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter

Umami, savory/meaty

Taste buds have receptors that respond predominantly to one of the five tastes.

Olfaction

Thalamus

Yes

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

Ex. When you plug your nose while eating a Skittle, the flavor is less intense than when your nose isn't plugged.

An organized whole. Emphasis on our tendency to integrate pieces of information into one coherent piece of information.

Our brain does more than register information about the world. We organize information to make sense of it.

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand our from their surroundings (the ground)

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

We group nearly objects together.

We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.

We fill in gaps to complete a whole object.

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

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

Depth perception is not learned; it's something you're born with

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes

A binocular cut for perceiving depth: By comparing imagines from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance -- the greater the disparity between images, the closer it is.

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to enter one eye alone

Objects higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away; causes illusion that taller objects are longer than short objects

If we assume two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away

If one object partially blocks the view of another, we perceive it as closer

As we move, objects that are stationary appear to move; the closer the object, the faster it appears to move

Parallel lines seem to converge with distance

Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes, dimmer objects seem farther away

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

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, lightness and color_ even as illumination and retinal images change

Ex. Door don't change size, shape or color even if they appear to do so based on what angle we look at it and if it's light or dark in the room.

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

A person appears to get smaller as they run away, but the brain doesn't perceive this as shrinking

A door casts an increasingly trapezoidal image on our retinas as it opens, yet we still perceive it as rectangular

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Ex. Lincoln's upside-down face

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Psychologists that explore how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use

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

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis