AP Psych Chapter 3

Question 1

Synesthesia

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Sensation

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Transduction

Answer 3

The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity.

Question 4

Just Noticeable Difference

Answer 4

The smallest difference between two stimuli that is detectable 50 precent of the time.

Question 5

Absolute Threshold

Answer 5

The lowest level of stimulation that person can consciously detect 50 percent of the time the stimulation is present.

Question 6

Habituation

Answer 6

tendency of the brain to stop attending to constant, unchanging information.

Question 7

Sensory adaptation

Answer 7

Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.

Question 8

Visual Accommodation

Answer 8

The change in the thickness of the lens as the eye focuses on objects that are far away or close.

Question 9

Rods

Answer 9

Visual sensory receptors found at the back of the retina, responsible for noncolor sensitivity to low levels of light.

Question 10

Cones

Answer 10

Visual sensory receptors found at the back of the retina, responsible for color vision and sharpness of vision.

Question 11

Blind Spot

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Dark Adaptation

Answer 12

The recovery of the eye’s sensitivity to visual stimuli in darkness after exposure to bright lights.

Question 13

Light adaptation

Answer 13

The recovery of the eye’s sensitivity to visual stimuli in light after exposure to darkness

Question 14

Trichromatic Theory

Answer 14

Theory of color vision that proposes three types of cones: red, blue, green

Question 15

Afterimages

Answer 15

Images that occur when a visual sensation persists for a brief time even after the original stimulus is removed.

Question 16

Opponent-process Theory

Answer 16

Theory of color vision that proposes four primary colors with cones arranged in pairs: red and green, blue and yellow

Question 17

Hertz (Hz)

Answer 17

Cycles or waves per second, a measurement of frequency

Question 18

Pinna

Answer 18

The visible part of the ear

Question 19

Auditory Canal

Answer 19

Short tunnel that runs from the pinna to the eardrum

Question 20

Cochlea

Answer 20

Snail-shaped structure of the inner ear that is filled with fluid

Question 21

Auditory nerve

Answer 21

Bundle of axons from the hair cells in the inner ear

Question 22

Pitch

Answer 22

Psychological experience of sound that corresponds to the frequency of the sound waves; higher frequencies are perceived as higher pitches.

Question 23

Place Theory

Answer 23

Theory of pitch that states that different pitches are experienced by the stimulation of hair cells in different locations on the organ of Corti

Question 24

Frequency theory

Answer 24

Theory of pitch that states that pitch is related to the speed of vibrations in the basilar membrane

Question 25

Volley Principle

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

Olfaction Sense

Answer 26

The sensation of smell

Question 27

Olfactory Bulbs

Answer 27

Areas of the brain located just above the sinus cavity and just below the frontal lobes that receive information from the olfactory receptor cells.

Question 28

Somesthetic senses

Answer 28

The body senses consisting of the skin senses, the kinesthetic sense, and the vestibular senses.

Question 29

Skin Senses

Answer 29

The sensations of touch, pressure, temperature and pain.

Question 30

Kinesthetic sense

Answer 30

Sense of the location of body parts in relation to the ground and eachother

Question 31

Vestibular senses

Answer 31

The sensation of movement, balance, and body position.

Question 32

Sensory Conflict Theory

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

Perception

Answer 33

The method by which the sensations experiences at any given moment are interpreted and organized in some meaningful fashion.

Question 34

Size Constancy

Answer 34

The tendency to interpret an object as always being the same actual size regardless of its distance.

Question 35

Shape constancy

Answer 35

The tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant even when is shape changes on the retina

Question 36

Brightness Constancy

Answer 36

The tendency to perceive the apparent brightness of an object as the same even when the light conditions change.

Question 37

Figure-Ground

Answer 37

The tendency to perceive objects, or figures, as existing on a background

Question 38

Reversible Figures

Answer 38

Visual Illusions in which the figure and ground can be reversed

Question 39

Proximity

Answer 39

The tendency to perceive objects that are close to each other as part of the same grouping

Question 40

Similarity

Answer 40

The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group

Question 41

Closure

Answer 41

The tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.

Question 42

Continuity

Answer 42

The tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than with a complex, broken-up pattern

Question 43

Contiguity

Answer 43

The tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related.

Question 44

Depth Perception

Answer 44

The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions

Question 45

Monocular cues (Pictorial depth cues)

Answer 45

Cues for perceiving depth based on one eye only

Question 46

Binocular Cues

Answer 46

Cues for perceiving depth based on both eyes.

Question 47

Linear perspective

Answer 47

The tendency for parallel lines to appear to converge on eachother.

Question 48

Relative Size

Answer 48

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

Question 49

Overlap (interposition)

Answer 49

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

Question 50

Aerial Perspective

Answer 50

The haziness that surrounds objects that are farther away from the viewer causing the distance to be perceived as greater.

Question 51

Texture Gradient

Answer 51

The tendency for textured surfaces to appear to become smaller and finer as distance from the viewer increases.

Question 52

Motion Parallas

Answer 52

The perception of motion of objects in which close objects appear to move more quickly that objects that are farther away.

Question 53

Accomadation

Answer 53

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.

Question 54

Muller-Lyer Illusion

Answer 54

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

Question 55

Perceptual set (Perceptual Expectancy)

Answer 55

The tendency to perceive things a certain way because previous experiences or expectations influence those perceptions

Question 56

Top-Down processing

Answer 56

The use of pre-existing knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole.

Question 57

Bottom-up processing

Answer 57

The analysis of the smaller features to build up to a compete perception

Question 58

Parapsychology

Answer 58

The study of ESP, ghosts, and other subjects that do not normally fall into the realm of ordinary psychology.

Question 59

Gustation

Answer 59

The sensation of a taste

Question 60

Convergence

Answer 60

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

Question 61

Binocular Disparity

Answer 61

The difference in images between the two eyes, which is greater for objects that are close and smaller for distant objects