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AP Psychology > UNIT 3 > Flashcards

UNIT 3 Flashcards

1
Q

What is Sensation?

A

The process by which sensory receptors receive information from the environment

Includes:
- vision
- hearing
- smell
- taste
- touch
- the vestibular and kinesthetic senses.

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2
Q

What is Perception?

A

The process of integrating and interpreting sensory data…set by schemas (concepts).

This may be different for each person depending on our state of mind, past experiences, etc.

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3
Q

What are the Gestalt Principles?

A

A subfield of psychology that suggests that the brain forms a perceptual whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

  • Similarity
  • Continuation
  • Closure
  • Proximity
  • Figure/ground
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4
Q

What is Similarity?

A

We group similar figures together.

EX: we perceive a group of baseball players wearing the same color jersey as one team

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5
Q

What is Continuation?

A

We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.

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6
Q

What is Closure?

A

We fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object.

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7
Q

What is Proximity?

A

We group nearby figures together.

EX: we perceive players sitting together on a bench as one team.

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8
Q

What is Figure/Ground?

A

The idea that we naturally organize what we see into objects (figures) that stand out from their backgrounds.

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9
Q

How do we determine Depth Perception?

A

We are born (innate) with the ability to see depth. This was proven by the Visual Cliff experiment.

We live in a three-dimensional world. Our brain can perceive this and judge the distance of objects through depth perception.

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10
Q

What was the Visual Cliff Experiment?

A

Examined depth perception in infants by creating a visual illusion of a cliff and observing their reluctance to crawl across the perceived drop, indicating the early development of depth perception abilities.

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11
Q

What is Top-Down Processing?

A

Perceptions begin with the most general and move toward the more specific.

  • These perceptions are heavily influenced by our expectations and prior knowledge.
  • Your brain applies what it knows to fill in the blanks and anticipate what’s next.

EX: Typos (we still know the meaning of the word).

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12
Q

What is Bottom-Up Processing?

A

Starts at the sensory receptors and works up to the brain, most of the information associated with bottom-up processing has to do with your five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

EX: We detect the lines, angles, and colors that form a flower

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13
Q

What is Sensory Transduction?

A

Conversion of one form of energy into another, as when environmental stimuli are transformed into neural signals.

EX: Pain receptors in teeth.

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14
Q

What is Absolute Threshold?

A

The minimum stimulation required for a particular stimulus to be detected 50% of the time.

  • Gustav Fechner came up with this idea.
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15
Q

What is Difference Threshold?

A

The smallest change in stimulation that a person can detect 50% of the time.

  • Also known as Just-noticeable difference (JND)
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16
Q

What is the difference between Absolute Threshold and Difference Threshold?

A

The absolute threshold is the smallest amount of stimulation needed for a human to notice it 50% of the time. The difference threshold is the smallest amount of change in stimulation for a human to notice 50% of the time.

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17
Q

What is the Signal Detection Theory?

A

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 partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue.

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18
Q

What is Sensory Adaptation?

A

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

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19
Q

Who is Gustav Fechner?

A

Came up with the idea of Absolute Threshold.

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20
Q

Who is David Hubel?

A

Hubel was among the first scientists to explore the inner workings of the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the brain that is responsible for higher functions like memory, planning, language, and making sense of the world around us.

21
Q

Who is Ernst Weber?

A

Developed Weber’s Law.

  • A principle relating to stimulus, intensity, and perception
  • It states that the just-noticeable difference between two stimuli is a function of the magnitude of the original stimulus.

This implies that for something to be noticed, there must be a significant difference between it and everything else.

22
Q

What is Sensory habituation?

A

A behavior involving a shift in attention from a stimulus, and results in reduced response to the stimulus.

23
Q

What is Selective Attention?

A

Allows one to focus on certain specific sensory information, while ignoring other sensory input.

24
Q

What is the Cocktail Party Effect?

A

The ability to focus one’s attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli.

25
What is the difference between Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness?
They are both failures of visual awareness, however... Change blindness is the failure to notice an obvious change. Inattentional Blindness is the failure to notice the existence of an unexpected item.
26
What are Monocular Cues?
They are depth cues that can be perceived without both eyes.
27
What is Interposition?
It is a type of monocular cue in which one object partially obscures or covers another object, giving the perception the object that is partially covered is farther away.
28
What is Relative Height?
When we perceive objects that are higher in our field of vision to be farther away than those that are lower.
29
What is Motion?
Also called motion parallax or relative motion, we perceive that the things that are far away when you're in motion appear to be moving at a different speed than things that are close up.
30
What is Relative Size?
People see objects that make a smaller image on the retina as farther away.
31
What are Binocular Cues?
Visual information taken in by two eyes that enable us a sense of depth perception, or stereopsis.
32
What is Retinal Disparity?
Also known as binocular parallax, refers to the fact that each of our eyes sees the world from a slightly different angle.
33
What is the Visual pathway?
The pathway over which a visual sensation is transmitted from the retina to the brain.
34
What is the Cornea?
The clear outer layer of the eye in the center that is continuous with the Sclera. The Sclera is the outer layer of the eye that is white and smoothly transitions to the Cornea.
35
What is the Iris?
A muscular ring that is pigmented to give the color of the eye and controls the amount of light that enters the eye.
36
What is the Pupil?
The dark opening in the eye where the light passes through and the size of the opening is controlled by the Iris.
37
What are the Lens?
A clear curved structure just behind the Iris that allows vision to focus.
38
What is Accomodation?
The ability of the eyes to change focus by the adjustments made by the shape of the lens, the convergence of the eyes, and the size of the pupils.
39
What is Sensory Transduction?
Conversion of one form of energy into another, as when environmental stimuli re transformed into neural signals.
40
What is the difference between Rods vs. Cones?
Rods are photoreceptors that allow for black and white vision. Cones are photoreceptors that allow for color vision. THINK CONES START WITH THE LETTER "C" AND COLOR VISION STARTS WITH THE LETTER "C" TOO.
41
What are Bipolar Cells?
They send visual information from the rods and cones to the ganglion cells.
42
What are Ganglion Cells?
They are made up of axons that relay information from the retina to the brain through the optic nerve.
43
What is the Optic Nerve?
The bundle of Ganglion Axons that leave the back of the eye and send information to the brain to allow for vision.
44
What is the Trichromatic Theory?
Created by Thomas Young and later refined by German Scientist Hermann von Helmholtz.. HENCE THE NAME: Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory. Theorized how the brain understands/interprets the colors that it sees. We perceive color in terms of how certain color receptors in the eye pick up on a certain color (WAVELENGTHS). The colors were Red, Green, and Blue.
45
What is the Opponent-Processing Theory?
Richard Solomon used Hering's theory to create his own. The ability to see color is controlled by three receptor complexes with opposing actions. The color is sent to Ganglion Cells, in which the neurons become excited. Instead of Red, Green, and Blue from the Trichromatic Theory, this Theory uses three color pairings: red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white.
46
What is the Auditory Pathway?
It encodes sound frequency, attenuation, and spatial location, combinations of which help individuals understand and correctly interpret sounds.
47
What is the Pinna?
The circular outer ear which directs sounds into the ear and is made of cartilage.
48
What is the Auditory Canal?
Also known as the External Auditory Meatus (EAM). The canal that extends from the outside of your ear to the eardrum.

AP Psychology (13 decks)

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