AP Psychology Unit 4 Flashcards
Advanced Placement Psychology
Enterprise High School, Redding, CA
All terms from Myers Psychology for AP (BFW Worth, 2011)
Terms : Hide Images [1]
| 11646862562 | sensation | the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. | 0 | |
| 11646862563 | perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. | 1 | |
| 11646862564 | bottom-up processing | analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information. | 2 | |
| 11646862565 | top-down processing | information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. | 3 | |
| 11646862566 | selective attention | the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. | 4 | |
| 11646862567 | inattentional blindness | failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. | 5 | |
| 11646862568 | change blindness | failing to notice changes in the environment. | 6 | |
| 11646862569 | psychophysics | the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. | 7 | |
| 11646862570 | absolute threshold | the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. | 8 | |
| 11646862571 | signal detection theory | 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 that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. | 9 | |
| 11646862572 | subliminal | below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness | 10 | |
| 11646862573 | priming | the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. | 11 | |
| 11646862574 | difference threshold | the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. Also called the just noticeable difference (jnd). | 12 | |
| 11646862575 | Weber's law | the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage (rather than a constant amount). | 13 | |
| 11646862576 | sensory adaptation | diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. | 14 | |
| 11646862577 | transduction | conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret. | 15 | |
| 11646862578 | wavelength | the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic versions of this vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission. | 16 | |
| 11646862579 | 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. | 17 | |
| 11646862580 | 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. | 18 | |
| 11646862581 | pupil | the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters. | 19 | |
| 11646862582 | 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. | 20 | |
| 11646862583 | lens | the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina. | 21 | |
| 11646862584 | 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. | 22 | |
| 11646862585 | accomodation | the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. | 23 | |
| 11646862586 | rods | retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond. | 24 | |
| 11646862587 | cones | retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. These detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. | 25 | |
| 11646862588 | optic nerve | the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. | 26 | |
| 11646862589 | blind spot | the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye and no receptor cells are located there. | 27 | |
| 11646862590 | fovea | the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster. | 28 | |
| 11646862591 | feature detectors | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. | 29 | |
| 11646862592 | parallel processing | the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving. | 30 | |
| 11646862593 | Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory | the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue—which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color. | 31 | |
| 11646862594 | opponent-process theory | the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green. | 32 |