AP Psych Sense and Perception

Perceptual set

This is the expectation of a person to see or perceive something based on prior experience

Depth perception

Ability to see objects in 3 dimensions although

Trichromatic theory

According to this theory, the human retina contains three different receptors for color (meaning each one is most sensitive to one color): one is most sensitive to red, one is most sensitive to green, and one is most sensitive to blue

Cocktail party effect

Cocktail Party Effect describes the the ability to focus your hearing on one specific thing even though noise is all around you

Color constancy

Color constancy is a Gestalt principle of perception that suggests that the context in which an object we are viewing appears in, influences the way we perceive the color of that object

Monocular cues

Cues of depth that can be detected by one eye instead of two. For example, size is a monocular clue. One doesn't need two eyes to tell how large an object is, and because of its size, how close it is perceived to be.

Gestalt

Emphasized on tendencies to integrate the process of information into meaningful wholes

Binocular cues

Humans are able to see things that are both far and near, and can actually identify where those objects are in space (meaning, they can determine if those objects are close or far away). This sort of depth perception requires both of our eyes, which is referred to as binocular cues (depth cues that requires both of our eyes)

Interposition

Interposition is a visual signal that an object is closer than the ones behind it because the closer object covers part of the farther object

Visual cliff

Lab device for testing depth perception in young

Light and shadow

Light and shadows are used by the visual system as cues to determine depth perception and distance. The distribution of light and shadows is a monocular cue which can be seen by only one eye. Light and shadows can also highlight three dimensional elements from a two dimensional image

Linear perspective

Linear Perspective is an artistic or visual term that refers to the eye's sense of depth and distance perception. This is why two identical items will appear to vary in size with the amount of distance involved and why roads appear to narrow with distance.

Figure/ground

Organization of the visual field into figures that stand out from the ground

Perceptual constancy

Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that an object or organism has not changed (remained the same object or organism) even though other stimuli have changed

Relative motion

Relative Motion refers to the motion or speed of any object in respect to a particular point

Relative size

Relative size is a perceptual clue which allows you to determine how close objects are to an object of known size. Sometimes our perceptions are faulty. Humans use relative size to judge the size of the moon. This is why the moon seems bigger and closer when it is near the horizon than when it is high in the sky. We use buildings, trees and other objects of known size to make judgements about the size and closeness of the moon. When the moon is higher in the sky there are no known objects or frame of references to judge the moon's closeness, and thus, appears smaller and farther away. This is called the lunar illusion.

Retinal disparity

Retinal Disparity is the difference between the visual images that each eye perceives because of the different angles in which each eye views the world

Selective attention

Selective attention is purposely focusing your conscious awareness onto a specific stimulus. This means that if you are in a noisy place with lots of people and you purposely pay attention to the person you are speaking with, you are engaging in selective attention

Shape constancy

Shape Constancy is the tendency to perceive an object as having the same shape regardless of its orientation or the angle from which we view it.

Context effect

The Context Effect is a part of Cognitive Psychology that states that the context (environmental factors) that surrounds an event effects how an event is perceived and remembered. This effect, that is largely used in the science of marketing, holds that an event is more favorably perceived and remembered when the surrounding environment is comfortable and appealing.

Vestibular senses

The Vestibular Sense refers to the body's set of mechanisms that monitor and adjusts the body's sense of balance and orientation to the world

Place theory

Theory that links pitch to the area in the cochlea that is stimulated

Perceptual adaption

This refers to the ability of the body to adapt to an environment by filtering out distractions. For example, someone who lives near a train can perceptually adapt such that they can ignore the train whistle in order to sleep at night

Frequency theory

This theory of how we hear sounds states that there are pulses that travel up the auditory nerve, carrying the information about sound to the brain for processing, and that the rate of this pulse matched the frequency of whatever tone you are hearing exactly

Pitch

Tone we experience based on frequency of vibration

Kinesthesis

an ability to sense body position and the movement of muscles, tendons, and joints

Change blindness

hange blindness describes the phenomenon when observers fail to notice changes in their visual field. Because the brain has to process so much information it cannot detect every change that occurs

Pop out effect

occurs when a visual stimulus that is comprised of differing components has mostly similar looking objects but one differing object that 'pops-out' or stands out very noticeably from the other objects in the visual field

McGurk effect

the perceptual illusion that occurs when the visual perception of a sound (seeing lips move) is paired with the auditory information of a different sound which produces a perception of a different third sound

Grouping

umans have a tendency to organize stimuli into some coherent groups. We like to categorize things and maintain some organization with most stimuli. For example, we meet a new person, and immediately we group them into gender, height, weight, race, etc. This categorization process is done by "grouping" information into logical categories.

Opponent processing theory

where emotional reactions to a stimulus are followed by opposite emotional reactions. This theory may explain why stunt people enjoy their work. First the individual will feel intense anxiety before performing a stunt and then the person will receive an opposite reaction of relief after the stunt is completed. The theory also postulates that repeated exposure to the stimulus will cause less of an initial reaction and a stronger opposing reaction.

Phi phenomenon

which lights next to each other blinking on and off in succession appear to actually move