AP psychology chapter 6 sensation and perception

retinal disparity ex: When you hold your fingers directly in front of your nose, your retinas receive different views, your fingers look like a sausage instead of 2 fingers

a binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance- the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object & example

cochlear implant ex: For someone who experienced sensorineural hearing loss, they would get a cochlear implant which restores hearing

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

visual cliff ex: In an expirament to 14 month old infants were placed on the edge of a safe canyon- a visual cliff- when the infants mothers coaxed them to crawl onto the glass, most refused to do so due to perceiving their depth perception of the glass over the cliff

a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals & example

perceptual set ex:Image of a woman or a man playing a saxophone is an example of perceptual set. You see the man playing a saxophone and not the woman face until you are shown differently.

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another & example

feature detection ex:For example one temporal lobe, behind your right ear, enables you to perceive faces. If this region was damaged, you might recognize other forms and objects bt not familiar faces. Recognizing familiar faces is an example of feature detection

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement & example

figure-ground ex:The concept of figure-ground perception is often illustrated with the classic "faces or vases" illusion. Depending upon whether you see the black or the white as the figure, you may see either two faces in profile (meaning you perceive the black color as the figure) or a vase in the center (meaning you see the white color as the figure).

the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground) & example

accomadation ex:looking at a far away object such as a ball and the lens focuses and changes shape accommodating it is a ball

the process by which the eyes lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina & example

perception ex: Looking at a painting (figure 6.1 pg.230) and perceiving the faces within the painting

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events & example

parallel processing ex:For example, to recognize a face, the brain integrates information that the retina projects to visual cortex areas, compares it to stored information, and enables you to recognize the image which this all happens at once rather than a step-by-step process, say as your grandmother.

the processing of many aspects of a problem stimultaneously; the brains natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving & example

vestibular sense ex: spinning in a chair for awhile and then getting up and trying to walk, you lose your vestibular sense, as you wobble trying to stand straight

the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance & example

audition ex:someone who is deaf, does not have a sense of audition. Our sense of hearing a dogs bark, or a faint baby cry

the sense or act or hearing & example

paraosychology ex:Some examples of these paranormal occurrences are telepathy (the ability to communicate with others through thoughts), reincarnation (a belief in the ability of an entity to die and be reborn in a different form, e.g. animal or another person), and psychic abilities (the ability to see, know or obtain perceptual information without physically experiencing it oneself).

the study of paranormal phenomea, including ESP and psychikineses & example

psychophysics ex:Psychophysics could possibly study the color difference and make judgements on images to see how different displays or imaging devices affect image quality.

the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them & example

kinesthesis ex: standing with one leg and then closing your eyes, all of a sudden you feel wobbly, because you lost your kinesthesis of your feet position

the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts & example

continuity ex: standing and looking down the road, from where you're at you figure it continues for froever

we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones & example

human factors psychology ex:The ride on carry on fold-able chair attachment "designed by a flight attendant mom" enables a small suitcase to double as a stroller. This makes it a lot easier on the mom so she doesnt have to carry both a suitcase and a stroller seperate

a branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical enviroments can be made safe and easy to use & example

cochlea ex: An incoming sound like a plate dropping, causes the cochlea to vibrate which triggers nerve impulses that send to the temporal lobe

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

iris ex:My eyes are green, that is the color of my iris. Injuring your iris could include these symptoms: Aching pain in and around your eye, painful sensitivity to light or seeing glare or halos of light, blurry vision, redness of your eye

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

signal detection theory ex: Exhausted parents will notice the faintest whimper from a newborns cradle while failing to notice louder, unimportant sounds. Thinking of soldiers in Iraq, they become more likely to notice- and fire at- an almost imperceptible noise. Assuming there is no single absolute threshold, this could be because the psychological state, is from experience, and they are motivated, and also have experience with war and guns.

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 persons experiences, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue & example

pitch ex:Long sound waves have low frequency or complete wavelengths- which creates a low pitch. For example, a violin produces shorter, faster sound waves rather than a chello

a tones experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency & example

phi phenomenon ex:Lighted signs give an example of phi phenomenon with a succession of lights that creates the impression of a moving arrow

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

gestalt ex:"The sum is greater than the whole" 3 lines are shaped like a triangle but are the lines are not connected, we put together that the picture is a triangle and not just 3 lines

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes & example

bottom-up processing ex: Touching a hot stove and our senses detect the stove is hot and tells the brain, so then we take our had off

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information & example

subliminal ex:Imagine you are in a theater, waiting for the movie to start. The previews begin, and, all of a sudden, you are extremely hungry! You rush to the concession stand to buy some popcorn and, thankfully, make it back in time to catch the start of the show. After the movie ends, someone in a lab coat with a clipboard comes up to you and asks if you happened to notice the words 'eat popcorn' on the screen during the first preview. You don't remember seeing them, but do remember that you suddenly became very hungry when the previews began.

below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness & example

transduction ex:your ears receive energy (sound waves) and transduce (or convert) this energy into neural messages that make their way to your brain and are processed as sounds. Hearing a dog bark, your ears receive that energy and transduce it into neural messages that make its way to your brain and process it as a dogs bark.

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 & example

monocular cues ex: The St. Louis Gateway Arch, seems taller than it is wider but really it is equal, this is because of us perceiving vertical dimensions as longer than identical horizontal dimensions.

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone & example

binocular cues ex: With both eyes open, it is relatively easy to touch the tips of two pens together. However, with one eye closed, it is harder to do so. This is because retinal disparity is a binocular cue that helps us to judge the distance between two objects. With both eyes open, it is easier to judge the distance between the two pens, compared to using only one eye. This is an example of a binocular cue

depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes & example

sensory adaptation ex: You move your watch up your wrist an inch from where it normally sits. You feel a difference but you adapt to it after a moment. This is sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation & example

sensorineural hearing loss ex: causes to sensorineural hearing loss include: Exposure to loud noise, Head trauma,Virus or disease,Autoimmune inner ear disease,Hearing loss that runs in the family,Aging (presbycusis),Malformation of the inner ear

hearing loss caused by damage to the cochleas receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness & example

conduction hearing loss ex:While playing, a boy accidently jabbed a stick in his cousin's ear and punctured his eardrum. The cousin's ear can no longer conduct vibrations because he suffered damage to the mechanical system in the eardrum that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. He now experiences hearing loss in that ear.

hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea & example

place theory ex:

in hearing; the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochleas membrane is stimulated & example

frequency theory ex:

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 & example

perceptual adaptation ex: lets say you put on glasses that change the appearance of things 40 degrees to the left. At first when you toss the ball it goes to the left and when shaking a persons hand you veer to the left.Humans can adapt to this and within a few minutes your throws would be accurate. This is because we adapted to our inverted vision filed.

in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field & example

top- down processing ex:Our senses during bottom up processing detect lines, angles, and colors in a picture, then top- down processing forms the horse rider in the picture, and surroundings

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions, drawing on our experience and expectations & example

color constancy ex: Putting on yellow-tinted ski goggles and the snow at first may be perceived to look yellowish but after a second looks as white as before

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wave lengths reflected by the object & example

perceptual constancy ex: You are at a neighborhood bus stop.You see the bus as it turns the corner a few blocks away. From a distance, the bus looks like a mere dot in your field of vision. As the bus approaches the stop it looks a lot bigger than a mere dot. By the time the bus reaches the stop, you realize that the bus is twice as tall as you. Despite the fact that the bus is a lot bigger, you don't perceive the bus as having grown. You know that the bus has the same size, rectangular shape, and brightness now as it did when you saw it in the distance. The reason you know this is due to perceptual constancy.

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, lightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change & example

taste ex: salty: sodium essential to physiological processes bitter: potential poisons umami:poteins to grow and repair tissue sour: potentially toxic acid sweet: energy source

salty, bitter, umami, sour, sweet

cones ex: Cones are the reason we are able to see different colored clothes, the different colors of nature, At night time, the cones are weak because you can't detect fine detail or concentrate on it because it's dark.

retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well- lit conditions. The ____ detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations & example

rods ex:Dogs lack cones, which is why they only see black, white and gray, and also why they can see so good at night, usually.

retinal receptors that detect blakc, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond & example

depth perception ex: At a glance we estimate the distance of an oncoming car or the height of a house using depth perception.

the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional, allows us to judge distance & example

prime ex: a person who sees the word "yellow" will be slightly faster to recognize the word "banana." This happens because yellow and banana are closely associated in memory.

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response & example

pupil ex:where the light enters. When you first open your eyes after sleeping the first thing you see is the bright room. We first see this bright room through our pupil

the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters & example

intensity ex:light and sound waves gives off a sound for example, us perceiving the sound is the intensity

the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness as determined by the waves amplitude & example

hue ex: The rainbow. The different colors we know as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Looking at the color and perceiving it as a color such as the rainbow colors

the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth & example

wavelength ex:Radio waves. These have the longest wavelengths.

the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission & example

fovea ex:since this is the sharpest focal point, this is just your cones, where the cones cluster together, fovea focuses the image(s)

the central focal point in the retina, around which the eyes cones cluster & example

middle ear ex:When you first hear a noise, such as a plate dropping, the eardrum processes it and the noise goes through the middle ears chamber, which contains three tiny bones

the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochleas oval window & example

extrasensory perception (ESP) ex:Have you ever had a dream or vision about something, only for that vision to later come true? Have you ever been accused of reading someone's thoughts? Or have you ever known something about the past that you couldn't have possibly experienced or lived through? This is experiencing extrasensory perception

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensroy input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance; and precognition & example

inner ear ex:the inner ear is what processes the sound and vibrations of the sound and sends neural impulses to the brain to figure out what the sound was

the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs & example

retina ex: If damaged you could permanetely lose your eyesight because the receptor rods couldnt send signals to the brain processing what the image is

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 & example

difference threshold ex: If I were to give you a pile of 5 marshmallows and then added one more. You would probably notice. The difference threshold would be that 1 marshmallow.

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the ______ as a "just noticeable difference & example

absolute threshold ex: The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste, or odor 50% of the time. To test your absolute threshold for sounds, a hearing specialist would expose each of your ears to varying sound levels. For each tone, the test would define where half the time you correctly detect the sound and half the time you do not.

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time & example

optic nerve ex: When you look at something, anything at all, your optic nerve sends neural impulses which then the brain detects what the image is. Looking at a dog, you wouldnt know it was a dog if you didnt have an optic nerve, which carries the impulses to the brain which then detects what it is you're looking at

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain & example

frequency ex:how often the lawn is mowed and the answer is usually given in the form of "1 time per week." In mathematical terms, the frequency is the number of complete vibrational cycles of a medium per a given amount of time.It is reasonable that the quantity frequency would have units of cycles/second, waves/second, vibrations/second, or something/second.

the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second) & example

grouping ex: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

the perpetual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups & example

blind spot ex:While diving, instead of just using your mirros to switch lanes, you have to physically look over your shoulder to see if there are any cars because thats a blind spot for drivers

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a _____, because no receptor cells are located there & example

sensory interaction ex: If you close your eyes and plug your nose and eat a slice of an apple, it might seem to be indistinguishable from a chunk of raw potato, this is an example of sensory interaction

the principal that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste & example

Webers law ex:if you are buying a new computer that costs $1,000 and you want to add more memory that increases the and the price $200,you might consider this too much additional money to spend. If you were buying a $300,000 house a $200 feature may seem like nothing. This is because the stimuli must differ by a constant "proportion" not a constant "amount".

the principle that, to be percieved as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percent-age (rather than a constant amount) & example

sensation ex: First seeing, touching, ect. something, interprets our sensory impulses such as visual image, a sound, taste, odor, touch, or pain.

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment & example

opponent process theory ex:Stare at a picture of a green,black, and yellow flag for a minute, then flash your eyes to the white space, you should see the american flag colors

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 & example

Yojung-Helmholtz trichomatic (three-color) theory ex:Saying we see mainly three colors-red,green, and blue, but you notice that there are no receptors specific to orange, but by stimulating the right cones in the right way, orange color is produced.

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 & example

gate-control theory ex: you're walking and you suddenly stub your toe. You feel pain immediately due to your small fibers activating your "gate" and allowing you to feel the pain. To soothe the pain you rub the area which creates competing stimulation that will block some pain messages to the brain.

the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers and is closed by by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain & example

lens ex:The lens changes shape and size to bring a distant object, such as a ball, into focus on the retina- which then eventually the brain retrieves this image as a ball

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

proximity ex: Like in figure 6.30 we see three sets of 2 lines, not six seperate lines

we group nearby figures together & example

similarity ex: In figure 6.30 we would pair the triangles and circles together

we group similar figures together & example