AP Psychology Unit 3: Sensation and Perception

Sensation: How we gather information.

Perception: How we organize & perceive/process information.

Using prior knowledge to construct our understanding of something. Ex: Understanding where we are, answering a question, etc.

Only using given resources/knowledge to construct our understanding. (Starting from the very bottom, with no prior info, and working our way up!)

NO prior knowledge used.

Ex: Learning to read, analyzing data, etc.

The MINIMUM stimulation necessary to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste, smell, 50% of the time.

- 50% Depending on age, alertness, etc. Environment may also affect if & when we detect a change.

The second a stimuli is detected, it has crossed your absolute threshold.

Absolute Threshold minimum varies depending on each person. (Each person varies in age, alertness, etc).

Signal is detected & its present.

Detecting a signal that's not actually there (present).

Not detecting a signal that is/was there. (Missing the signal.)

Not acknowledging a signal that's not there. (there is nothing to acknowledge, correctly rejecting the nonexistent signal.)

The moment you notice/detect a change between two stimuli.

Ex: Noticing a light change from dim to bright.

Noticing a difference at one point, but not noticing the SAME difference at another amount/situation.

Ex: The difference between $10 & $20 seems much greater than $110 & $120, even though it's the same difference.

Being consistently exposed to the same stimulation diminishes our reaction/ability to notice it. (AKA Habituation).

Ex: Getting used to playing loud music in your ears, not recognizing the actual loudness of it.

Vision: Our eyes are constantly moving, so we don't have sensory adaptation. Things would disappear if we stare at something long enough.

Receiving & processing messages below our absolute threshold, that we automatically adapt/adjust to. (Not realizing the message you're processing.)

Light energy into neural messages, where our brain processes messages into what we see. (AKA Transduction.)

- We perceive color from electromagnetic energy.

- Wavelengths determine hue.

- Intensity determines brightness.

Light enters through the cornea.

Light passes through pupil, surrounded by the iris.

Behind pupil is the lens that focuses image onto retina, in an upside-down image.

Retina focuses the rays, and doesn't see the whole image.

Rods: Send combined messages & work with your peripheral vision.

- Neural signals connect to form optic nerve, which carries messages to the brain.

Cones: Perceive color, cluster in & around the fovea.

- Sends direct signals to the brain, so they detect fine detail.

Where the optic nerve leaves the eye, eyes adapt to light.

Rather than processing something step-by-step, we process it simultaneously.

- Damage to brain & visual cortex can damage parallel processing & it's ability to simultaneously process information.

The retina contains 3 different color receptors.

- Blue, red, & green.

Opposing retinal processes enable color vision.

(Red-Green)(Yellow-Blue)(Black-White).

After staring at an image for so long, then shifting your eyes seeing a different color/image.

The color reflected from an object NOT processing that color.

How bright/dark the hue of an object is.

Intensity/Strength of a certain color.

Ex: How "blue" is this blue? (The strength of the blue itself).

We use audition (hearing) to adapt to the world around us.

Vibrating molecules of air.

Determined by the strength/amplitude of the sound waves.

Number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time.

A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

Transforms vibrating air into a neural impulse, which our brain decodes.

Vibrates fluid that fills the tube.

Processes & routes signals to the brain.

Transmits vibrations to cochlea.

Detect head movements & sense the dynamic equilibrium.

Amplifies vibrations from eardrum & pass sound waves.

Vibrates sound waves.

Equalize air pressure atmosphere & the inner ear.

Transforms vibrations into electrical impulses.

Channels sounds waves through the auditory canal.

Helps locate the origins of sound.

Damage to hair cells causes most hearing loss. (Loud noises)

- Ear ringing: Indicated ear damage. (AKA Ear Bleeding).

- Caused by problems in the INNER EAR.

(Ear canal, eardrum, middle ear).

- The ears' ability to conduct vibrations.

- Hearing Aids: Amplify sound waves.

- Caused by NEURAL/NERVE damage.

- Often due to age, exposure, etc.

- Nerve damage cannot be repaired, but a cochlear implant can aid in helping remaining tissues that still work in your ear.

The location of the hairs in the cochlea affects their response to frequencies.

Pulse's rate of speed & strength affects the frequency of what you're hearing.

Neural cells alternate firing, causing rapid succession, achieving a combined frequency.

- We have two ears so we hear in 3D.

- We use parallel processing to locate where sounds are coming from.

- We find a just noticeable different in sound location, allowing us to react quicker.

- Hearing a sound directly in front of you is difficult to hear, unlike hearing a sound beside you.

- Sounds' location affects whether you hear it or not.

- Tells you when something is wrong.

- Amputees feeling pain or movement in their nonexistent limbs.

Memory: We remember levels of pain.

Experiences: We learn pain through our experiences.

Gate-Control Theory: Spinal Cord contain a neurological "gate" that determines if pain signals pass or not to the brain.

Endorphins: Our natural pain killer.

- Presence of others (people) can influence pain.

- Empathy: Understanding another persons' pain.

- Cultural Expectations: Societal norm of how pain is felt.

Tastebuds: Allow for CHEMICAL response in your brain.

- Each tastebud contains 50-100 taste receptors, reproducing as often as every week.

- Age decreases taste sensitivity, same with smoking & alcohol use.

- Brain responds MORE to negative tastes than sweet tastes.

Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter

The principle that one sense may influences another.

Perception of one sounds, when it looks like they're saying another.

Ex: Saying "fa...fa...fa." when it LOOKS LIKE they're saying "ba....ba.....ba."

- Is a chemical sense, like taste.

- Odor (smell) molecules make different patterns, interpreted by receptors.

- Attractiveness of smells depends on learned associations.

- We create memories based off of our smells.

- Sensing our bodys' positions & movement.

- Without kinesthesis: We would not be able to tell our bodys' position without seeing it.

- Monitor's heads' position & balance sense. (Movement & balance.)

- Equilibrium is located in the inner ear.

- Semicircular Canals & vestibular sense move when head rotates or tilts.

- Movement stimulate receptors in the inner ear & sends messages to the cerebellum, to maintain our balance.

We sense more information than we actually process.

Blocking all other stimuli/sounds & focusing your attention on one thing. (Overall focusing your attention and blocking everything else around you.)

When we fail to see changes in the environment around us. (Being BLIND to the change around us.)

Background Noise: Can affect us even when we're not paying attention to it.

The inability to notice a stimuli/object amidst an engrossing scene.

Ex: A ball being passed and focusing on the ball, and not realizing other events going on around it.

Our vision sense dominating all other senses.

Psychologists who study how we integrate pieces of information into a whole.

Seeing two images in the same picture.

Grouping images/information based on how CLOSE they are to each other.

Grouping images/information based on their similarities.

Grouping images/information based on smooth, continuous patterns they both share.

Grouping images/information based on them being connected, rather than separate.

We fill in gaps to complete & create a whole image.

Distinct distance.

A lab device that tests depth perception in both infants & animals. (Depth perception accuracy grows with age & maturity.)

Depth perception of objects depends on use of BOTH eyes. (Think of binoculars, you use both eyes!).

Our eye pupils come TOGETHER when perceiving close objects, and move apart when viewing farther objects.

Images viewed the same by BOTH eyes.

(Ex: Regardless if you cover one eye, you see the exact same image of the railroad track.)

Objects with the same dimensions appear longer/taller than they do wider.

Things further away appear smaller, things closer appear bigger.

Objects higher than our field of vision appear as farther away.

Parallel lines converge with distance. The more they come together, the farther away it looks. (Think of roads.)

Dimmer objects appear farther away, while brighter objects appear closer.

Objects in motion appear to be moving backwards.

If an objects blocks our view of another object, it appears closer.

Distinct textures look closer than smooth, refined indistinct textures.

We perceive hazy objects as farther away, and more distant than other objects.

We predict things getting bigger are coming towards us, and things getting smaller are moving away from us.

When light blinks on and off quickly, we perceive them as moving.

Ex: Christmas Lights

Allows us to perceive objects in their given form, WITHOUT external factors interfering in it. (The image of the object itself stays CONSTANT.)

Change our perception of an object, even if it hasn't changed.

We know the ACTUAL shape of an object despite what it make look like from afar.

Ex: We know a car isn't actually small even if it looks like it from afar. (The size stays constant no matter what.)

The lightness we see/perceive depends on the amount of light the object reflects.

Brightness it relatively constant regardless of any other alterations.

Ex: A blue ball remains blue despite if it's in different light.

Our eyes adjust to modified fields of vision.

(Glasses fixing field of vision, inverted glasses, etc.)

How we perceive one thing, and not the other. (Top-Down Processing).

(Using prior knowledge to distinct what we see in one thing, and not the other.)

What we already know (context) affects how we perceive something. (More Top-Down Processing.)

A controversial claim that perceptions can occur apart from sensory input.

Parapsychologists: Those who study the paranormal.

Telepathy (Mind Reading).

Clairvoyance (Perceiving Remote Events).

Precognition (Predicting Future Events).

Psychokinesis (Being able to move or change physical things).