AP Psych

  1. Sensation
    the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system recieve and recieve and represent stimulus energies from the environment.
  2. Perception
    the process of organizing an interpreting sensory information.
  3. Bottom-up Processing
    • analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain's intergration of sensory info.
    • detecting lines in a painting
  4. Top-Down Processing
    • Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes as when we construct perceptions drawing on our expectations and experience.
    • consider painting's title and such to determine meaning
  5. Psycho-physics
    • the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
    • what do we detect?
    • how does it affect us?
  6. Absolute-Threshold
    the minimum stimulation required to detect a stimulus 50% of the time
  7. Signal Detection Theory
    a theory predicting how and when we can detect the presence of very faint stimuli amid background stimulus.
  8. Subliminal
    below one's absolute threshold for concious awareness
  9. Priming
    • the--often unconcious--activation of of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.
    • kittens versus werewolves (preference?)
  10. Difference Threshold
    the minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.
  11. Weber's Law
    the principle that. to be perciv3ed as different, 2 stimuli must differ from a constant minimum of 10%
  12. Sensory Adaptation
    diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
  13. Selective attention
    • also know as cocktail party effect
    • the ablity to truely focus on only one particular stimulus
  14. Innatentional Blindness
    the failure to see what you're not focused on
Author
cat.zpr
ID
125829
Card Set
AP Psych
Description
sensation and perception
Updated