AP Psych - Unit 4

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

• sensation
• perception
• bottom-up processing
• top-down processing

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

• sensation
• perception
• bottom-up processing
• top-down processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

• sensation
• perception
• bottom-up processing
• selective attention

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

• sensation
• perception
• bottom-up processing
• top-down processing

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

• sensation
• perception
• bottom-up processing
• selective attention

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

• inattentional blindness
• change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment (magicians exploit this)

• inattentional blindness
• change blindness

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

• Weber's law
• psychophysics

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.

• absolute threshold
• difference threshold

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 depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

• priming
• signal detection theory
• sublimal
• absolute threshold