Portage Learning General Psychology Module 3, Exams of Psychology

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Portage Learning General Psychology Module

Sensation - sense organs converting sensory information to impulses Transduction - energy from sound or light is converted into nerve impulse (Action Potential) sensory adaptation - Decreased responsiveness to stimuli after prolonged exposure absolute threshold - amount of stimulation needed for an organism to detect it difference threshold - the smallest amount by which two sensory stimuli can differ in order for an individual to perceive them as different. (AKA: Just Noticeable Difference) Weber's Law - states that just noticeable difference will be large when energy is large and small when energy is small signal detection theory -

• applied by Green and Swets (1966) to psychophysics
• useful in furthering understanding in sensation and threshold a. intensity of stimulus b. degree of background stimulation (what distractions are present?)

c. current state of person perceiving the stimulus (groggy or alert?) - What three things does sensation depend on? Photoreceptors - cells at the back of the eye that detect incoming light Retina - layer at back of the eye formed by photoreceptors rods and cones - What are the two photoreceptors? cones - enable us to see color; concentrated in the center of the retina called the fovea rods - enables us to see in the dim light optic nerve - bundles of axons from ganglion cells; exits the eye in our blind spot ganglion cells - third type of cell in retina Temporal lobe - Where do the electric impulses go from transduction in the ear? Frequency - number of vibrations a sound wave completes in a given amount of time (How fast is it?)

pitch - the highness or lowness of a sound frequent vibration of waves - What kind of vibration of waves does a very high pitch create? slower vibration - What kind of vibration of waves does a low pitch create? decibels - What do you measure loudness in? amplitude - top of wave to bottom of wave timbre - complex quality of a sound wave loud sound - What kind of sound does a BIG wave produce? soft sound - What kind of sound does a LITTLE wave produce? Pitch, timbre and loudness - What three things are perception of sound? at 140 dB -

When is ear protection needed? gate control theory (1965) -

• melzack and wall
• states that our spinal cord has "a gate" that can block pain perception - occurs when your brain makes sense of neural impulses and interprets these impulses a thought - What does perception turn into? top-down processing - involves analyzing one's memories, knowledge, and expectations thinking a noise is an intruder bc one has watched to many scary movies - What is an example of top down processing? bottom-up processing - focusing on physical characteristics of a stimulus/ object knowing a bouncy ball is a ball bc of the way it moves - What is an example of bottom up processing? feature detectors - cells in occipital lobes that help perceive faces perceptual constancy - ability to recognize an object as staying constant under diff conditions

illusions - What is an example of figure and ground? law of continuity - connected and continuous objects (XXX)

• assume people stay the same rather than expecting change

1. law of similarity
2. law of proximity - What are the two laws of perceptual grouping?
3. binocular: involves both eyes
4. monocular: involves one eye - What are the two kinds of depth perception? monocular vision - when riding in a car distant objects move slower than closer objects