120 Cards in this Set
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Sensation
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The process through which the senses pick up visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit them to the brain.
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Perception
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The process by which the brain actively organizes and interprets sensory information.
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Weber's Law
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the law stating that the JND for all senses depends on a proportion or percentage of change in stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of change.
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Absolute Threshold
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The minimum amount of sensory stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time.
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Difference Threshold
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A measure of the smallest increase or decrease in a physical stimulus that is required to produce a difference in sensation that is noticeable 50% of the time.
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Iris
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Colored part. Regulates light
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Pupil
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small dark opening in the center of the eye
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Retina
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The layer of tissue that is located on the inner surface of the eyeball and contains the sensory receptors for vision.
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Fovea
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A small area at the center of the retina that provides the clearest and sharpest vision because it has the largest concentration of cones.
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Visible Spectrum
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The narrow band of light waves that are visible to the human eye.
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Nearsighted (Myopia)
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when the lens focuses images of distant objects in front of, rather than on, the retina. Able to see near objects clearly, but distant images blurred.
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Sensory Receptors
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Highly specialized cells in the sense organs that detect and respond to one type of sensory stimulus and convert the stimuli into neural impulses.
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Transduction
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The process through which sensory receptors convert the sensory stimulation into neural impulses.
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Rods
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Light sensitive receptor cells. Respond to as few as 5 photons of light.
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Cones
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Able to see color and fine detail in adequate light but do not function in very dim light.
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Optic Nerve
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The nerve that carries visual information from each retina to both sides of the brain.
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Optic Chiasm
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Where the two optic nerves come together. A point where some of their nerve fibers cross to the opposite side of the brain.
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Bones of the ear
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-Hammer
-Anvil
-Stirrup
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Olfaction
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The sense of smell.
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Kinesthetic Sense
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The sense providing information about the position and movement of body parts.
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Vestibular Sense
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Provides information about the body's orientation in space.
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Five Primary Tastes
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-Sweet
-Sour
-Salty
-Bitter
-Unami
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The survival value of the sense of tough
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The skins unpleasant sensations can alert us that something is wrong on our bodies
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Bottum-Up Processing
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Individual components or bits of data are combined until a complete perception is formed (data driven processing)
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Perceptual Set
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An expectation of what will be perceived, can affect what actually is perceived.
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Gestalt Principles
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-Figure Ground
-Similarity
-Closure
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Figure-Ground
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Some objects often seem to stand out from the background
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Similarity
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Objects that have similar characteristics are perceived as a unit
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Closure
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Figures with gaps in them are seen as complete.
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Binocular cues to depth perception
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Depth cues that depend on both eyes working together
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Binocular Disparity
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When you compare things between eyes. (closing one and then closing the other). the farther away the object, the less disparity between the two retinal images.
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Monoculare depth cues
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Cues that can be perceived by one eye alone.
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Interposition
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When one object partly blocks your view of another, you perceive the partially blocked object as being farther away than the object blocking it.
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Texture Gradient
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Objects close to you appear to have sharply defined features. Further look fuzzy.
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Atmospheric Perspective
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Objects in the distance have a bluish tint and are more blurred than close objects.
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Moon Illusion
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The moon looks very large on the horizon when compared to trees, buildings, and other objects. When viewed in the overhead, the moon cannot be directly compared with other objects, and it appears smaller.
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Ponzo Illusion
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Leaning tower of piza
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Muller-Lyre Illusion
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The two arrows look like they are different sizes but they are.
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Auto-kinetic Effect
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If you stare at a single unmoving light in a dark room for a few seconds, the light will appear to begin moving. if you look away, the return to watching it, it will again appear to be stable. Because of the darkness of the room, the brain has no stale visual reference point to use in dec…
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Illusions
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False perception or misperception of an actual stimulus in the environment
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Ambiguous figures
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The old women young women image. You can focus on either image but not both at once.
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Subliminal Perception
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The capacity to perceive and respond to stimuli that are presented below the threshold of awareness.
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Synesthesia
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The capacity for experiencing unusual sensations along with ordinary ones (colored hearing/ colored taste)
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ESP
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Gaining information about objects, events, or another person's thoughts through some means other than the known sensory channels.
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CLairvoyance
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GAining information about objects even without the use of the sense, such as knowing the contents of a letter before opening it
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Precognition
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an awareness of an event before it occurs
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Why psychologists are skeptical regarding ESP experiments
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The inability to replicate studies supporting it.
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Cell Phone use while driving
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Anything that splits focus doesn't allow full attention on either task. so don't do it
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Motivation
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All the processes that initiate, direct, and sustain behavior.
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Motivation Components
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Activation
Persistence
Intensity
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Activation
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You take the first steps required to achieve your goal.
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Persistence
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The faithful and continued effort put forth in working toward a goal. Putting your plan into action and sticking to it even in the face of distractions and obstacles
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Intensity
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The focused energy and attention applied in order to achieve the goal.
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Primary Drives
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States of tension or arousal that arise from a biological need and are unlearned.
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Social Motives
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Motives (such as the need for affiliation and achievement) that are acquired through experience and interaction with others.
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Homeostasis
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The natural tendency of the body to maintain a balanced internal state in order to ensure physical survival
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Hull's Drive Reduction Theory
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A theory of motivation suggesting that biological needs create states of tension or arousal-- called drives-- which organisms are motivated to reduce.
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Industrial-OrganizationalPsychologists (I/O)
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Psychologists who apply their knowledge in the workplace and are especially interested in work motivation and job performance.
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Work Motivation
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The conditions and processes responsible for the arousal, directions, and maintenance of effort or workers on the job.
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Incentives
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An external stimulus that motivates behavior (money/fame)
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Goal setting in work motivation
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An approach to work motivation that involves establishing specific, difficult goals rather than simply telling people to do their best in the absence of assigned goals.
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Intrinsic Motivation
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The desire to behave in a certain way because it is enjoyable or satisfying in and of itself.
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Extrinsic Motivation
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The desire to behave in a retain way to gain some external reward or to avoid some undesirable consequence.
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Yerkes- Dodson Law
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The principle that performance on tasks is best when the arousal level is appropriate to the difficulty of the task. higher arousal for simpler tasks, moderate for moderate, and low for complex tasks.
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The need for achievement
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The need to accomplish something difficult and to perform at a high standard of excellence.
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
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Higher motives such as the need for love, go unheeded when lower motives, such as the need for safety, are not met.
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Ventromedial Hypothalamus(VMH)
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The part of the hypothalamus that acts as a satiety (fullness) center to inhibit eating.
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Lateral Hypothalamus(LH)
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The part of the hypothalamus that acts as a feeding center to incite eating.
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BMI
Body Mass Index
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A measure of weight relative to height
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Metabolic Rate
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The rate at which the body burns calories to produce energy.
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Set-Point theory
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The weight the body normally maintains when one is trying neither to gain nor to lose weight.
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Anorexia Nervosa
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An eating disorder characterized by an overwhelming, irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, compulsive dieting to the point of self-starvation and excessive weight loss.
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Bulimia Nervosa
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An eating disorder characterized by reported and uncontrolled (and often secretive) episodes of binge eating.
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Emotion
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A state involving physiological arousal, a cognitive appraisal of the situation that produced the state, and an outward behavior expressing the state.
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Display Rules
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Cultural rules that dictate how emotions should generally be expressed and when and who their expression is appropriate.
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Schachter-Singer Theory
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A two-factor theory stating that for an emotion to occur, there must be both a physiological arousal and a cognitive interpretation or explanation of the arousal, allowing it to be labeled as a specific emotion.
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Basic Emotions
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Emotions that are unlearned and universal, that are reflected in the same facial expressions across cultures, and that emerge in children according to their biological timetable of development; fear, anger, disgust, surprise, happiness, and sadness are usually considered basic emotions.
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Sexual Response Cycle
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the four phases that make up the human sexual in both males and females, according to Masters and Johnson.
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Four phases of the sexual response cycle
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Excitement
Plateau
Orgasm
Resolution
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Sexual Orientation
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The direction of one's sexual interest
-Hetero
-Homo
-Bisexual
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Homophobia
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An intense, irrational hostility toward or fear of homosexuality
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Social Psychology
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The subfield that attempts to explain how the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others influences the thoughts, feelings, and behavior or individuals.
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Topics Within Social Psychology
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The process of making judgments about others, attraction, conformity, obedience, compliance, group influence, attitudes, and the factors that motivate us to help or harm others.
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Social Cognition
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The process of attending to, interpreting, and remembering information about others and ourselves.
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Attributions
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An assignment of a cause to explain one's own or another person's behavior.
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Situational
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Attributing a behavior to some external cause or factor operating within the situation; an external attribution.
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Dispositional
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Attributing a behavior to some internal cause, such as a personal trait, motive, or attitude; an internal attribution.
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Actor-Observer Effect
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The tendency to attribute ones own behavior primarily to situational factors and the behavior of others primarily to dispositional factors
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Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
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The tendency to give more attention to dispositional facts than is appreciate for a situation.
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Impression Management
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The intentional steps we take to influence others opinions of us
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Self-Serving Bias
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The tendency to attribute ones success to dispositional causes and ones failures to situational causes.
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Primary Effect
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The tendency for an overall impression of another to be influenced more by the first information that is received about that person then by information that comes later. (Emily thing)
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Proximity
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Physical or geographic closeness; a major influence on attraction.
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Mere-Exposure
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The tendency to feel more positively toward a stimulus as a result of repeated exposure.
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Reciprocity
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Liking people who like us (or who we believe to like us)
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Matching Hypothesis
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The notion that people tend to have lovers or spouse who are similar to themselves in physical attractiveness and other assets.
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The halo effect
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assuming that a person has generally positive or negative traits as a result of observing one major positive or negative trait.
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Asch's Research
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The line test. Going with the group.
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Milgram's Research
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Electrocuting experiment. Doing what your boss tells you.
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Rate of obedience in Milgram's Study
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65%
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Foot-in-the-Door
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A strategy designed to gain favorable responses to a small request at first, with the intent of making the person more likely to agree later to a larger request.
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Door-in-the-Face
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A strategy in which someone makes a larger, unreasonable request with the expectation that the person will refuse but will then be more likely to respond favorably to a smaller request later.
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Low-Balling
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A strategy in which someone makes a very attractive initial offer to get a person to commit to an action and then makes the terms less favorable.
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Naive Subjects
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Test subjects not in on the test
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Confederates
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Test subjects in on the test
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Social Facilitation
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Any positive or negative effect on performance that can be attributed to the presence of others, either as an audience or as cofactors.
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Coaction Effects
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The impact of performance of the presence of other people engaged in the same task.
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Social Loafing
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The tendency to put forth less effort when working with others on a common task than when working alone.
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Prosocial Behaviors
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Behavior that benefits others, such as helping, cooperation, and smpathy
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Altruism
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Behavior that is aide at helping another, requires some self sacrifice, and is not performed for erosional gain (charity)
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Group Polarization
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A group member's adoption of a more extreme position about an issue than she or he originally held after participating in a discussion in which other gourd members strongly express agreement with her or him.
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Groupthink
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The tendency for members of a tightly knit group to be more concerned with preserving group solidarity and uniformity than with objectively evaluating all alternatives in decision making
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Aggression
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The intentional infliction of physical or psychological harm on others
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Social Roles
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Socially defined behaviors considered appropriate for individuals occupying certain positions within a given group.
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Scapegoating
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Displacing aggression onto members of minority groups or other innocent targets not responsible for the frustrating situation.
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De-individuation
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A social psychological process in which individuals lose their sense of personal identity as a result of identification with a group.
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Attitudes
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A relatively stable evaluation of a person, object, situation, or issue, along a continuum ranging from positive to negative
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Persuasion
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A deliberate attempt to influence the attitudes and/or behavior of another person.
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4 Elements of Persuasion
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1. the source of communication (who is doing the persuading)
2. the audience (who is being persuaded)
3. The message (what is being said)
4. The medium (the means by which the message is being transmitted)
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Cognitive Dissonance
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The unpleasant state that can occur when people become aware of inconsistencies between their attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior.
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PSY 110: EXAM 3