Unit 3S

Sensation and Perception

Name: _______________________

UNIT 3 SENSATION AND PERCEPTION - VOCABULARY

Directions: Complete the vocabulary chart including definitions in your own words and either an application or
example.

Concept or Key Original Definition Application or Example

Individual
Sensation

Perception

Bottom-Up Processing

Top-Down Processing

Selective Attention

Stroop Effect

Cocktail Party Effect

lnattentional Blindness

Change Blindness

Visual Capture
Visual Acuity

Myopia
(Nearsightedness)

Hyperopia
(Farsightedness)

Light Adaptation

Dark Adaptation

Describe the pathway of visual information from the eyes to the visual cortex

Describe the research

of David Hubel and
Torsten Wiesel

Feature Detectors

Parallel Processing

5
Sound localization

Touch (Somatic
Sense)

Pain Sense
Importance

Gate-Control Theory
for Pain
MELZACK & WALL

Pain Pathways

Nociceptors

Endorphins

Fast Pathway for Pain

Slow Pathway for Pain

Phantom Limb Causes: Treatment for Phantom Limb Pain

Sensation and Pain

IL
 AP Psychology N ame________________

Signal Detection Theory

Learning Targets: ·••. . . . . . . . · • ..
• . . . . .·· . . . •··. . . . .. . ...·• . • . . :
i .. .
• Describe how signal detection theory provides a psychological eJ5planation forwhether or not··
an individuai perceives aweak stimulus . • . . ·· .
• · .• . . . .. • . · .
• Identify the four. potentiai.outcomes related. to signal detection rei;�arch .

Signal detection theory predicts when an individual will decide if a weak stimulus is present or
not based on psychological factors as opposed to the biological theories of absolute threshold.
Psychologists use signal detection theory to evaluate how accurately participants are able to
recognize faint stimuli under a variety of different conditions. In a typical experiment the
participants are asked to indicate if the stimulus was either present or absent, and the researcher
assesses if the decision was correct. For example, Mark is waiting for an important text message
from his girlfriend letting him know when to meet at the movie theater. According to the signal
detection theory, various psychological factors, including Mark's level of attention, motivation, and
expectations, will impact whether or not he detects the incoming text message or not. There are
four possible outcomes for Mark in this situation based on the signal detection theory described in
the table below.

· Present si n81noccorred Abserit $I' nal clid NOToccur

Yes
. (participant HIT FALSE ALARM
noticed
si •nal
No.
(participant MISS CORRECT REJECTION
did NOT
hotice.·
si hal
Directions: Read the following scenarios and determine which of the four potential outcomes for
the signal detection theory is being presented.

1. ______ A brother and sister are playing hide and seek and the brother has hid
under a pillow on the sofa. His sister comes into the room and looks at the sofa, but seeing
nothing, she leaves.

2. ______ The sister then goes into her brother's room and sees a lump under the
sheets, she sneaks up to the lump and screams, "I found you", but soon she finds out this is
her brother's stuffed up teddy bear.

3. _ _____ An administrative assistant is expecting an important e-mail from her

boss, she must temporarily leave her desk to make some copies, as she makes copies she
thinks she hears the "ding" of her computer indicating she has an incoming message, it turns
out that she did not receive any incoming messages.
AP Psychology Name_______________
, _

4, ______ A man is angry because the neighbor children keep cutting through his
yard which is ruining his freshly planted flowers, He is keeping a close watch through his back
window when suddenly he sees movement and prepares to shout out the window, He does
not do anything because he accurately realizes the movement was caused by a raccoon,

5, ______ Later that evening he once again sees movement, based on the amount
of noise he believes it is one of the neighbor children; he turns on the backyard lights and finds
two of them halfway across the lawn,

6, ______ You are bobbing for apples one Halloween and have just seen the host
dump ten new apples into the bucket, which you are using, You go in a come up only with a
mouthful of water,

7, _____ Your friend goes next and instantly come up with an apple and scores a
point in the game,

8, ______ The next person in line retrieves a pear instead of an apple which does
not count for a point in the game,

9, ______ The final contestant initially feels a pear but releases it and continues to
look for an apple,

10, You are trying to spot the North Star on a long drive, using the signal detection theory,
describe the four potential outcomes as you search for the star in the sky, Be specific and
include all of the aspects of each outcome,

Present
Yes:

No
4. This is the part of the eye where the image is projected
a. The iris
b. The pupil
c. The retina
d. The cornea
e. The optic disk

5. Which of the following statements is correct

a. Sound waves reach the pinna first, then the eardrum, then the oval window
b. Sounds waves reach the eardrum last
c. Sounds waves are transduced in the auditory canal
d. The ossicles are made up of the pinna, the eardrum, and the oval window
e. The ossicles are in the inner ear

6. Jessa has grown up in lovely Champaign, Illinois. She no longer notices the smell of the farms on hot
windy days. What idea best explains this phenomenon?
a. Sensory overload
b. Sensory adaptation
c. Sensory deprivation
d. Signal Detection Theory
e. Subliminal Perception

7. What theory explains how people discriminate high-pitched sounds with a frequency greater than 5000
Hz?
a. Opponent-process theory
b. The absolute threshold
c. Place theory
d. Frequency theory
e. The volley principle

8. The semicircular canals are involved in which of the following?

a. The auditory sense
b. The visual sense
c. Gate control theory
d. The vestibular or balance sense
e. The gustatory or taste sense

9. What are feature detectors?

a. Photoreceptors that enable people to see in color
b. Principles that people use to organize what they see into unites that make sense
c. Neurons that respond to specific cells in the environment
d. Instruments used by psychophysicists to measure senses in the world
e. The ability to perceive color, motion, form, and shape at the same time

1 O. The least amount of stimulation that can be detected at least 50% of the time is known as
a. Weber's Law
b. Habituation
c. Just noticeable difference
d. Signal Detection Theory
e. Absolute Threshold

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