Unit Outline/Assignments/terms to know for

AP Psychology Unit 3 – Sensation, perception & States of consciousness

Everything that organisms know about the world is first encountered when stimuli in the environment activate sensory organs, initiating awareness of the external world. Perception involves the interpretation of the sensory inputs as a cognitive process.Understanding consciousness and what it encompasses is critical to an appreciation of what is meant by a given state of consciousness. The study of variations in consciousness includes an examination of the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, circadian rhythms, and the effects of psychoactive drugs.

Unit 3 Objectives

  • Discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.
  • Describe sensory processes (e.g., hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthesis, pain), including the specific nature of energy transduction, relevant anatomical structures, and specialized pathways in the brain for each of the senses.
  • Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments).
  • Describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote stable awareness of the external world (e.g., Gestalt principles, depth perception).
  • Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g, perceptual set, context effects).
  • Explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion.
  • Discuss the role of attention in behavior.
  • Challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena.
  • Identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., Gustav Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel).
  • Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.
  • Discuss aspects of sleep and dreaming:stages and characteristics of the sleep cycle;theories of sleep and dreaming;symptoms and treatments of sleep disorders.
  • Describe historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (e.g., pain control, psychotherapy).
  • Explain hypnotic phenomena (e.g., suggestibility, dissociation).
  • Identify the major psychoactive drug categories (e.g., depressants, stimulants) and classify specific drugs, including their psychological and physiological effects.
  • Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.
  • Identify the major figures in consciousness research (e.g., William James, Sigmund Freud, ErnestHilgard).

Date / Topics Discussed/Assignments Due
Friday, February 13 / Unit 2 Test
Work on Celebrity Brain Projects
Unit 3, part 1 terms assigned
Monday, Feb 16 – Thursday, Feb 19 No School
Friday, Feb 20 / Celebrity Brain Projects Due
Sensation & Perception
Bottom-up & Top-down Processing
Thresholds
Saturday, Feb 21 / Vision and the Brain
Monday, Feb 23 / Brain Games Video
Gestalt Principles
Influences on Perception
Auditory System
Tuesday, Feb 24 / Touch, Taste and Smell
Wednesday, Feb 25 / Consciousness
Thursday, Feb 26 / Circadian Rhythm
Sleep Stages
Friday, Feb 27 / Sleep Disorders
Dreaming
Monday, March 2 / Psychoactive Drugs
Tuesday, March 3 / Review for Unit 3 Test
Wednesday, March 4 / Unit 3 Test
Unit 4 terms assigned

Unit 4 Terms to Know

Sensation

Perception

Bottom-up processing

Top-down processing

Selective attention

Inattentional blindness

Change blindness

Absolute threshold

Signal detection theory

Subliminal

Difference threshold

Weber’s law

Sensory adaptation

Perceptual set

Wavelength

Hue

Intensity

Pupil

Iris

Lens

Retina

Accommodation

Rods

Cones

Optic nerve

Blind spot

Fovea

Feature detectors

Parallel processing

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

Opponent-process theory

Gestalt

Depth perception

Visual cliffs

Binocular cues

Retinal disparity

Monocular cues

Phi phenomenon

Perceptual constancy

Color constancy

Perceptual adaptation

Frequency

Pitch

Middle ear

Cochlea

Inner ear

Sensorineural hearing loss

Conduction hearing loss

Place theory

Frequency theory

Gate-control theory

Kinesthesia

Vestibular sense

Sensory interaction

Consciousness

Circadian rhythm

Melatonin

REM sleep

Alpha waves

Delta waves

NREM sleep

Ascending reticular activating system

Insomnia

Sleep apnea

Nightmares

Night terrors

Narcolepsy

Dreams

Lucid dreams

Somnambulism

Manifest content

Latent content

REM rebound

Hypnosis

Analgesia

Disinhibition

Disassociation

Meditation

Psychoactive drugs

Narcotics

Sedatives

Cannabis

Tolerance

Addiction

Withdrawal

Depressants

Mesolimbic dopamine pathway

Barbiturate

Opiates

Stimulant

Amphetamines

Nicotine

Cocaine

Methamphetamine

Ecstasy

Hallucinogens

LSD

THC

Physical dependence

Psychological dependence