AP Psychology Flashcards: Sensation
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 36 cards to help you master important concepts.
What is the biological basis for color vision deficiency?
Color vision deficiency, or color blindness, is typically caused by genetic irregularities in the cone photoreceptors or related ganglion cells, leading to difficulty distinguishing certain colors.
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What is the biological basis for color vision deficiency?
Color vision deficiency, or color blindness, is typically caused by genetic irregularities in the cone photoreceptors or related ganglion cells, leading to difficulty distinguishing certain colors.
What is the vestibular sense?
The vestibular sense monitors the head's (and thus the body's) position and movement, providing our sense of balance. It is detected by the semicircular canals in the inner ear.
What is gustation?
Gustation is the chemical sense of taste, which includes the primary sensations of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, and oleogustus (fatty).
What is sensory interaction?
Sensory interaction is the principle that one sense may influence another, such as how the smell of food influences its perceived taste (flavor).
What biological factor relates to an individual's sensitivity to taste?
The density of taste receptors (taste buds) on the tongue is related to taste sensitivity, with individuals classified as nontasters, tasters, or highly sensitive supertasters.
What is the opponent-process theory of color vision?
The opponent-process theory states that color vision is enabled by opposing retinal processes (red/green, blue/yellow, black/white) in ganglion cells, which explains afterimages.
What is transduction?
Transduction is the fundamental process in sensation where sensory systems convert one form of energy, such as light or sound waves, into neural impulses.
Which sense is unique in its neural pathway to the cortex?
Olfaction (smell) is the only sense whose stimuli are not first routed through the thalamus before being processed in higher brain areas.
What are cones and what do they detect?
Cones are photoreceptor cells concentrated in the fovea of the retina that are responsible for processing color and fine detail in bright light.
A person can just barely tell the difference between a 50-gram weight and a 51-gram weight. According to Weber's law, what weight would they need to add to a 200-gram weight to notice a difference?
They would need to add 4 grams. The just-noticeable difference is a constant proportion (1/50 or 2%), so 2% of 200 grams is 4 grams.
Why might food taste bland when you have a stuffy nose?
This is due to sensory interaction. Because the sense of smell is blocked, it cannot interact with the sense of taste, significantly reducing the perception of flavor.
What is conduction deafness?
Conduction deafness is hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system of the ear that conducts sound waves to the cochlea, such as the eardrum or middle ear bones.
What physical property of a sound wave determines its loudness?
The amplitude (height) of a sound wave determines its perceived loudness; greater amplitude corresponds to a louder sound.
How does frequency theory explain pitch perception?
Frequency theory proposes that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus allowing the brain to perceive its pitch.
What is the fovea?
The fovea is the central focal point in the retina, where the eye's cones are most densely clustered, and is responsible for sharp, detailed central vision.
What is sensation?
Sensation is the process of detecting environmental information and transducing it into neurochemical messages that our brain can interpret.
What is sensorineural deafness?
Sensorineural deafness (or nerve deafness) is hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's hair cell receptors or to the auditory nerves.
What is synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a neurological condition where the stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway.
How does place theory explain pitch perception?
Place theory suggests that we perceive different pitches because sound waves of different frequencies trigger activity at different specific places along the cochlea's basilar membrane.
What is kinesthesis?
Kinesthesis (or kinesthesia) is the sense that allows us to detect the position and movement of our individual body parts, enabling coordinated motion.
What is the gate-control theory of pain?
The gate-control theory proposes that the spinal cord contains a neurological 'gate' that can either block pain signals or allow them to pass on to the brain.
How is the sensation of flavor created?
Flavor is created through sensory interaction, where the chemical senses of taste (gustation) and smell (olfaction) combine.
What is the function of the retina?
The retina is the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye that captures visual information and transduces it into neural signals for the brain.
What are rods and what do they detect?
Rods are photoreceptor cells in the periphery of the retina that are responsible for detecting shapes and movement in low-light conditions.
What is the volley theory of pitch perception?
The volley theory is an extension of frequency theory, suggesting that groups of neurons alternate their firing to achieve a combined frequency for hearing pitches above 1000 Hz.
What physical property of a sound wave determines its pitch?
The wavelength or frequency of a sound wave determines its pitch; higher frequency (shorter wavelength) corresponds to a higher pitch.
What is prosopagnosia?
Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a neurological disorder caused by damage to visual brain areas that results in an inability to recognize faces.
What is accommodation in the visual system?
Accommodation is the process by which the eye's lens changes its curvature to focus light from objects at different distances onto the retina.
How does the opponent-process theory explain the phenomenon of afterimages?
Staring at a color fatigues the ganglion cells for that color, causing the opposing cells to fire when you look away, resulting in the perception of the opposite color.
How is the sensation of 'hot' produced by the touch system?
The sensation of 'hot' is not from a single receptor type, but is produced by the simultaneous activation of both warm and cold thermoreceptors in the skin.
What is the just-noticeable difference (JND), as explained by Weber's law?
Weber's law states that for a change to be detectable, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, not a fixed amount.
How does sound localization work?
We identify the source of a sound based on the minute differences in the timing and intensity with which the sound waves reach our two separate ears.
What is the trichromatic theory of color vision?
The trichromatic theory proposes that we perceive color through the combined activity of three types of cones in the retina, each most sensitive to red, green, or blue light.
What is blindsight?
Blindsight is a condition caused by damage to the visual cortex where a person can respond to visual stimuli without consciously perceiving them.
What is sensory adaptation?
Sensory adaptation is the diminished sensitivity to a constant or unchanging stimulus over time, allowing us to focus on new information.
How do the trichromatic and opponent-process theories work together to explain color vision?
They describe color vision at different stages: the trichromatic theory explains processing by the cones in the retina, while the opponent-process theory explains processing by the ganglion cells and in the brain.