1. What is the difference between sensation and perception? Make sure you understand the processes; don't just memorize the terms.
   
   
2. Sensory thresholds
   
   1. What is psychophysics?
   2. What is the difference between an absolute and a difference threshold? What method(s) is/are used to obtain these thresholds? (As above, don't memorize these. Instead, understand what they really mean.)
   3. What is a j.n.d.?
   4. What is signal detection theory (just in general)?
   5. What happens in sensory adaptation?
      
      
3. Vision. You should know the following:
   
   1. the stimulus for vision (light) and its attributes (amplitude, wavelength, purity)
   2. the psychological counterparts of the above (brightness, hue (color), saturation)
   3. the visible spectrum (short waves = violet; long = red. Remember Roy G. Biv.)
   4. white light - what is it composed of?
      
      
4. The major structures of the eye and what they do
   
   1. the cornea
   2. pupil & iris
   3. lens & ciliary muscles
   4. aqueous & vitreous humor
   5. retina; fovea; blind spot; optic nerve
   6. rods & cones
   7. optic chiasma
      
      
5. The mechanisms of color vision (in general)
   
   1. trichromatic theory: red, green, & blue primary hues
   2. opponent-process theory: red-green & blue-yellow pairs (also black/white)
   3. color blindness and negative after-images, and what they tell us about the theories of color vision
      
      
6. Hearing. You should know the following:
   
   1. the stimulus for hearing (sound), created by disturbances in air pressure
   2. the attributes of sound
      
      1. amplitude, measured in decibals
      2. frequency, measured in Hertz
      3. wave purity or complexity
   3. the psychological counterparts of the above (loudness, pitch, and timbre)
      
      
7. The major structures of the ear and what they do
   
   1. outer ear: pinna & auditory canal
   2. middle ear: eardrum, the 3 bones (malleus, incus, & stapes), oval window
   3. inner ear: cochlea, basilar membrane, hair cells
      
      
8. The chemical senses: know the type of stimuli for these.
   
   1. Taste (gustation) - taste buds; 4 basic tastes
   2. Smell (olfaction); pheromones
      
      
9. Know the basic types of receptors found in the skin (free & encapsulated nerve endings), and the basic types of information provided (pressure, warm, cold). Note that warm + cold = hot.
   
   
10. Know what the position senses are (vestibular & kinesthetic)
    
    
11. Read over the part on pain, but there won't be any questions on it.

Chapter 3 (Continued)

1. Perceptual selectivity. Know the primary processes involved in it
   
   1. stimulus factors: contrast: intensity, size, motion, repetition
   2. personal factors: motivation, expectation (mental set)
   3. bottom-up vs. top-down processing
   4. salient vs. peripheral details
      
      
2. Perceptual organization: Gestalt rules
   
   1. figure-ground
   2. proximity
   3. similarity
   4. continuity
   5. common fate
   6. closure
      
      
3. Perception of depth or distance
   
   1. ocular cues:
      
      • binocular (requiring both eyes) - retinal disparity, convergence
      • monocular (requiring only one eye) - accomodation
   2. physical cues:
      
      • linear perspective
      • interposition
      • relative size
      • texture gradient
      • patterns of shading
      • motion parallax
        
        
4. Perceptual constancies: size, shape, brightness, color
   
   
5. Visual illusions and impossible figures: what they tell us about visual perception. You don't have to know the names of any specific illusions.
   
   

1. Consciousness - definition and 2 basic types: perceptual (world around us) & introspective (our inner world)

2. 4 basic aspects of consciousness, as defined by William James.

3. Levels of consciousness

a. the Freudian view: conscious, preconscious, unconscious

b. contemporary investigations; subliminal perception

c. blindsight and "deaf hearing"

4. Sleep and dreaming

a. how measured (EEG and EMG)

b. the five stages of sleep - no specific questions on these

c. REM and NREM sleep

d. atonia (muscular immobility caused by total relaxation of the muscles

e dreaming: Skip the part on Freud; we'll cover this later. But, you should know about the activation-synthesis theory..

5. Sleep deprivation

a. What is "a good night's sleep"?

b. effects, in general, of sleep deprivation


6. Sleep disorders - just get a general idea of these

a. insomnia; pseudoinsomnia; use of sleeping pills & melatonin

b. narcolepsy; sleep apnea