PSY 120 ACTUAL 2026 STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS GRADED A+
drugs - ✔✔consciousness altering drugs that produce hallucinations, change thought
processes, or distrupt the normal perception of time and space
✔✔anabolic steriods - ✔✔synthetic derivatives of testosterone that are taken in pill form
or by injection to increase muscle mass and strength
✔✔tolerance - ✔✔increase resistance to a drug's effect accompanying continued use
✔✔withdrawal - ✔✔physical and psychological symptoms that occur when someone
addicted to drug stops taking it
✔✔sensation - ✔✔the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical
objects, it occurs when energy in the external environment or the body stimulates
receptors in the sense organs
✔✔perception - ✔✔the process by which brain organizes and interpret sensory
information
✔✔sense receptors - ✔✔specialized cells that convert physical energy in the
environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses
to brain
✔✔doctrine of specific nerve energies - ✔✔the principles that different sensory
modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve
pathway leading to different areas of the brains
✔✔synesthasia - ✔✔a condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes another
✔✔absolute threshold - ✔✔the smallest quantity of physical energy that can be
reliability detected by an observer
✔✔difference threshold - ✔✔the smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably
detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared, also called just noticeable
difference
✔✔signal-detection theory - ✔✔a psychophysical theory that divide the detection of a
sensory signal into a sensory process and a decisions process
✔✔sensory adaption - ✔✔the reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness
when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious
, ✔✔sensory deprivation - ✔✔the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation
✔✔selective attention - ✔✔the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the
environment and the blocking out of others
✔✔inattentional blindness - ✔✔failure to consciously perceive something you are
looking at because you are not attending to it
✔✔hue - ✔✔the dimension of visual experience specified by colour names and related
to the wavelength of light
✔✔brightness - ✔✔lightness or luminance the dimension of visual experience related to
the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object
✔✔saturation - ✔✔vividness or purity of colour the dimension of visual experience
related to the complexity of light waves
✔✔retina - ✔✔neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball's for interior, which contains
the receptors for vision
✔✔rods - ✔✔visual receptors that respond to dim light
✔✔cones - ✔✔visual receptor involved in colour vision
✔✔dark adaptation - ✔✔a process by which visual receptors become maximally
sensitive to dim light
✔✔ganglion cells - ✔✔neurons in the retina of the eye that gather information from
receptor cells (by way of intermediate bipolar cells) their axons make up the optic nerve
✔✔feature detector cells - ✔✔cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific
feature of the environment
✔✔trichromatic theory - ✔✔a theory of colour perception that proposes three
mechanism three mechanisms n the visual system, each sensitive to certain range of
wavelengths, their interaction is assumed to produce all the different experience of hue
✔✔opponent-process theory - ✔✔a theory of colour perception that assumes that the
visual system treats pairs of colours as opposing or antagonistic
✔✔gestalt principles - ✔✔principles that describe the brains organization of sensory
information into meaningful units and patterns
✔✔binocular cues - ✔✔visual cue or depth or distance requiring two eyes
ANSWERS GRADED A+
drugs - ✔✔consciousness altering drugs that produce hallucinations, change thought
processes, or distrupt the normal perception of time and space
✔✔anabolic steriods - ✔✔synthetic derivatives of testosterone that are taken in pill form
or by injection to increase muscle mass and strength
✔✔tolerance - ✔✔increase resistance to a drug's effect accompanying continued use
✔✔withdrawal - ✔✔physical and psychological symptoms that occur when someone
addicted to drug stops taking it
✔✔sensation - ✔✔the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical
objects, it occurs when energy in the external environment or the body stimulates
receptors in the sense organs
✔✔perception - ✔✔the process by which brain organizes and interpret sensory
information
✔✔sense receptors - ✔✔specialized cells that convert physical energy in the
environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses
to brain
✔✔doctrine of specific nerve energies - ✔✔the principles that different sensory
modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve
pathway leading to different areas of the brains
✔✔synesthasia - ✔✔a condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes another
✔✔absolute threshold - ✔✔the smallest quantity of physical energy that can be
reliability detected by an observer
✔✔difference threshold - ✔✔the smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably
detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared, also called just noticeable
difference
✔✔signal-detection theory - ✔✔a psychophysical theory that divide the detection of a
sensory signal into a sensory process and a decisions process
✔✔sensory adaption - ✔✔the reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness
when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious
, ✔✔sensory deprivation - ✔✔the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation
✔✔selective attention - ✔✔the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the
environment and the blocking out of others
✔✔inattentional blindness - ✔✔failure to consciously perceive something you are
looking at because you are not attending to it
✔✔hue - ✔✔the dimension of visual experience specified by colour names and related
to the wavelength of light
✔✔brightness - ✔✔lightness or luminance the dimension of visual experience related to
the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object
✔✔saturation - ✔✔vividness or purity of colour the dimension of visual experience
related to the complexity of light waves
✔✔retina - ✔✔neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball's for interior, which contains
the receptors for vision
✔✔rods - ✔✔visual receptors that respond to dim light
✔✔cones - ✔✔visual receptor involved in colour vision
✔✔dark adaptation - ✔✔a process by which visual receptors become maximally
sensitive to dim light
✔✔ganglion cells - ✔✔neurons in the retina of the eye that gather information from
receptor cells (by way of intermediate bipolar cells) their axons make up the optic nerve
✔✔feature detector cells - ✔✔cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific
feature of the environment
✔✔trichromatic theory - ✔✔a theory of colour perception that proposes three
mechanism three mechanisms n the visual system, each sensitive to certain range of
wavelengths, their interaction is assumed to produce all the different experience of hue
✔✔opponent-process theory - ✔✔a theory of colour perception that assumes that the
visual system treats pairs of colours as opposing or antagonistic
✔✔gestalt principles - ✔✔principles that describe the brains organization of sensory
information into meaningful units and patterns
✔✔binocular cues - ✔✔visual cue or depth or distance requiring two eyes
