Essential Unit 3 (E03)

AP PSYCHOLOGY

ESSENTIAL UNIT 3 (E03)

(Sensation, Perception, and States of Consciousness)

(JULY 2012)

Unit Statement: The student will learn how we interpret sensory inputs as a cognitive process to provide perception of external stimuli. The student will also learn what consciousness is, and how it is represented at various stages, such as during the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, and while affected by psychoactive drugs.

Essential Outcomes:

1. The Student Will discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.

2. TSW 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.

3. TSW explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments).

4. TSW describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote stable awareness of the external world (e.g., Gestalt principles, depth perception).

5. TSW discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g., perceptual set, context effects).

6. TSW explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion.

7. TSW discuss the role of attention in behavior.

8. TSW challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena.

9. TSW identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., Gustav Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel).

10. TSW describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.

11. TSW discuss aspects of sleep and dream: stages and characteristics of the sleep cycle, theories of sleep and dreaming, and symptoms and treatments of sleep disorders.

12. TSW describe historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (e.g., pain control psychotherapy).

13. TSW explain hypnotic phenomena (e.g., suggestability, dissociation).

14. TSW identify the major psychoactive drug categories (e.g., depressants, stimulants) and classify specific drugs, including their psychological and physiological effects.

15. TSW discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.

16. TSW identify the major figures in consciousness research (e.g., William James, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hilgard).

Materials:

Basic Resource: Exploring Psychology In Modules, Modules 11-17

Experience Psychology, Chapters 3 & 4

Additional Resources: Myers and/or King Powerpoint Presentations

Myers and/or King Testbanks

Videos identified in the Course Outcomes

Applicable Textbook website

Websites:

In addition to the websites identified in the Course Outcomes, the following websites may be helpful.

King - The Science of Psychology

Myers 7e in Modules

HippoCampus Psychology - Homework Help

Course-notes for Psychology Psychology Home

Encyclopedia of Psychology - Psychology Websites

september 22 2010 - bookforum.com / omnivore

Family, Culture Affect Whether Intelligence Leads To Education

What Makes a Person’s Religious Values and Attendance Change | Big Questions Online

The Language Style of Happy Couples | Big Questions Online

3D Chalk Drawings | Mighty Optical Illusions

Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena

What Is Compassion Meditation? | Big Questions Online

Blue light taps directly into your emotions - life - 30 October 2010 - New Scientist Scientific Eveidence for Psychic Powers?

November 9, 2010 - Science and Religion Today

YouTube - Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves

Stephen Hawking’s Radical Philosophy of Science | Big Questions Online

Self Comes to Mind and On Second Thought: Book Reviews | Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. Miller-McCune.

NIH Curriculum Supplement Series for High School - The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology Through the Study of Addiction

What is Consciousness?

Using Hypnosis to Gain More Control Over Your Illness - NYTimes.com

Maybe Just Drunk Enough to Remember - NYTimes.com

The Other Big Deficit: Many Teens Fall Short On Sleep : NPR

Sleep Experts Answer Your Questions On Teens And Shuteye : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

A Video Illusion: Can You Spot the Change? | Open Culture

Mandatory Assessments:

1. AP style multiple-choice exams must be used. The majority of the questions should require students to use higher order thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation in which the student must combine knowledge and skills across the unit.

2. Students must be required to complete the Examination Analysis form that is contained as an attachment to the Course Outcomes. Students who have taken the class report the value in helping them properly learn the TSWs.

3. Teacher generated or AP published free-response questions. Free response questions can be taken directly from the AP Central site with rubrics already created to use as an assessment tool.

Optional Assessments:

1. Create flash cards for the unit. Students have reported after the AP Exam that they wish this was mandatory. Teachers may want to take this student feedback into account in designing their teaching for this and all other essential units.

2. Students present their approach to a free-response question to the class. This holds students accountable demonstrating the ability to dissect free-response questions and for developing an outline to answer the question. The focus is on students’ learning to answer the question asked.

3. Students create stories, alone or in groups, using elements from the chapter -- e.g. the parts of the ear--as a memory device:

a. e.g. A guy is in a gondola on a canal of sound waves. He goes under a big, round archway (pinna) and sees a band playing up ahead. They are called the EHAS band-- first, is a guy banging away on the drums (Eardrums), next to him is a guy using a Hammer to make noise on an Anvil. Next to them is a cowboy, with spurs on his boots (Stirrup) playing a guitar. Oddly, sitting next to them is a really drunk snail (cochlea). He is full of liquid. He seems a bit dazed and confused and says to the guy in the gondola, “hey, man, what’s it all mean??” As he turns to go find out from the manager upstairs (the brain) he leaves behind a trail of electrochemical slime.

4. Hands-on work on sensation can be quite effective-- Have students create a visual or experiential model of the experience of sensing (e.g. guided movement, sculpture, dance.)

5. Students create a chart of major psycho-active drugs, the psychological, physiological, and potential emotional-social effects-- they can take it a step further and use previous units or peek into future units by addressing research approaches and/or treatment approaches.

6. A side study of Carl Jung (dreams and dream analyses) can provide extension assessments.

Teacher to Teacher:

1. This unit is difficult for students who have not taken Biology or AP Biology. It works well for students who have taken Biology courses to teach unit content to those students who are unfamiliar with these ideas. This is a great inter-disciplinary opportunity.

2. Whenever possible, throughout the course, refer back to elements of this unit as a way to reinforce the learning.

QSI AP PSYCHOLOGY SEC E03