Sensation and Perception test Flashcards
Sensation?
the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
Perception?
the processes by which her brain organizes and interprets sensory input
What does Perception enable us to do?
recognize meaningful objects and events
Bottom-up Processing?
analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
Top-down processing?
information processing guided by higher-level mental processes
what does top-down processing do?
when we construct receptions drawing on our experience and expectations
Selective attention?
the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
Inattentional blindness
failing to see visual objects when our attention is directed elsewhere ex. paying attention to 3 people playing basketball while a women walks across the screen that we don’t notice
Change blindness
failing to notice changes in the environment
Transduction
the process of converting one form of energy into another that your brain can use.
What is an example of transduction?
in sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret
Psychophysics?
rudy of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli such as intensity and our psychological experience of them
Absolute threshold?
the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time
What are examples of minimum threshold?
detect a particular light from 30 miles away, sound, pressure, taste, or oder such as the drop of perfume in 3 rooms
Signal detection theory
theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of faint stimulus (signal) amine background stimulation (noise) ex. exhausted parents will notice the faintest whimper from a newborn’s cradle while failing to notice louder, unimportant sounds
Subliminal?
below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness
Priming?
activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response
Difference Threshold?
minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of time
Weber’s Law
principle that to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage(Rather than a constant amount)
Sensory Adaptation?
diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Perceptual Set?
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing or another ex. picture of the young or old women - young kids see it as young women - old people see it as a old women
Extrasensory Perception and abbreviation?
(ESP) the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input
What does extrasensory perception include?
telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition
What is telepathy?
mind to mind communication
What is clairvoyance?
perceiving remote events, such as a house on fire in another state
What is precognition?
perceiving future events, such as an unexpected death in the next month
Parapsychology?
study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis
Wavelength?
distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next, electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission
Hue?
color we experience
What determines the Hue?
the wavelength of light
Intensity?
amount of energy in light waves
What determines intensity?
a wave’s amplitude, or height
What does intensity influence?
brightness
Pupil?
small adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters
Iris?
colored muscle that dilates or constricts in response to light intensity and even to inner emotions
Lens?
transparent structure behind the pupil that focuses incoming light rays into an image on the retina
Retina?
multilayered tissue on the eyeball’s sensitive inner surface
What does the retina contain?
the receptor rods and cons plus layers of neurons that begin the process of visual information
Accommodation?
process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina
Rods?
retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray
What are rods necessary for?
peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond
Cones?
retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina
Where do the Cones function?
daylight or well lit conditions
What do cones detect?
fine details and give rise to color sensations
Optic Nerve?
nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
Blind Spot?
point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind” spot
Fovea?
central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster
Why is there a blind spot?
because its the place where there is no receptor cells
Feature detectors?
nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus such as shape, angle, or movement
Parallel Processing?
processing of many problems simultaneously,
Young-Helmtholz trichromatic (three-color) theory?
theory that the retina contains there different color receptors, one most sensitive to red, blue and free, when stimulated together can reduce the perception of any color
Opponent Process Theory?
theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision.
Gestalt?
an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes
Figure Ground?
organization of the visual fields into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
Grouping?
perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
Depth Perception?
enables us to estimate object’s distance from us
Visual cliff?
laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
Binocular Cues
depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the us of both eyes
Retinal Display
binocular cue for perceiving depth. by comparing images from the retinas in two eyes, the brain computes distance -the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object
Monocular cues?
depth cues to each eye separately (such as linear perspective and interposition)
Phi Phenomenon?
an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
Perceptual Constancy?
perceiving objects as unchaining (having consistent shapes, size, brightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change
Color Constancy
perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color
Perceptual adaptation?
in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field ex. the quarterback throwing bad passes with the lenses then throwing good ones eventually after practice
Audition?
hearing
Frequency?
number of complete wavelengths that determines the pitch
Pitch
tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency
