CH 5 - Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Sensation
- BOTTOM UP process
- detecting, converting, and transmitting sensory info from environment to brain
transduction
- transforming stimulation into neural impulses
- ex. smell received by receptors in the nose and converted into neural impulses to the brain
stimuli needed to have sensation
- absolute threshold: detecting a stimulus 50% of the time
- subliminal: input below absolute threshold
- Weber’s law: 8 percent change of light, 2% change of weight to notice difference
sensory adaptation
- adapt to unchanging stimuli
- ex. stop noticing that your wearing shoes
Perception
- TOP DOWN process
- organize and interpret sensory input by ones experiences or expectations
Reasons for perception:
-perceptual adaptation: ability to adapt to skewed environment
-perceptual set: predisposition to perceive one thing rather than the other - context or frame of reference: your culture, emotions, context
light/ sound waves
Amplitude
- light is brightness
- sound is loudness
Frequency
- light is hue
- sound is pitch
Visual information processing*
- light travels through lens into retina photoreceptor cells (rods and cones)
- chemical reaction activate bipolar cells which then activate the ganglion cells that form the optic nerve
- optic nerve transmits info to thalamus, connect with other neurons that run to the visual cortex
Color vision
- Trichromatic theory
- Opponent - process theory
Visual organization
- how our brain organizes perceptions
- form perception: proximity, closure, continuity
- depth perception, perpetual constancy
selective attention*
l
feature detectors*
l
habituation
l
Anatomy of ear*
l
Sense of touch
-mix of skin senses: pressure, warmth, cold, pain
Sense of taste
-influenced by learning, culture, perceptual bias
survival function oftastes:
-sweet - energy source
-salty - sodium for body processes
-sour - toxic acid
-bitter- poison
-umami-contain proteins to grow/repair tissue
sense of smell
-chemical sense, uses many receptors
