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Psyc 212 - Perception > Chapter 1 > Flashcards

Chapter 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is perception?

A

The experiences that result from stimulation of the senses

We accomplish it so easily that we don’t give it a second thought. It is more than just the sensation of stimuli.

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2
Q

What are some uses in studying perception?

A

Medical applications —> restoring perception to people who have lost vision or hearing

Autonomous vehicles that can find their own way around

Face recognition systems

Speech recognition systems

Highway signs that are visible to drivers under a variety of conditions

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3
Q

True or false:

Everything you see, hear, taste, feel or smell is the result of activity in your nervous system and your knowledge gained from past experiences, not what is really out there.

A

True

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4
Q

What does perception depend on?

A

The properties of the sensory receptors

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5
Q

What is the distinction between perception and sensation?

A

Sensation is thought to be the elementary processes that occur at the beginning of a sensory system.

Perception is complex processes that involve higher-order mechanisms such as interpretation and memory that involve activity in the brain

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6
Q

What is the perceptual process?

A

It is the seven steps to perception of things

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7
Q

What are the basic description of the seven steps of the perceptual process?

A

1.
There is a distal stimulus in the environment (ex: light from a tree)

  1. The stimulus hits the receptors (ex: light hits the eye
  2. Receptor processes (ex: the cells in the eyes process the light and send it ro the optic nerve)
  3. Neural processing (ex: the signal is processed in the brain which creates the vision of the tree in our mind)
  4. Perception (ex: our interpretation of the tree)
  5. Recognition (recognize it as a tree, maybe even what type of tree it is)

7.
Action (ex: getting closer to the tree or something as simple as looking to a more specific part of the tree)

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8
Q

What is the proximal stimulus?

A

Representation of the stimulus on the retina

Ex: the image of the tree on the retina

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9
Q

What is a distal stimulus?

A

A stimulus that is “distant” or out there in the environment.

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10
Q

Why is step one of the perceptual process about the distal stimuli?

A

Because step one is all about the stimuli from the environment and reaching the receptors.

Ex: the light reflected from the tree entering the eye and reaching the visual receptors

Ex: the pressure changes in the air caused by the rustling leaves entering the ear and reaching the auditory receptors.

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11
Q

Why is step two of perceptual process about the proximal stimuli?

A

Because the proximal stimuli is the representation of the distal stimuli on the receptors.

Ex: the image of the tree on the retina

Principale of transformation
- stimuli and responses created by stimuli are transformed, or changed between the distal stimulus and the perception.
|
V
Ex: the light is transformed as it is focused by the eye’s optical system onto the retina

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12
Q

What is the principle of representation?

A

Everything a person perceives is based not on direct contact with stimuli but on representations of stimuli that are formed on the receptors and the resulting activity in the person’s nervous system

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13
Q

What are sensory receptors cells specialized to do?

A

They are specialized to respond to environmental energy.

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14
Q

What do the sensory receptors do when they receive the information from the environment on the 3rd step of perceptual process? (2 things)

A
  1. Transform environmental energy into electrical energy

2.
Shape perception by the way they respond to different proprieties of the stimuli

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15
Q

What is the transformation of environmental energy to electrical energy called?

A

Transduction

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16
Q

What happens to the signals transformed from sensory receptors in the 4th step of the perceptual process?

A

They travel through a vast interconnected network of neurons that:

1.
transmit signals from the receptors to the brain and then within the brain

2.
change or process these signals as they are transmitted

  • Signals become reduced or are prevented from getting through
  • Some signals are amplified so they arrive at the brain with added strength.
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17
Q

Name the changes in the signals travelling through the brain as they are transmitted through this maze of neurons.

A

Neural processing

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18
Q

Where are the electrical signals from a stimuli often sent to in the brain?

A

Primary receiving area in the cortex of the brain

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19
Q

Where is located the primary receiving area for vision in the brain?

A

Occipital lobe

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20
Q

Where is located the primary receiving area for hearing in the brain?

A

Temporal lobe

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21
Q

Where is located the primary receiving area for skin senses?

A

Parietal lobe

22
Q

What signals does the frontal lobe receive?

A

It receives signals from all of the senses
+
Plays an important role in perceptions that involve the coordination of information received through two or more senses.

23
Q

What doe the electrical signals become in the 5th step of the perceptual process?

A

They become a conscious experience of perception.

Ex: conscious awareness of the tree

24
Q

How does the 5th step of perceptual process which is perception lead to the 6th step, which is recognition?

A

Conscious awareness of the stimuli leads to a recognition of the stimuli to a certain category.

Ex: conscious awareness of the tree leads to us placing the stimuli in a “tree” recognition category. Or maybe even the pine category etc.

25
Q

What is visual form agnosia?

A

Inability to recognize objects

26
Q

What is the 7th step of the perceptual process?

A

Action
- motor activities in response to the stimulus.

Ex: after having perceived and recognized the tree, the person might decide to walk toward the tree, touch the tree or climb it, etc.

27
Q

Name the concept:
- any information that the perceiver brings to a situation, such as prior experience or expectations

A

Knowledge

28
Q

Processing that is based on the stimuli reaching the receptors.

Also called data-based processing

A

Bottom-up processing

29
Q

Processing that is based on knowledge

Also called knowledge-based processing

A

Top-down processing

30
Q

Is top-down processing always involved in perception?

A

It is “very often” involved. There may be some situations which involve very simple stimuli in which it is not involved.

31
Q

What are the three major components in which the perceptual process can be divided?

A
  • Stimulus (steps 1&2)
  • Physiology (steps 3&4)
  • Behaviour (steps 5,6&7)
32
Q

Name the major components for each example.

  1. The pressure of someone touching your shoulder + the feeling of touch and your reaction to it
  2. How the pressure on your shoulder leads to neural firing
  3. How neural firing results in the feeling on your shoulder
A
  1. Stimulus to behaviour
  2. Stimulus to physiology
  3. Physiology to behaviour
33
Q

What is the stimulus-behaviour relationship?

A

Relates stimuli to behavioural responses, such as perception, recognition and action

34
Q

What is one way to study the stimulus-behaviour relationship?

A

PSYCHOPHYSICS
- it measures the relationship between the physical and the psychological.

35
Q

What is the stimulus-physiology relationship?

A

The relationship between stimuli and physiological responses, like neurons firing

36
Q

What is one of way to measure the stimulus-physiology relationship?

A

By measuring brain activity

37
Q

What is the physiology-behaviour relationship?

A

Relationship between the physiological responses and behavioural responses

38
Q

What is one way to measure the physiology-behaviour relationship?

A

By measuring both the brain responses and behavioural sensitivity in the same participants

39
Q

What is the absolute threshold?

A

The smallest stimulus level that can just be detected

40
Q

What do thresholds measure?

A

They measure the limits of sensory systems

41
Q

What were the reasons the mind was thought to be impossible to study?

A
  1. The mind and the body were thought to be completely separate from one another. The body being material and physical, and could therefore be measured and studied. The mind was thought to not be physical and was invisible.
  2. Assertion that it is impossible for the mind to study itself
42
Q

What was Fechner’s proposition to study the mind?

A

He proposed that the mind could be studied by measuring the relationship between changes in physical stimulation and a person’s experience

43
Q

What were the three methods for measuring threshold proposed by Fechner?

A

1.
The method of limits

  1. The method of constant stimuli
  2. The method of adjustment
44
Q

What are the classical psychophysical methods?

A

3 methods for measuring thresholds as proposed by Fechner

45
Q

How could a researcher measure the threshold between two stimuli?

A

With the difference threshold
- the smallest difference between two stimuli that enables us to tell the difference between them

46
Q

What is the difference threshold?

A

The smallest difference between two stimuli that enables us to tell the difference between them

47
Q

How can we measure the perceptual magnitude of a stimulus?

A

Magnitude estimation
- able to determine the relationship between physical stimuli and the perception of their magnitude

Ex: playing noises and making the participants rate their loudness.
|
V
Gives us the perceived magnitude for loudness

48
Q

How can we measure the identity of the stimulus?

A

Recognition testing
- categorization
- ex: testing the ability of people with brain damage by asking them to name objects or pictures of objects
- can be done with sound, touch, taste, smell, etc.

49
Q

How can we measure how quickly participants react to things?

A

Reaction time
- the time between the presentation of a stimulus and the person’s reaction to it

50
Q

How can we measure how the participants describe what is out there?

A

Phenomenological report
- Looking around and describing everything you see
- it’s important because they define the perceptual phenomena we want to explain, and once a phenomenon is identified, we can then study it using other methods

51
Q

How can you measure how people interact with things?

A

Physical tasks and Judgments
- Concerned not with perception but with the actions that follow perception
- ex: making participants carre out tasks that involve both perception and action
- ex: having people make judgment about tasks before they actually carry them out
- etc.

52
Q

What is the electromagnetic spectrum?

A

It’s a band of energy ranging from gamma rays at the short-wave end of the spectrum to AM radio and AC circuits at the long-waved end.

We see only a small part of it called visible light sandwiched between ultraviolet and infrared.

Psyc 212 - Perception (6 decks)

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