Chapter 7: Perception Learning

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

detection of stimuli by the sensory receptors and transmission of this information to the brain.

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

process by which we categorize and interpret sensory input.

Question 3

enrichment theory

Answer 3

theory specifying that we must add to sensory stimulation by drawing on stored knowledge in order to perceive a meaningful world.

Question 4

differentiation theory

Answer 4

theory specifying that perception involves detecting distinctive features or cues that are contained in the sensory stimulation we receive.

Question 5

preference method

Answer 5

method used to gain information about infants’ perceptual abilities by presenting two (or more) stimuli and observing which stimulus the infant prefers.

Question 6

habituation

Answer 6

decrease in response to a stimulus that has become familiar through repetition.

Question 7

dishabituation

Answer 7

an increase in responsiveness that occurs when stimulation changes.

Question 8

high-amplitude sucking method

Answer 8

a method of assessing infants’ perceptual capabilities that capitalizes on the ability of infants to make interesting events last by varying the rate at which they suck on
a special pacifier.

Question 9

evoked potential

Answer 9

a change in patterning of the brain waves that indicates that an individual detects (senses) a stimulus.

Question 10

visual acuity

Answer 10

person’s ability to see small objects and fine detail.

Question 11

visual contrast

Answer 11

amount of light/dark transition in a visual stimulus.

Question 12

stereopsis

Answer 12

fusion of two flat images to produce a single image that has depth.

Question 13

pictorial (perspective) cues

Answer 13

depth and distance cues (including linear perspective, texture gradients, sizing, interposition, and shading) that are monocular—that is, detectable with only one eye.

Question 14

visual looming

Answer 14

expansion of the image of an object to take up the entire visual field as it draws very close to the face.

Question 15

size constancy

Answer 15

tendency to perceive an object as the same size from different distances despite changes in the size of its retinal image.

Question 16

kinetic cues

Answer 16

cues created by movements of objects or movements of the body; provide important information for the perception of forms and spatial

Question 17

visual cliff

Answer 17

elevated platform that creates an illusion of depth; used to test the depth perception of infants.

Question 18

intermodal perception

Answer 18

ability to use one sensory modality to identify a stimulus or pattern of stimuli that is already familiar through another modality.

Question 19

perceptual learning

Answer 19

changes in ability to extract information from sensory stimulation that occur as a result of experience.

Question 20

extinction

Answer 20

gradual weakening and disappearance of a learned response that occurs because the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning) or the response is no longer reinforced (in operant conditioning).

Question 21

counterconditioning

Answer 21

treatment based on classical conditioning in which the goal is to extinguish an undesirable response and replace it with a new and more adaptive one.

Question 22

Pos and Neg Punishment

Answer 22

positive punishment:
punishing consequence that involves the presentation of something unpleasant following a behaviour.

negative punishment:
punishing consequence that involves the removal of something pleasant following a behaviour.

Question 23

encoding

Answer 23

process by which external stimulation is converted to a mental representation.

Question 24

deferred imitation

Answer 24

ability to reproduce a modelled activity that has been witnessed at some point in the past.