Lesson 2

Question 1

define sensation

Answer 1

• process by which we receive information from the environment
• occurs when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor

Question 2

define stimuli

Answer 2

a detectable input from the environment or from within

Question 3

define receptors

Answer 3

collects information from the environment

Question 4

types of receptors

Answer 4

• exteroceptors
• interoceptors
• proprioceptors

Question 5

define exteroceptors

Answer 5

found in different sense organs such as eyes, ears, tongue, etc

Question 6

define interoceptors

Answer 6

found in the lining of the internal organs like the respiratory and genito-urinary

Question 7

define proprioceptors

Answer 7

found in the lining of muscles, tendons, and joints

Question 8

define sensory receptors

Answer 8

nerve endings located in the sensory organs

Question 9

characteristics of sensory receptors

Answer 9

• specific
• they adapt
• excitability
• they respond to coding

Question 10

define perception

Answer 10

• process by which the cognitive system constructs an internal representation of the outside world
• organizing and understanding the incoming sensation

Question 11

characteristics of perceptiom

Answer 11

• limited to sensory discrimination
• perception is selective and subjective
• perception is constant
• perception has organizing tendencies

Question 12

what are the sensory processes

Answer 12

• reception
• transduction
• encoding and transmission of sensory information
• perception

Question 13

define reception

Answer 13

activation of sensory receptors by stimuli such as mechanical stimuli, chemicals, or temperature

Question 14

define transduction

Answer 14

sensory system is the translation of a sensory signal to an electrical signal in the nervous system

Question 15

Theories and approaches to perception

Answer 15

• top-down theories
• bottom-up processing
• direct perception
• template theories
• prototype theories
• feature theories
• structural-description theories

Question 16

Differentiate top-down vs bottom-up theory

Answer 16

Top down
- schema-driven
- interprets information based on prior knowledge, experiences, and expectations
- perceive the whole and then the individual parts

Bottom-up
- data-driven
- interprets information starting from the sensory information
- perceive the individual parts and organize them into whole

Question 17

Top-down theories involve

Answer 17

• Making inferences based on context, guessing from experience, and basing one perception on another
• perception is perspective

Question 18

Who introduced top-down processing?

Answer 18

Richard Gregory

Question 19

Define bottom-up processing

Answer 19

Suggests that our perceptual experience is based entirely on the sensory stimuli that we piece together using only data that is available from our senses

Question 20

Who introduced bottom-up processing

Answer 20

Eleanor Jack Gibson

Question 21

Define direct perception

Answer 21

• Believes that the array of information in our sensory receptors, including the sensory contexts is all we need to perceive anything
• we don’t need higher cognitive processes to mediate between our sensory experience and our perception

Question 22

Other term for direct perception

Answer 22

Ecological theory

Question 23

Who proposed direct perceptiom

Answer 23

James Jerome Gibson

Question 24

Define template theory

Answer 24

Suggests that we have stored in our minds myriad sets of templates, which are highly detailed models for patterns we potentially might recognize

Question 25

Define prototype theory

Answer 25

Relying on best guesses when various features are in place

Question 26

Define feature theories

Answer 26

attempting to match features of a pattern to features stored in memory

Question 27

Define structural-description theory

Answer 27

Objects are represented by parts and their spatial relationships, which together form a structural description of an object