memory - sensation, perception & attention

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

-mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
-processes include attention, sensation, perception and memory

Question 2

sensation

Answer 2

-process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit this information to the brain for initial processing, a physiological process
-senses respond to a limited range of environmental stimuli and the lowest level at which an individual can experience a sensation is called an absolute threshold
-three processes in sensation – reception, transduction and transmission

Question 3

reception

Answer 3

-activation of sensory receptors by a stimulus. a stimulus is a detectable input from the environment
-receptors are specialised according to the type of stimulus they sense, e.g. chemoreceptors = chemicals, thermoreceptors = temperature, mechanoreceptors = pressure, photoreceptors = light

Question 4

transduction

Answer 4

-conversion of a sensory signal to an electrochemical signal in the nervous system. occurs at the sensory receptor

Question 5

transmission

Answer 5

-sending sensory information in form of neural impulses to the appropriate area of the brain through the nervous system for processing

Question 6

perception

Answer 6

-active process of organising and interpreting the raw information that the sensory organs take in
-perception is how we make meaning of sensation, a psychological process and unique to the individual
-processes include selection, organisation and interpretation

Question 7

selection

Answer 7

-feature detectors filter the stimuli by responding to specific features of a stimulus and ignoring the rest
-our brains cannot process every piece of sensory input from the environment, so we select (often unconsciously) what we pay attention to
-selection is determinedby the degree of salience; thedegree to which something attracts our attention in a particular context
factors influencing salience include:
-visual and aural stimulation:ie. a bright coloured object may grab your attention
-needs and interests:ie. you might notice the sound of anice creamtruck ifyou’rehungry
-expectations:ie. you may pay attention to traffic noise outside your house if you’reexpecting a parcel to be delivered that day

Question 8

organisation

Answer 8

-organising the features of sensory stimuli in a meaningful manner
-for visual perception,the Gestalt principles describe how humans group similar elements, recognise patterns and simplify complex images
-similarity: when the individual parts of a stimulus pattern are similar (eg. in size, shape or colour)- tend to group them together as a meaningful ‘whole’
-proximity:things that are close together seem more related than things that are spaced farther apart
-figure ground: certain objects are automatically identified as figures, whereas others become meaningless background

Question 9

interpretation

Answer 9

-giving meaning to sensory stimuli
-can be influenced by our individual perceptual sets, a mental predisposition or readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way based on previous experiences, expectations, beliefs, and context
-schemas, our mental frameworks about a concept or entity guide our perceptual sets

Question 10

relation to memory

Answer 10

-two memory models in the syllabus all include environmental input/stimuli
-these stimuli go through the processes of sensation and perception
-these models also include attention as important process in memory
-cherry’s work on the cocktail party effect also suggests that information that is not paid attention to is not remembered as well information that is