Sensation and Perception WEEK 6 Flashcards
(34 cards)
Making sense of what our brain is telling us
Perception
the branch of psychology that studies the relationship between attributes of the physical world and our psychological experience of them.
psychophysics
Sensation is an active process in which humans, like other animals, focus their senses on potentially
important information
sensation
There is an inexact correspondence
between ——- and —– reality
physical and psychological
——- is an active process: it organises and interprets sensations
perception
The world as subjectively experienced by an individual,
—is a joint product of external reality and the person’s creative efforts to understand and depict it mentally - constructed from sensory experience
—the phenomenological world
Three basic principles apply across all the senses.
physicaland psychological reality;
sensation and perception are active, not passive
Evolutionary purpose
—— translate physical stimulation into sensory signals.
senses
sensation requires constant —— ——–
decision making
receptors that transform energy in the environment
into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain
sensory receptors
The process of converting physical energy or stimulus information into neural impulses is called
.
transduction
——– requires converting energy in the world into internal signals that are psychologically meaningful
Sensation
For each sense, the brain —— sensory stimulation for intensity and quality
codes
all sensory systems have specialised cells called
sensory receptors
Sensation begins with an —– ——–;
environmental stimulus
sensory receptors that respond to environmental stimuli and typically generate ——- ——– in
adjacent sensory neurons.
action potentials
Within each sensory modality, the brain codes sensory stimulation for ———- and ———
intensity and quality
The process of converting stimulus information into neural impulses is called.
transduction.
The minimum amount of physical energy needed for an observer to notice a
stimulus is called an
absolute threshold
to measure absolute thresholds is by
presenting a particular stimulus (light, sound, taste, odour, pressure) at varying intensities and determining
the level of stimulation necessary for the person to detect it about ——— of the time.
50 percent
irrelevant, distracting information is called
noise
Specialised cells in the nervous system, called —— ——–, transform energy in the environment
into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain
sensory receptors
The process of converting physical energy or stimulus information into neural impulses is called
.
transduction
sensation is not a passive process that occurs when the amount of stimulation exceeds a critical threshold; rather, experiencing a sensation means making a judgement
about whether a stimulus is present or absent is the basis of what theory
Signal detection theory (SDT)
