1 Introduction

Question 0

Action

Answer 0

Motor activities such as moving the head or eyes and locomotives through the environment. Action is one of the major outcomes of the perceptual process.

Question 1

Absolute threshold

Answer 1

Minimum stimulus energy necessary for an observer to detect a stimulus.

Question 2

Attended stimulus

Answer 2

Stimulus that a person is attending to at a given point in time.

Question 3

Bottom-up processing (data-based processing)

Answer 3

Processing in which a person constructs a perception by analyzing the information falling on the receptors.

Question 4

Classical psychophysical methods

Answer 4

Message of limits, adjustment, and constant stimuli, described by Fechner, that are used for measuring thresholds.

Question 5

Cognitive influences on perception

Answer 5

How the knowledge, memories, and expectations that a person brings to the situation influence his or her perception.

Question 6

Difference threshold

Answer 6

Minimal detectable difference between two stimuli.

Question 7

Environmental stimulus

Answer 7

All of the things in our environment that we can potentially perceive at a given point in time.

Question 8

Knowledge

Answer 8

Any information that the perceiver brings to a situation. See top-down processing.

Question 9

Magnitude estimation

Answer 9

Cycle physical method in which the subjects assigns numbers to a stimulus that are proportional to the subjective magnitude of the stimulus.

Question 10

Method of adjustment

Answer 10

Psychophysical method in which the experimenter or the observer adjusts the stimulus intensity in a continuous manner until the observer to text the stimulus.

Question 11

Method of constant stimuli

Answer 11

Psychophysical method in which a number of stimuli with different intensities are presented repeatedly in a random order.

Question 12

Message of limits

Answer 12

Psychophysical method for measuring threshold in which the experimenter presents stimuli in alternating ascending and descending order.

Question 13

Neural processing

Answer 13

Operations that transform electrical signals within a network of neurons or that transform the response of individual neurons.

Question 14

Perception

Answer 14

Conscious sensory experience

Question 15

Perceptual process

Answer 15

Sequence of steps leading from the environment to perception of the stimulus, recognition of the stimulus, and action with regard to the stimulus.

Question 16

Phenomenological method

Answer 16

Method of determining the relationship between stimuli and perception which the observer describes what he or she perceives.

Question 17

Physiological approach to perception

Answer 17

Analyzing perception by determining how a person’s perception is related to physiological processes that are occurring within the person. This approach focuses on determining the relationship between stimuli physiological responding and between physiological responding perception.

Question 18

Power function

Answer 18

Mathematical function of the form P = KS to the n power, were P is perceived as magnitude, K is a constant, S is the stimulus intensity, and n is an exponent.

Question 19

Psychophysical approach to perception

Answer 19

Analyzing perception by determining how he person’s perception is related to stimuli in the environment. This approach focuses on determining the relationship between stimuli in the environment and perceptual processing.

Question 20

Psychophysics

Answer 20

Traditionally, the term psychophysics refers to quantitative methods for measuring the relationship between properties of the stimulus and the subject’s experience.

Question 21

Rat-man demonstration

Answer 21

Demonstration in which presentation of “red light” or “manlike” picture influences an observer’s perception of a second picture, which can be interpreted either as a rat or a man. This demonstration illustrates an effective top-down processing of perception.

Question 22

Reaction time

Answer 22

The time between presentation of the stimulus and observer’s or listener’s response to dismiss. Reaction time is often using experiments as a measure of speed of processing.

Question 23

Recognition

Answer 23

Ability to place an object in a category that gives it meaning – for example, recognizing a particular red object as a tomato.

Question 24

Response compression

Answer 24

The result when doubling the physical intensity of stimulus less than doubles the subject of magnitude of the stimulus.

Question 25

Response criterion

Answer 25

In a signal detection experiment, the subjective magnitude of a stimulus above which the participant will indicate that the stimulus is present.

Question 26

Response expansion

Answer 26

The result was doubling the physical intensity of a stimulus more than doubles the subjective magnitude of the stimulus.

Question 27

Signal detection theory

Answer 27

A series stating that the detection of a stimulus depends on both on the participant’s sensitivity to the stimulus and the participant’s response criteria.

Question 28

Stevens’ power law

Answer 28

Law concerning the relationship between the physical intensity of the stimulus and the perception of the subject of magnitude of the stimulus The law states that P = KS-n.

Question 29

Top-down processing (knowledge-based processing)

Answer 29

Processing that starts with the analysis of high-level information, such as a knowledge a person brings to a situation. Also call knowledge-based processing. Distinguish from bottom up, or data-based processing, which is based on incoming data.

Question 30

Transduction

Answer 30

In the senses, the transformation of environmental energy into electrical energy. For example, the retinal receptors transduce light energy into electrical energy.

Question 31

Visual form agnosia

Answer 31

The inability to recognize objects.

Question 32

Visual search

Answer 32

Procedure in which a person’s task is to find a particular element in a display that contains a number of elements.

Question 33

Weber fraction

Answer 33

Ratio of the difference threshold to the value of the standard stimulus and Weber’s law.

Question 34

Weber’s law

Answer 34

Law stating that the ratio the difference threshold (DL) to the value of the stimulus (S) is constant. According to this relationship, doubling the value of a stimulus will cause doubling of the difference threshold. The ratio DL/ass is called the Weber fraction.