4.1 Flashcards
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
Bottom-up processing
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
Top-down processing
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations
Selective attraction
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
Attention is….
Selective
Inattentional blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Change blindness
Failing to notice changed in the environment
Psychophysics
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and out psychological experience of them
Absolute thresholds
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time
Sensitivity to high-pitched sounds….
Declines with normal aging
Signal detection theory
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectation, motivation, and alertness
Subliminal
Below one’s absolute threshold for absolute awareness
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, this predisposing ones perception memory, or response
Much of our information processing occurs…
Automatically, out of sight, off the radar screen of our conscious mind
Difference threshold
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference
