5a: Attention and perception Flashcards
Define sensation
stimulus detection system by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain
Define perception
The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning
What is top-down processing
Processing in light of existing knowledge
motives, expectations, experiences, culture
E.g. ‘backmasking’
What is bottom up processing
Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception
(i.e. vibration of tympanic membrane, activation in auditory cortex)
What influences perception (top down)
Attention, past experiences, current drive state, emotions, individual values and expectations, environment, cultural background
CAVEAPA
Example of past experience affecting perception
Poor children and adults overestimate the size of coins compared to affluent people
How does arousal (=drive state) influence perception
when hungry, more likely to notice food-related stimuli
How can emotion influence perception
Anxiety increases threat perception (e.g. in PTSD)
How can individual values and expectations affect percetpion
Telling people a stimulus might be painful makes them more likely to report pain in response to it
What are gestalt laws referring to
Championed ‘top-down’ processing (the sum of the parts is more than the whole)
List gestalt laws
- Figure ground relations (our tendency to organise stimuli into central or foreground and a background)
- Continuity (eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object)
- Similarity (Similar things are perceived as being grouped together)
- Proximity ( Object near each other are grouped together)
- Closure (Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity)
2 types of visual agnosia
Apperceptive Agnosia: A failure to integrate the perceptual elements of the stimulus. (lower level occipital regions)…
Associative Agnosia: A failure of retrieval of semantic information (higher order occipital regions) i.e. can’t access info about what it is
Pathway of object recognition
Visual perceptual analysis
Viewer centred representation
Visual object recognition system
Semantic system
Name retrieval
TOP 2 afected in Apperceptive Agnosia
3 and 4 affectd in Associative Agnosia
What is attenetion
process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience requiring more intensive processing.
2 processes in attention
Focus on a certain aspect
Filter out other information
2 types of attention
Focused
Divided
Stimulus factors affecting attention
- Intensity
- Novelty
- Movement
- Contrast
- Repetition
Personal factors affecting attention
Motives
Interest
Arousal
Threats
Mood
3 stages of attneiton
- COGNITIVE
(Learning requires explicit instruction through teaching from an ‘expert’, demonstration, and self-observation)
- ASSOCIATIVE
(effective motor programme has been developed to carry out the broad skill but lacks ability to perform finer subtasks with fluency)
- AUTONOMOUS
(skill is largely automatic
Rely on implicit knowledge and motor co-ordination, rather than instruction
)
What is the problem with automaticity
the more automatic a task, the less conscious control available.
MEDICAL ERRORS
44% of deaths caused by errors in planning e.g. giving wrong dose of medication
20% caused by slips e.g. injecting air into IV instead of NG tube
How does pain affect perception
Anderson and pennebaker
Stimulus: vibrating piece of sandpaper Students were told they would be: Painful Pleasant Not told anything
Rating:
Group told pleasant: high not painful rating
Group told nothing: nothing
Group told pain: painful rating
Another exampe of perception of bodly symptoms
Focus of attention contributes to the perception of our bodily symptoms
Pennebacker and lightner
56 participants walked on treadmill for 11 minutes on 2 occasions
1st time: wore headphones but heard nothing
2nd time: one group heard amplified sounds of their own breathing, other group heard street sounds (e.g. cars, conversations)
Differentiate acute and chronic pain
Pain is usually a sign of body damage
Chronic pain is when pain has been present for greater than 3 months
At this point, it is likely that original damage has healed
What affects pain perception
Tissue damage
Pain sensatin
Thoughts
Emotions
Suffering
Pain behaviours
External factors
Outline fear-avoidance model of chronic pain
Mood thought and stress influences pain
Day-to day functioning (behaviour)…. may contantly be thinkingabout the pain if not at work etc.
Pain breeds avoidance which perpetuates stress, low mood, anxiety etc.
