AOS 2 Flashcards
Attention
Actively focusing on particular information while simultaneously ignoring other information
Internal Stimuli
Information or sensations that originate from within the body
External Stimuli
Information or sensations that originate from outside the body
3 Types of Attention
- Sustained Attention
- Divided Attention
- Selective Attention
Sustained Attention
Focusing on one stimulus or task across a prolonged, continuous period of time
Distractions
Internal or external stimuli that draw attention away from the current task
Divided Attention
Splitting attention across two or more stimuli at one time
Multitasking
The act of working on multiple tasks at one time
Selective Attention
Exclusively focusing attention on a specific stimulus or task while ignoring all other stimuli or tasks
Predictive Principle
Where we focus on stimuli that are personally meaningful and important to us amongst other less meaningful stimuli.
Uncertainty Principle
Where our attention is captured the most by unpredictable or unfamiliar stimuli. This is due to the stimuli’s potential to provide useful information or news about pleasant or dangerous consequences.
Sustained Attention - Role
Allows us to fully process information or complete a task.
Divided Attention - Role
Allows us to process multiple sources of information or stimuli more efficiently.
Selective Attention - Role
Acts as a filter that helps us to prioritise incoming information according to its importance.
Sensory Stimuli
The raw pieces of information that are detected by the five senses
Sensation
The process of receiving and detecting raw sensory stimuli via sensory organs and sending this information to the brain
Perception
The process of selecting, organising, and interpreting sensory information
3 Stages of Perception
- Selection
- Organisation
- Interpretation
Selection (Perception)
The process of attending to certain sensory stimuli, or features of certain stimuli, and excluding others.
Organisation (Perception)
The process of regrouping selected features of sensory stimuli in order for them to be cohesively arranged
Interpretation (Perception)
The process of understanding and assigning meaning to sensory information in order to understand it.
3 Stages of Sensation
- Reception
- Transduction
- Transmission
Reception (Sensation)
The sensory information is first recieved
Transduction (Sensation)
The information is converted into a neural impulse
Transmission (Sensation)
The information is sent to the brain for perceptual processing
Visual Sensory System
The network that is involved in the sensation and perception of visual stimuli, including the eyes, the brain, and the neural pathways connecting them
Visual Perception
The process of becoming consciously aware of visual stimuli as a result of the interactions between the visual sensory system, and the individual’s internal and external environments
Gustatory Perception
The process of becoming consciously aware
of flavour
Tastants
The sensory stimuli received in the form of chemical molecules that can be tasted
Gustatory Receptors
The sensory receptors for taste
Taste Buds
Clusters of gustatory receptors
Primary Gustatory Cortex
A sensory area in the parietal lobe responsible for receiving and processing tastes
Bottom-Up Processing (Definition)
Perception is determined by incoming sensory information, moving from specific stimulus information to general knowledge
Top-Down Processing (Definition)
Perception is driven by prior knowledge and expectations, moving from general knowledge to specific stimulus information
Schemas
The collection of basic knowledge about a concept or stimuli
Basic Bottom-Up Processing
Bottom-up processing
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Detect sensory stimuli (specific)
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Analyse specific features and combine them into a more complete form (general)
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Perception
Basic Top-Down Processing
Top-down processing
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Prior knowledge and expectations, such as schemas (general)
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Select features from sensory stimuli that align with prior knowledge and expectations (specific)
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Perception
Bottom-Up Processing (Explanation)
- Builds knowledge in real-time as the stimuli are received, allowing each of the elements to be perceived
- Specific to general
- Unfamiliar and complex
Top-Down Processing (Explanation)
- Uses prior knowledge to fit the incoming stimuli with similar previous understandings
- General to specific
- Familiar and less complex
Depth Cues
Visual cues that allow us to judge the distance and position of object and in their environment
Protanopia
Dark colour blindness, (eg. black with many shades of red)
Deuteranopia
Mid-colour blindness (eg. mid-reds with mid-greens)
Tritanopia
Light colour blindness (eg. light blues with greys)
Monocular Depth Cues
Rely on visual information perceived by just 1 eye.
Binocular Depth Cues
Rely on visual information perceived by both eyes.
Accommodation
The ability of the eye to change focus from near to distant objects and back again.
Motion Parallax
Uses our perception of movement to help us gauge how far away things are.
Pictorial Depth Cues
- Relative size
- Height in visual field
- Linear perspective
- Interposition
- Texture gradient
Relative size
The relative size of objects to one another in our visual field helps us to judge distance.
Height in Visual Field
In our visual field, the closer objects are to the horizon line, the further away they appear.
Linear Perspective
Our perspective of lines allows us to gauge distance.
Interposition
When objects overlap we perceive the object that is covered by another as being further away than the one obscuring it.
Texture Gradient
We rely on the use of texture to judge how far away objects are.
More detail = Closer
Retinal Disparity
The difference, between the different images received on the retina of either eye.
Convergence
The strain on the eye muscles signals to our brains that something is up close.
Cultural Norms
Each culture has a unique way of perceiving visual stimuli.
Gestalt Principles
Guiding rules of perception that allow us to organise and group separate visual stimuli into a meaningful whole.
‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’
Figure-ground Principle
Whether an image belongs in the fore-ground or back-ground
Similarity Principle
We mentally group objects that look alike.
Proximity Principle
We tend to see close-set objects as being in a group.
Closure Principle
Even if an object is missing parts, your brain will fill in the blanks and perceive a complete picture.
Fallibility
Refers to the quality of being prone to error or experiencing difficulties in judgement.
Perceptual Distortion
An error in the judgement or interpretation of sensory stimuli
Carpentered World
When we see the plain two-dimensional lines of an illusion, we automatically apply them to real three-dimensional objects in our world stored in our memory, such as the corners of rooms and buildings.
Agnosia
A disorder involving the loss or impairment of the ability to recognise familiar stimuli through the use of one or more senses, despite the senses functioning normally otherwise.
Apperceptive Visual Agnosia
Difficulty in perceiving visual information
Associative Visual Agnosia
Difficulty in identifying what object is being viewed
Synaesthesia
A perceptual phenomenon characterised by the experience of unusual perceptions in one sensory system after another sensory system has been activated
Characteristics of Synaesthesia
- Synaesthesia is automatic and cannot be controlled
- Synaesthesia is generally experienced as a one-way process
- Synaesthesia is usually consistent
- The way that synaesthesia is experienced is unique to the individual
- Synaesthesia is relatively common
Grapheme-colour Synaesthesia
- A person sees colours when looking at ordinary symbols, such as numbers and letters.
- For example, an individual may perceive the letter ‘A’ to be blue.
Sound-colour Synaesthesia
- When sounds cause the secondary perception of colours.
- For example, an individual may see the colour red when they hear a car horn.
Lexical-gustatory Synaesthesia
- When a person sees a word, a taste is triggered.
- For example, an individual may taste garlic when reading the word ‘train’.
Spatial Neglect
An inability to perceive, report, or orient sensory information located within one side of space
