Behavioral Sciences: Sensation and Perception (Quicksheets) Flashcards
What is the difference between sensation and perception?
Sensation is the conversion of physical stimuli into neurological signals
Perception is the processing of sensory information to make sense of its significance
Define threshold.
The minimal stimulus that causes change in signal transduction
Define just-noticeable difference.
Minimal amount of change required in order for a difference to be perceived
What does Weber’s law state?
the just-noticeable difference for a stimulus is proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus, and this proportion is constant over most of the range of possible stimuli
What does signal detection theory study?
effects of nonsensory factors, such as experiences, motives, and expectations, on perception of stimuli
How is response bias examined?
Signal detection experiments with four possible outcomes: hits, misses, false alarms, and correct negatives
Describe the flow through the visual pathway.
Retina –> optic nerve –> optic chiasm –> optic tracts –> lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of thalamus –> visual radiations –> visual cortex
What do the chochlea, utricle & saccule, and semicircular canals detect?
Cochlea: sound
Utricle and saccule: linear acceleration
Semicircular canals: rotational acceleration
Describe the flow through the auditory pathway.
Cochlea –> vestibulocochlear nerve –> medial geniculate nucleus (MGN) of thalamus –> auditory cortex
What is bottom-up processing?
Data-driven; recognition of objects by parallel processing and feature detection; slower, but less prone to mistakes
What is top-down processing?
Conceptually-driven; recognition of an object by memories and expectations, with little attention to detail; faster, but more prone to mistakes
What are the Gestalt principles?
Ways that the brain can infer missing parts of an image when it is incomplete
