Chapter 1 Flashcards
Variances that result from stimulation of the senses-something we usually accomplish so easily that we often don’t even give it a second thought.
Perception
Identified as involving simple “ elementary” processes that occur right at the beginning of a sensory system, such as when light reaches the eye, sound, waves, enter the ear, or your food touches your tongue.
Sensation
The process begins with a stimulus in the environment (a tree in this example) and ends with the conscious experiences of preceiving the tree, recognizing the tree, and taking action with respect to the tree (like walking up to take a closer look)
Perceptual process
It is called this because it is “distant”-out there in the environment
Distal stimulus
It is in proximity to the receptors
Proximal stimulus
Stimuli and responses created by stimuli are transformed, or changed, between the distal stimulus and perception
Principle of transformation
Everything a person perceives is based not on direct contact with stimuli, but on representations of stimuli that are formed on the receptors and the resulting activity in the persons nervous system
Principle of representation
Cells specialized to respond to environmental energy, with each sensory systems, receptors specialized to respond to a specific type of energy
Sensory receptors
The transformation of environmental energy (such as light, sound, or thermal energy) to electric energy
Transduction
An object in a category, such as “ tree,” that gives it meaning.
Recognition
An inability to recognize objects
Visual form agnosia
Motor activities in response to the stimulus
Action
Any information that the perceiver brings to a situation, such as prior experience or expectations
Knowledge
To place objects into categories
Categorize
Processing that is based on the stimuli reaching the receptors. The stimuli provide the starting point for perception, because with the exception of unusual situation, such as drug induced perceptions, or “ seeing stars” from a bump to the head, perception involves activation of the receptors
Bottom up processing/data based processing
Refers to processing that is based on knowledge
Top down processing/knowledge based processing
People see vertical or horizontal lines better than lines oriented obliquely (at any orientation, other than vertical or horizontal)
Oblique effect
Relates stimuli to behavioral responses, such as perception, recognition, and action
Stimulus-behavior relationship
The smallest width of lines that participants can detect. One way to measure this is to ask participants to indicate the orientation and testing with the thinner and thinner lines. The smallest line width at which the participant can still indicate the correct orientation is this
Grating acuity
The relationship between stimuli and physiological responses, like neurons firing. This relationship is often studied by measuring brain activity.
Stimulus-physiology relationship
Relates physiological responses and behavioral responses
Physiology-behavior relationship
The smallest stimulus level that can be detected
Absolute threshold
Measure the limits of sensory systems; they are measures of minimum’s-the smallest line-with that can be detected, the smallest concentration of a chemical we can taste or smell, the smallest amount of sound energy we can hear
Thresholds
The method of limits, the method of constant stimuli, and the method of adjustment
Classical psychophysical methods
Similar to the method of limits, in that different stimulus intensity’s are presented one at a time, and the participant must respond whether they perceive it on each trial. The difference is that in this method, the stimulus intensity’s are presented in random order rather than in descending or ascending order.
Method of constant stimuli
Slightly different, in that the participant – rather than the experimenter – adjust the stimulus intensity continuously until he, or she could just barely detect the stimulus
Method of adjustment
The smallest difference between two stimuli that enables us to tell the difference between them
Difference threshold
Determining the relationship between physical stimuli (like rock music, and a whisper) and the perception of the magnitude (like perceiving, want to be loud and the other soft)
Magnitude estimation
A participant hears sounds of different intensities, and is asked to assign a number to each of the sounds, that is proportional to the loudness of the original sound. The number for “loudness” is the perceived magnitude of the stimulus.
Perceived magnitude
The time between the presentation of a stimulus and the person’s reaction to it
Reaction time
Look around. Describe what you see. Describing what is out there is called a…
Phenomenological report
This spectrum is a band of energy ranging from gamma rays at the short wave end of the spectrum to AM radio and AC circuits at the long wave end
Electromagnetic spectrum
