Chapter 1 Flashcards
Perception
Knowledge about the external world
Sensation
The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors
Sensation
The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors
perceptual process
- Distal stimulus
- Proximal stimulus
- Receptor processes
- Neural processing
- perception
- recognition
- action
Distant stimulus practice somewhere really posh nor poor, perceives, recognized, action
Distul stimuli
the actual object in the environment that stimulates or acts on a sense organ
Reminder: It is called Distal- from Distant
The proximal stimulus
the pattern of energy impinging on the observer’s sensory receptors.
Represensation of the stimulus on the receptors
Principle of transformation
Stimuli and responses (created by stimuli) are transformed, or changed, between the distal stimulus and perception.
Principle of representation
Everything a person perceives is based on representations of stimuli that are formed on the receptors and the resulting activity in the person’s nervous system
It emphasizes that an image that has been transformed from light is then represented as something in the person’s eye
Sensory receptors
cells specialized to respond to environmental energy, with each sensory system’s receptors specialized to respond to a specific type of energy.
What happens after the sensory receptors receive the information from the environment?
- They transform environmental energy into electrical energy
- They shape perception by the way they respond to different properties of the stimuli
Transduction
The transformation of environmental energy to electrical energy
Neural processing
The changes that occur as the signals are being transmitted through this maze of neurons
What happens to electrical signals?
They travel through a vast interconnected network of neurons that (1) transmit signals from the receptors to the brain and then within the brain; and (2) change (or process) these signals as they are transmitted. These changes occur because of interactions between neurons as the signals travel from the receptors to the brain.
Primary receiving area
any area within the neocortex of the brain that acts to receive sensory input
Cerebral cortex
a 2-mm-thick layer that contains the machinery for creating perceptions, as well as other func- tions, such as language, memory, emotions, and thinking.
Primary receiving area for vision
Occipital lobe
Temporal lobe is the primary receiving area for xx?
Hearing
What is the primary receiving area for skin senses?
Parietal lobe
What is the function of frontal lobe in perception?
- Receives signals from all the senses
- Involves the coordination of information received through two or more senses
Step 5 of the perceptual process
Electical signals have been transformed into conscious experience of perception
Step 6 of the perceptual process
Recognition, placing an object in a category, giving it a meaning
Visual from agnosia
An inability to recognice objects
Action
Last step in perceptual process. Involves motor activities in response to the stimulus
Knowledge
Any information that the perceiver brings to a situation, such as prior experience or expectations.
Categorize
to place objects into categories. This is something you do every time you name an object
Bottom-up processing/ Data-bases processing
when the environment (stimuli) influence our thinking.
Top-down processing/ knowledge-bases processing
processing that is based on knowledge.
In which 3 major components the perceptual process can be simplified?
- Stimulus (Distal and procimal/ steps 1 and 2)
- Physiology (Receptors and neural processing/ steps 3 and 4)
- Behavior (Perception, recognition and action/ Staps 5-7)
Oblique effect
People see vertical or horizontal lines better than lines oriented obliquely (at any orientation other than vertical or horizontal).
Stimulus-behavior relationship
Relates stimuli (Steps 1 and 2 in Figure 1.4) to behavioral responses, such as percep- tion, recognition, and action (Steps 5–7)
What is one way to study the stimulus-behavior relationship?
psychophysics, which measures the relation- ships between the physical (the stimulus) and the psychological (the behavioral response)
Grading acuity
the smallest width of lines that participants can detect.
One way to measure grating acuity is to ask participants to indicate the grating’s orientation and testing with thinner and thinner lines. Eventually, the lines are so thin that they can’t be seen, and the area inside the circle looks uniform, so participants can no longer indicate the grating’s orientation.
Stimulus-physiology relationship
the relationship between stimuli (Steps 1–2) and physiological responses, like neurons firing (Steps 3–4).
How is stimulus-physiology relationship often studied?
by measuring brain activity.
When they measured the ferret’s brain activity using a technique called optical brain imaging, they found that horizontal and vertical orientations caused larger brain responses in visual brain areas than oblique orientations. This demonstrates how the oblique effect has been studied in the context of the stimulus–physiology relationship.
Physiology-behavior relationship
relates physiological responses (Steps 3–4 in Figure 1.4) and behavioral responses (Steps 5–7; Arrow C in Figure 1.11)
Absolute threshold
The smallest stimulus level that can just be detected.
Classical psychophysical methods
Method of limits
Constant stimuli
adjustment
Who found the classical psychophysical methods?
Gustav Fechner
Methods of limits
??
Method of constant stimuli
similar to the method of limits in that different stimulus intensities are presented one at a time, and the participant must respond whether they perceive it (“yes” or “no”) on each trial. The difference is that in this method, the stimulus intensities are presented in random order, rather than in descending or ascending order. After presenting each intensity many times, the threshold is usually defined as the intensity that results in detection on 50 percent of trials.
Method of adjustment
slightly different in that the participant—rather than the experimenter—adjusts the stimulus intensity continuously until he or she can just barely detect the stimulus. For example, the participant might be asked to turn
a knob to decrease the intensity of a sound until it can no lon- ger be heard, and then to turn the knob back again so that the sound is just barely audible.This just barely audible intensity is taken as the threshold.The procedure is repeated numerous times, and the threshold is determined by taking the average setting.
Which method is the most accurate?
The method of constant stimuli
Difference threshold
the smallest difference between two stimuli that enables us to tell the difference between them
5 measurement techniques for above threshold
- Magnitude estimation
- Recognition testing
- Reaction time
- Phenomenological report
- Physical tasks and judgements
Magnitude estimation
xx?
Reaction time
the time between presentation of a stimulus and the person’s reaction to it
Phenomeno-logical report
Describing what is out there
physical tasks and judgement
Concerned with actions that follow perception
