Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is the first electronic brain (thing that could perceive)
A massive computer called perceptron that could distinguish basic images
What is perception?
Experiences that result from stimulation of the senses.
What is the perceptual process? (Seven steps)
Seven steps:
1) stimulus in environment
2) light is reflected and focuses
3) receptor processes
4) neural processing
5) perception
6) recognition
7) action
What is a distal stimulus?
Object a person is observing
What is a proximal stimulus?
Light reflected on an object, and changes in the air
Basically, it’s the representation of the object on the receptors
What is the principle of transformation?
It states that stimuli and responses created by stimuli are transformed between the distal stimulus and perception
What is the principle of representation?
Everything a person perceives are formed on the receptors.
What are sensory receptors?
Specialized cells to react to environmental stimuli
What happens when sensory receptors receive environmental information?
1) transform environment energy to electrical energy
2) they shape perception by the way they respond to different properties of the stimuli
What is transduction ?
Transformation of of environmental energy to electrical energy
After the sensory input, what happens?
- Transmit signals from the receptors to the brain and then within the brain.
- Change (or process) these signals as they are transmitted
Neural processing
Changes in these signals that occur as they’re transmitted through this maze of neurons is called neural processing
Where are electrical signals from transduction sent to?
To the primary receiving area
What is the cerebral cortex?
Layer of the brain for language, memory, emotions and thinking
Where is the primary receiving area for vision?
Most of the occipital lobe
Where is the area for hearing?
Temporal lobe
Where is the area for skin senses?
Parietal lobe
What area of the brain gets all the senses?
Frontal lobe
What is recognition?
Placing an object in a category
What is visual object agnosia?
Inability to recognize objects
What is the final behavioural response?
Action, which is motor activities in response to a stimulus
What is knowledge?
Prior experience
What is categorization?
Placing objects into categories
What is bottom up processing? (Data based processing)
Processing based on stimuli reaching the receptors
What is top down processing?
Processing based on prior experience.
Simplified perceptual process (three steps)
1) stimulus
2) physiology
3) behaviour
What is the oblique effect?
People see vertical or horizontal lines better then oblique lines (lines at any other orientation then vertical/horizontal)
What is a stimulus behaviour relationship?
Relationship between stimuli and behavioural responses
What is psychophysics?
Measure the relationships between the physical (stimulus) and the psychological (the behavioural response)
What is the absolute threshold?
Smallest stimulus level that can just be detected. (Smallest line width that can be detected)
What is the electromagnetic spectrum?
The electromagnetic 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
What are thresholds?
The minimum stimulus energy necessary for an observer to detect a stimulus
