~Chapter #1 - Lectures Flashcards
What is the distal stimulus?
The distal stimulus is the environmental stimulus, it is “distant”—out there in the environment.
What is the proximal stimulus?
The image on the retina
How do we get from the distal stimulus to the proximal stimulus?
To get from the distal to the proximal stimulus, this covers the Principles of transformation and representation.
What is the principle of transformation?
Stimuli and responses created by stimuli are transformed, or changed, between the distal stimulus and perception.
What is the principle of representation?
The principle of representation states that 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 person’s nervous system.
What is transduction?
The receptor processes stage
What is neural transduction?
Neural transduction is the transformation of one kind of energy into neural activity
Which process shapes our perceptual experience?
Transduction. If we don’t have the correct detectors as part of our nervous system, we don’t have access to specific types of information.
We have to have the right kind of receptors which are transducing stimuli into neural activity in order to affect perception.
What is processing?
Processing means to collect, send, change, and calculate information.
Where does transduction occur?
Transduction occurs at the primary receptors on the eyes, on the retina.
What is the primary receiving area for vision?
The Occipital Lobe
What is the primary receiving area for hearing?
The Temporal Lobe
What is the primary receiving area for touch?
The Parietal Lobe
Where are the primary receiving areas?
The Cortex
Can you have perception without recognition?
Yes, but it is not usually the case.
For example; Visual-form agnosia, a condition where the person cannot recognize objects.
What is Bottom-Up (Data-Based) Processing?
Processing based on incoming stimuli from the environment.
What is Top-Down Processing?
- Processing based on the perceiver’s previous knowledge or memory
- Also called knowledge-based processing
- Almost always involved in “real-life perception”
- Almost always available to us.
- Critical for normal perception
What is the Stimulus-Perception question?
- How do we use information from the environment to create perceptions?
- The link between the perception and the environment stimuli.
What kind of experiment would be used for the Stimulus-perception question?
- A Color recognition or colour perception task
- Psychophysics
What is the Stimulus-Physiological question?
- How are the properties of physical stimuli represented by the activity of neurons?
- The link between the environmental stimulus and nervous system activity.