Chapter 1: What Is Perception? Flashcards
Sensation
the registration of physical stimuli on sensory receptors
Stimulus
An element of the world around us that impinges on our sensory systems
Perception
The process of creating conscious perceptual experience from sensory input
Transduction
The process of converting a physical stimulus into an electrochemical signal
Receptors
Specialized sensory neurons that convert physical stimuli into neural responses
Neural response
The signal produced by receptor cells that can be sent to the brain
Action
Any motor activity
Phenomenology
Our subjective experience of perception
Aftereffect
A sensory experience that occurs after prolonged experience of visual motion in one particular direction
Doctrine of specific nerve energies
The argument that is the specific neurons activated that determine the particular type of experience
Constructivist approach
The idea that perceptions are constructed using information from our senses and cognitive processes
Unconscious inference
Perception is not adequately determined by sensory information, so an inference or educated guess is part of the process; this inference is not the result of active problem solving but rather of a non conscious cognitive process
Weber’s law
A just-noticeable difference between two stimuli is related to the magnitude or strength of the stimuli
Psychophysics
The study of the relation between physical stimuli and perception events
Gestalt psychology
A school of thought claiming that we view the world in terms of general patterns and well organized structures rather than separable individual elements
Direct perception (Gibsonian Approach)
the approach to perception that claims that information in the sensory world is complex and abundant, and therefore the perceptual systems need only directly perceive such complexity
Ecological approach to perception
Another name for the direct perception view
Information-processing approach
The view that perceptual and cognitive systems can be viewed as the flow of information from one process to another
Computational approach
an approach to the study of perception in which the necessary computations the brain would need to carry out to perceive the world are specified
Neuroscience
The study of the structures and processes in the nervous system and brain
Microelectrode
A device so small that it can penetrate a single neuron in the mammalian central nervous system without destroying the cell
Neuropsychology
The study of the relation of brain damage to change in behavior
Agnosia
A deficit in some aspect of perception as a result of brain damage
Prosopagnosia
Face agnosia, resulting in a deficit in perceiving faces
Amusia
a condition in which brain damage interferes with the perception of music but does not interfere with other aspects of auditory processing
Neuroimaging
Technologies that allow us to map living intact brains as they engage in ongoing tasks
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
a neuroimaging technique that generates an image of the brain on the basis of the blood levels in different areas of the brain, which correlate with activity levels in those regions
Cognitive penetration
The view that cognitive and emotional factors influence the phenomenology of perception
Cognitive impenetrability
Perception is not affected by cognitive factors; only our reporting of perception is
Time to collision
The estimate of the time it will take for an approaching object to contact another
Size-arrival effect
Bigger approaching objects are seen as being more likely to collide with the viewer than smaller approaching objects
Nerve endings detect coolness and wetness when rain falls on exposed skin. This is an example of ______.
sensation
Karin and Araceli are baseball fans. Karin loves the Cleveland Indians, but Araceli roots for the Chicago White Sox. The two watch a game together. When a Cleveland player dives for third base, Karin thinks he is safe, but Araceli is sure he is out. What does their disagreement demonstrate about perception?
It can be affected by personal bias.
The study of the relationship between physical stimuli and perception is known as ______.
psychophysics
What is a neural response?
an electrochemical signal
The size-arrival effect states that humans judge larger objects to be ______ than smaller ones.
closer
As you listen to your favorite band’s new single, you find yourself focusing on the keyboard riffs. This is an example of an ______ stimulus.
attended
Which term describes how sensory systems interact?
multisensory processing
Which of the following describes a motion aftereffect?
a) Lun sees two moving objects in the distance. He judges a distant object to be moving more slowly than a closer one.
b)Eduardo notices that he is more aware of motion around him after he has been riding in a car for a long period of time.
c) Jill watches her teammate practice serving a volleyball. An hour later, she can still picture the repetitive motion of the ball.
d) Ben watches an eastbound train pass him. Afterward, he notices that a tree near the tracks look like it is moving to the west.
Ben watches an eastbound train pass him. Afterward, he notices that a tree near the tracks look like it is moving to the west.
Antonio notices that his lunch always tastes better when he is hungrier than usual. This is an example of ______.
cognitive penetration
The ability to ______ distinguishes us from computer-driven robots.
experience the world internally
What does the proprioception system do?
The proprioception system uses internal stimuli, that is detected by our muscles. These stimuli are sent to our spinal cord and sent to our brain. Our brain then uses the electrochemical signals received from the stimuli to creat a sense of bodily awareness. This helps with knowing our body’s position, having control of our movements, and knowing what position our body is in.
list the human sensory systems
Vision is when visual stimulus, an external stimulus is detected by our eyes.
Hearing is when our ears detect sound, an external stimulus, that is detected by our ears.
Smell is when our nose detects aromas, stenches, etc. which are examples of external stimuli.
Taste is detected by our tongue as an external stimulus such as food touches our tongue.
Light touch is detected by an external stimulus by our skin.
Pressure is also detected by our skin by external stimulus.
cold is detected by our skin by external stimulus.
Heat is detected by our skin by external stimulus.
Itch is an external stimulus that is detected by our skin.
The vestibular detects external stimuli through our inner ear.
Proprioception is detected through internal stimuli by our muscles.
What does the vestibular system do?
The vestibular system is what detects our head movement and our balance by gravity. The system is what helps us balance and to coordinate through our movement. The movement is detected through our inner ear.
What is a “neural signal” in the context of receptor cells?
A neural signal is the electrical impulses that are created by our sesnory organs with the stimulus they have detected. These neural signals travel through our nervous system, and is what our brain uses to create connections.
What was Helmoholtz’s main argument in sensation and perception?
that our perception does not refelect the sensory inputs, but reflects the “unconscious inferences” that are made by the brain by using our past experiences. This meaning that to continuously gain an understanding we must gain it through experiences.
