Chapter 6 Flashcards
What is Sensation
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
What is perception?
The process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, enabling us to recognize objects and events as meaningful
What is perceptual contrast?
The ability to perceive things as different from each other
What is perceptual adaptation?
The ability to adapt to a stimuli to notice other important things happening around you
What is perceptual constancy?
Objects are perceived as unchanging, even as illumination and retinal images change
What is the just-noticeable difference?
The Difference Threshold: minimum difference that one can detect between only two stimulus half the time
What is the threshold of perception?
Absolute Threshold: minimum stimulus required for one to detect stimulus 50% of the time
Describe parts of the eye.
Describe parts of the ear.
What are rods and cones?
Rods: retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; sensitive to movement; vital to peripheral vision
Cones: receptors in middle of retina; daylight or well lit conditions; detect fine detail and color
What does a soundwave’s amplitude determine?
The perceived loudness
What does a wavelength determine in vision?
The hue or color we perceive
Compare Top-down processing to Bottom-up processing.
Top-down: higher level mental processes; construct perception through experience
Bottom-up: begins at entry level; information travels from sensory receptors to the brain
What is transduction?
When sensory receptors convert stimuli into energy
What are some monocular cues?
relative size, relative height, relative motion, linear perspective, and interposition
What are some binocular cues?
convergence (inward angle of the eyes focusing on a nearby object) and retinal disparity (comparing two retinal images to judge an object’s distance)
Define Signal Detection Theory
how we detect faint stimulus given background stimulus
What is Weber’s Law?
for an average person to perceive a difference, 2 stimulus must differ by a constant minimum percentage not amount
What is a perceptual set?
mental tendencies that affect what we hear, taste, feel, see; top-down process
How does context affect perception?
preexisting schemas affect top-down processing of sensation interpretation
What is parallel processing?
the brain’s ability to do many things at once through visual scenes divided in sub-dimensions
Discuss Gestalt principles
principles used to organize sensation =s into meaningful wholes
Discuss the Gate Control Theory
a mechanism, in the spinal cord, in which pain signals can be sent up to the brain to be processed to accentuate the possible perceived pain, or attenuate it at the spinal cord itself. The ‘gate’ is the mechanism where pain signals can be let through or restricted.
What is sensory interaction?
the interaction of the senses to each other and how they influence each other
