Chapter 8 - Attention and Perception Flashcards
Attention
actively focusing on particular information while simultaneously ignoring other information
Internal stimuli
information or sensations that originate from within the body
External stimuli
information or sensations that originate from outside the body
Sustained attention
focusing on one stimulus or task across a prolonged, continuous period of time
Distractions
internal or external stimuli that draw attention away from the current task
Divided attention
splitting attention across two or more stimuli at one time
Multitasking
the act of working on multiple tasks at one time
Selective attention
exclusively focusing attention on a specific stimulus or task while ignoring all other stimuli or tasks
Sensory stimuli
the raw pieces of information that are detected by the five senses
Sensation
the process of receiving and detecting raw sensory stimuli via sensory organs and sending this information to the brain
Perception
the process of selecting, organising, and interpreting sensory information
Selection
the process
of attending to certain sensory stimuli, or features of certain stimuli and excluding others
Salient
distinctive, prominent, or important
Organisation
(in relation to perception) the process of regrouping selected features of sensory stimuli in order to form a cohesive and meaningful understanding
Interpretation
(in relation to perception) the process of understanding and assigning meaning to sensory information
Visual perception
the process of becoming consciously aware of visual stimuli as a result of the interactions between the visual sensory system, and the individual’s internal and external environments
Process of visual perception
Visual stimuli received by the eye as light –> light is received by receptors in retina –> light energy converted into neural message and sent to brain –> info received by occipital lobe to process
Gustatory perception
the process of becoming consciously aware of flavour
Tastants
the sensory stimuli received in the form of chemical molecules that can be tasted
Process of gustatory perception
saliva breaks food into tastings –> which are received by gustatory receptors –> sent to brain by neural impulse –> gustatory cortex in parietal lobe
5 basic flavours
Salty, Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Umami
Bottom-up processing
perception is determined by incoming sensory information, moving from specific stimulus information to general knowledge
specific to general, unfamiliar and complex
Top-down processing
perception is driven by prior knowledge and expectations, moving from general knowledge to specific stimulus information
general to specific, familiar and less complex
Schemas
the collection of basic knowledge about a concept or stimuli
Photo receptors
(Biological)
the sensory receptors
of the eye which receive light and convert this sensory information into a form that can be sent to the brain
Rods
(Biological)
photoreceptors that allow someone to see in low levels of light (black and white, night vision)
Cones
(Biological)
photoreceptors that allow someone to see colour and fine details in well-lit conditions (colour, daytime vision)
Depth cues
(Biological)
visual clues that allow someone to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge the distance and position of objects in their environment
Monocular depth cues *3
(Biological)
- Accommodation (lens bulges when close, flattens when far away)
- Motion parallax (the less objects move the further away they are)
- Pictorial depth cues
* relative size
* height in visual field
* linear perspective
* interposition (aka overlap)
* texture gradient
Binocular depth cues *2
(Biological)
- Retinal disparity (slight difference between sight in left and right eye)
- Convergence (eyes turn in and that tells us it’s close)
Visual perception principles
guiding rules that apply to incoming visual signals and determine how they are organised and interpreted
Gestalt principles *4
(psychological)
the guiding rules of perception that allow us to organise and group separate visual stimuli into a meaningful whole
- proximity
- similarity
- figure-ground
- closure
Visual constancies *3
(psychological)
our ability to perceive visual objects as staying the same, even though they may appear to change or do change in our sensation
Shape, size and brightness
Perceptual set
(psychological)
a predisposition to perceive certain features of sensory stimuli and ignore other features that are deemed irrelevant
Social factors of visual perception
Culture - the customs, behaviours, and values of a particular group in society
and cultural norms - a standard, value, or rule that outlines an appropriate behaviour or experience within
a culture
Factors influencing gustatory perception
Biological
- age
- genetics
Psychological
- appearance
- food packaging
Social
- culture
