Chapter Three

Question 1

What is top-down processing?

Answer 1

Perception that is guided by higher-level knowledge, experience, expectations, and motivations.

Question 2

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 2

Perception that consists of the progression of recognizing and processing information from individual components of a stimuli and moving to the perception of the whole.

Question 3

What is transduction?

Answer 3

the process of translating a psychological stimulus into an emotional response.

Question 4

What is absolute thresholds?

Answer 4

The smallest intensity of a stimulus that must be present for the stimulus to be detected.

Question 5

What are just noticeable differences?

Answer 5

The smallest level of added or reduced stimulation required to sense that a change in stimulation has occurred.

Question 6

What is signal detection theory?

Answer 6

a method of differentiating a person’s ability to discriminate the presence and absence of a stimulus (or different stimulus intensities) from the criterion the person uses to make responses to those stimuli.

Question 7

What is sensory adaptation?

Answer 7

An adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to unchanging stimuli.

Question 8

What’s the definition of hue?

Answer 8

Visual experience specified by colour names and related by an object.

Question 9

What’s the definition of brightness?

Answer 9

visual experience related to the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object.

Question 10

What’s the definition of saturation?

Answer 10

The purity of colour, and the visual experience related to the complexity of light.

Question 11

What is the trichromatic theory of blindness?

Answer 11

The theory that there are three kinds of cones in the retina, each of which responds primarily to a specific range of wavelengths.

Question 12

What is perceptual constancy?

Answer 12

The phenomenon in which physical objects are perceived as unvarying and consistent despite changes in their appearance or in the physical environment.

Question 13

What are Gestalt principles?

Answer 13

A series of principles that describe how we organize bits and pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Question 14

What are cones?

Answer 14

Cone-shaped, light-sensitive receptor cells in the retina that are responsible for sharp focus and colour perception, particularly in bright light.

Question 15

What are rods?

Answer 15

Thin, cylindrical receptor cells in the retina that are highly sensitive to light.

Question 16

What is the cornea?

Answer 16

A transparent, protective window for the eye. Bends or refracts light as it passes through to focus it more sharply.

Question 17

What is the pupil?

Answer 17

A dark hole in the center of the iris. Widens and shrinks depending on how much light there is.

Question 18

What is the iris?

Answer 18

The coloured part of your eye. Determines how much light passes through.

Question 19

What is the retina?

Answer 19

The part of the eye that converts the electromagnetic energy of light to electrical impulses for transmission to the brain.

Question 20

What is sensation?

Answer 20

The activation of the sense organs by a source of physical energy.

Question 21

What is perception?

Answer 21

The sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimuli by the sense organs and brain.

Question 22

What is the difference between sensation and perception

Answer 22

Sensation refers to the activation of the sense organs (a physical response), whereas perception refers to how stimuli are interpreted (a psychological response).