Cognition - Senses & Perception Flashcards
What do our senses include? (Hint: 7)
Taste - gustation - chemical stimuli
Touch - tactile - mechanical & thermal energy stimuli
Hearing - audition - sound wave stimuli
Smell - olfactory - chemical stimuli
Sight - vision - electromagnetic radiation stimuli
Balance - mechanical energy stimuli
Muscle Sensations - kinesthesis - mechanical energy stimuli
What is are the steps to the sensory process?
- Reception
- Transduction
- Transmission
What is step 1 in the sensory process?
Reception
We receive stimuli from our external environment, through our sense organs and structures.
What is step 2 in the sensory process?
Transduction
The stimuli is converted into electro-chemical energy for transmission by the nervous system.
What is step 3 in the sensory process?
Transmission
It is the message being sent from sensory organs/structures transferred to the brain for processing.
What is perception?
It is the stimuli messages that the brain receives to be interpreted. That interpretation is our ‘perception’ of the external environment.
What helps to shape our perception of the world?
Our:
Values
Interests
Personality
There are 3 steps in the process of perception, what are they?
- Selection
- Organisation
- Interpretation
What is step 1 in the process of perception?
Selection
The brain filters out which stimuli it is going to focus on and ignores the unimportant or peripheral stimuli.
Detector neurons conduct this step.
What is step 2 in the process of perception?
Organisation
Involves the grouping of the selected stimuli to form a whole, a complete picture or perception of the external sitmuli.
What is step 3 in the process of perception?
Interpretation
Our brain interprets the wholes and assigns them meanings.
Our past experiences/motivations influence how our brain selects and organises the information it recieves.
What are illusions?
Perceptual illusions can occur when the physical reality and our perception of it clash.
