Exam #4 Terms (Sensation and Perception/Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind) Flashcards
What is sensation?
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
What are sensory receptors?
Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli.
What is perception?
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
What is bottom-up processing?
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
What is top-down processing?
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions by drawing on our experience and expectation.
What is selective attention?
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
What is inattentional blindness?
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
What is change blindness?
Failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness.
What is transduction?
Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret.
What is psychophysics?
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
What is the absolute threshold?
The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus fifty percent of the time.
What is signal detection theory?
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.
What does subliminal mean?
Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
What is the difference threshold?
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection fifty percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (or jnd).
What is priming?
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.
What is Weber’s law?
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount). Light must differ by 8%, weight by 2%, and tone by 3%.
What is a perceptual set?
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
What is extrasensory perception (ESP)?
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input, including telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.
What is parapsychology?
The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.
What is wavelength?
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.
High frequency…
Low frequency…
…short wavelength (bluish colors)
…long wavelength (reddish colors)
Great amplitude…
Small amplitude…
…bright colors
…dull colors
What is hue?
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.
What is intensity?
The amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness. Intensity is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height).