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Sensation and Perception > Introduction to sensation and perception > Flashcards

Introduction to sensation and perception Flashcards

1
Q

What is the goal of sensation and perception?

A

To find out about the external world

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2
Q

What is sensation?

A

the starting point – receiving information about the world via our senses
- Sensory receptor cells are sensitive to physical properties of the world

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3
Q

What are receptor cells?

A

specialised neurones which respond to a particular physical properties of environmental stimuli

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4
Q

What is perception?

A

the end point - our experience of the world

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5
Q

Why should we study perception?

A
  • Perception underlies all our interactions with the environment
  • Perception allows survival
  • Practical applications:
     Understand changes in ageing, disease, injury etc.
     Demands of driving, interacting with technology etc.
     Design of artificial perceptual systems
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6
Q

What is the perceptual process?

A
  • distal stimulus
  • proximal stimulus
  • receptor processes
  • neural processing
  • perception
  • recognition
  • action
  • knowledge
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7
Q

What is the distal stimulus?

A

Physical object in the environment

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8
Q

What is the proximal stimulus?

A
  • The proximal stimulus is a representation of the distal stimulus
  • Each sense receives information about the distal stimulus via a different type of environmental physical energy (smell and taste – chemical concentration) (hearing – sound waves)
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9
Q

What happens with the receptor processes?

A

Receptor cells carry out transduction

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10
Q

What is transduction and give examples with light and hearing?

A

the transformation of environmental physical energy into electrical energy in the nervous system

  • Vision – receptors in the retina transform light into electrical impulses
  • Audition – receptors in the inner ear transform sound into electrical impulses
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11
Q

What is neural processing?

A
  • Electrical signals are transmitted from one neuron to the next
  • The signal is changed as neurons interact
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12
Q

What is perception, recognition and action?

A
  • Perception – conscious sensory experience (e.g. hear your phone vibrate)
  • Recognition – placing an object in a category (e.g. recognise it is your phone)
  • Action – movement: eyes, head, body (e.g. look at your phone)
  • Action, recognition, and perception all influence each-other
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13
Q

What do stage of the perceptual processes do reflexes bypass?

A

the recognition stage

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14
Q

How does knowledge influence perception?

A
  • Existing knowledge, assumptions, memories can influence perception, recognition and action
  • The effect of knowledge is referred to as ‘top down processing’
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15
Q

What is bottom up and top down processing?

A
  • Bottom-up processing – processing based on incoming sensory information
  • Top-down processing – processing based on prior knowledge/ experience/ assumptions
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16
Q

What types of processing does perception involve?

A

Both bottom-up and top-down

17
Q

What is top-down processing important for?

A

helping to simplify the very complex perceptual process

18
Q

What are the two approaches to the study of perception?

A
  1. Physiological – what’s going on in the brain?

2. Psychophysical – what do we perceive?

19
Q

What are four different methods in the physiological approach of studying perception?

A
  • studying anatomy
  • recording brain activity
  • microstimulation
  • lesioning and TMS
20
Q

What does studying anatomy involve?

A

staining cells, sections of the visual cortex

21
Q

How can you record brain activity?

A
  • Single cell recording
  • Imaging
     fMRI
     MEG
     EEG
     PET
22
Q

What is microstimulation?

A

When you insert two electrodes into the brain – one stimulates the electrical activity and the other record the activity

23
Q

What is lesioning and TMS?

A
  • Lesioning – brain damage introduced to brain of animal and effect of damage observed
  • TMS: magnetic field produces temporary lesion on brain – used in humans
24
Q

What does the psychophysical approach do?

A
  • Study what people actually perceive

* Measures the relationship between the stimulus (physical world) and perception (psychological world)

25
Q

What thresholds can psychophysics measure?

A
  1. Absolute (detection) threshold – what is the smallest magnitude that we can perceive (e.g. what is the smallest amount of light we can see)
  2. Difference(discrimination) threshold – what is the smallest difference that we can perceive? (e.g. holding a weight in either hand – what is the smallest difference in weight you need to know that they are different?)
26
Q

What do the results of psychophysics highlight?

A

the relationship between physical world and perceptual experience

Sensation and Perception (11 decks)

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