Midterm 1 - Topic 1

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

Info that falls on our sense

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

How we interpret that info

Question 3

Do sensation and perception always correspond?

Answer 3

No

Question 4

Real-world example of sensation and perception not matching up
Give 2 specific examples

Answer 4

Illusions
Elephant and legs
Muller-Lyer Illusion

Question 5

What do illusions suggest?

Answer 5

That perception is easy and automatic

Question 6

What factors are involved in perception?

Answer 6

Environmental cues
Constraints on the sensory systems
Interaction of the two

Question 7

Give a real-world example of environmental cues impacting perception

Answer 7

Necker Cube

Question 8

How do environmental depth cues determine what we perceive?

Answer 8

Our visual system learns their significance
Cues seem to be picked up automatically, but this is not the case

Question 9

Is perception easy and automatic?

Answer 9

We pick up info rapidly and precisely
Divided attention and its drawbacks

Question 10

Hard side of perception
Meaning?

Answer 10

Experimental
Look at physiological mechanisms and psychological processes involved

Question 11

Soft side of perception
Examples

Answer 11

Applied
Optometry
Audiology
Consumer studies

Question 12

Why should we care about sensation and perception?

Answer 12

Knowing how our various senses work can help us:
Understand what is happening when our senses go wrong through illness or injury
Ensure better overall health by knowing what to avoid

Question 13

Main approaches to the study of sensation and perception

Answer 13

Nativism vs. empiricism
Globalism vs. elementarism
Formalism vs. functionalism

Question 14

Other approaches to the study of sensation and perception

Answer 14

Behaviourism
Direct perception
Info processing
Computational

Question 15

Nativism vs. empiricism

Answer 15

Concerned with the question of whether perception is inborn or developed through learning in the environment

Question 16

Nativism view

Answer 16

Perception is inborn
Everything required for perception is present at birth

Question 17

Empiricism

Answer 17

Perception is developed through learning in the environment
Our perceptual system is a tabula rasa at birth and that basic sensory experiences are combined through learning to produce perception

Question 18

William James: A baby’s impression of the world is _______

Answer 18

One great blooming, buzzing confusion

Question 19

Globalism vs. elementarism

Answer 19

Concerned with the question of whether perception is the result of the addition of elementary components or it is based on global and direct perception of the environment

Question 20

Elementarism
Analogy

Answer 20

Perceptions are constructed from simple elements that they call sensations, cues, or characteristics
We see the trees before the forest!

Question 21

Globalism
Analogy

Answer 21

Represented by the Gestalt approach: The claim of this approach is that the whole is more than the sum of its part
We perceive the whole first, and then, by closer examination, we can distinguish the parts
We see the forest before the trees - true!

Question 22

Broadly, what do elementarists believe? What do they also tend to be?

Answer 22

Believe we have to learn how to put the elements together through experience
Also tend to be empiricists

Question 23

Broadly, what do globalists believe?
What do they also tend to be?

Answer 23

They believe that we are born with the ability to perceive the whole form
Also tend to be nativists

Question 24

For the elementarist, what does sensation mean? What does perception mean? How does the transition between sensation and perception take place?

Answer 24

Sensation means to pick up the parts, and perception is the process by which we put the parts together to perceive the whole form
Transition takes place through learning

Question 25

What is the distinction between sensation and perception for the globalist? What can the globalist approach not explain?

Answer 25

It does not exist, since the element has no psychological meaning Cannot explain perceptual illusions in which sensation does not equal perception

Question 26

Where do globalists believe perception should be studied?

Answer 26

In the natural environment

Question 27

Formalism vs. functionalism

Answer 27

Concerned with the question of whether perception is determined only by the physical characteristics of stimuli and the physiological mechanism or if the observer's expectations and experience affect

Question 28

What do formalists believe? What contradicts this?

Answer 28

Perception is only based on physical and physiological data Motivational effects and illusions contradict this

Question 29

What do functionalists claim? Expand

Answer 29

That personal characteristics of observers affect perception Individual differences Motivational effects Experiential effects

Question 30

Behaviourism emphasis

Answer 30

Emphasis on observable behaviour precludes a behaviourist approach to sensation and perception

Question 31

What is behaviourism concerned with?

Answer 31

How the world appears, not how people behave

Question 32

Trends of research when behaviourism was popular

Answer 32

Research in the more complex areas of perception declined

Question 33

Psychophysics

Answer 33

Study of the relation between sensation caused by physical stimuli and perception Uses objective methods to assess people's reactions to physical stimuli

Question 34

Behaviourist components of psychophysics

Answer 34

Sensation = stimulus Perception = response

Question 35

Direct perception founder Offshoot of what?

Answer 35

J. J. Gibson Offshoot of globalism

Question 36

What does direct perception emphasize? What 3 main approaches does it follow?

Answer 36

The view that our environment provides all the info that we need to perceive Nativist, globalist, formalist

Question 37

Direct perception AKA? Field of study

Answer 37

Ecological approach to perception Believed that studies of perception should concentrate on real-world perception - lab experiments with artificial conditions are useless to help understand everyday perceptual experiences

Question 38

What does indirect perception emphasize? Theorist associated?

Answer 38

View that our environment provides ambiguous info so that perception is a problem solving situation Unconscious inference (Helmotz)

Question 39

What 3 main approaches does indirect perception follow?

Answer 39

Typically empiricist, elementarist, and functionalist

Question 40

Field of study of indirect perception

Answer 40

Concentrate on lab experiments with artificial conditions (manipulating one variable at a time)

Question 41

Information processing approach Example?

Answer 41

Considers humans to be like some kind of info processing machine Info is processed through a series of stages, from input to output Form perception and identification

Question 42

Information processing model

Answer 42

X --> attention --> encoding --> feature detection --> identification --> "it's an x"

Question 43

Is info processing approach a theory? What does it try to do?

Answer 43

No, more of a metaphor of the processes underlying behaviour It tries to explain what happens between stimulus and response (opposed to behaviourism)

Question 44

Computational approach

Answer 44

Takes into account the capacity of the physiological system and the richness of the environment in attempting to develop mathematical models to explain behaviour

Question 45

Is the computational approach a theory? Implications of the approach?

Answer 45

Metaphor of the processes underlying behaviour Produced most of the computer simulations of some behaviours available today