Module 16 & 17

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Question 3

Bottom-Up Processing

Answer 3

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information

Question 4

Top-Down Processing

Answer 4

Constructs perceptions from the sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations.

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Question 5

Selective Attention

Answer 5

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Question 6

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 6

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Question 7

Change Blindness

Answer 7

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Question 8

Transduction

Answer 8

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.

Environmental informational -into neural impulses

Question 9

Psychophysics

Answer 9

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.

Question 10

Absolute Threshold

Answer 10

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

The volume/ intensity where half the time you could hear/see and half the time you couldn’t

Question 11

Signal Detection Theory

Second Card?

Answer 11

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise)/ Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivations, and alertness.

Question 12

Subliminal

Answer 12

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

- below 50%

Question 13

Priming

Answer 13

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Question 14

Difference Threshold

Answer 14

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time
- difference threshold increases with the size of the stimulus

Question 15

Weber’s Law

Answer 15

The principle that to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)

• it is more difficult to detect the difference threshold in high stimulus situations than it is to detect difference threshold in low stimulus situations

Question 16

Sensory Adaptation

Answer 16

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Question 17

Perceptual Set

Answer 17

A mental predisposition (tendecy) to perceive one thing and not another

Question 18

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

Answer 18

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Question 19

Parapsychology

Answer 19

The study of paranormal phenomena including ESP and psychokinesis

Question 20

Cocktail Party Effect

Answer 20

Your ability to attend to only one voice among many (while also being able to detect your own name in an unattended voice).

Question 21

Who is Fechner and what did he study?

Answer 21

Gustave Fechner (1801-1887)

• First studied the relationship between incoming physical stimuli and the response to them
• two approaches: absolute threshold & difference threshold

Question 22

Noise

Answer 22

Anything that interferes with our detection of a stimulus

Question 23

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 23

Based on the premise that detection of a stimulus depends on both the intensity of the stimulus and the physical/psychological state of the individual

• notice things based on how strong they are and how much we’re paying attention

Question 24

What’s the difference between the difference threshold and the absolute threshold?

Answer 24

The absolute threshold for sound, for example, would be the lowest volume level that a person could detect. The difference threshold would be the smallest change in volume that a person could sense

Question 25

What are the steps of transduction?

Answer 25

They RECIEVE sensory stimulation
They TRANSFORM sensory stimulation to neural impulses
They DELIVER neural information to the brain.