Module 16 & 17 Flashcards
Sensation
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
Bottom-Up Processing
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
Top-Down Processing
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
Selective Attention
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
Inattentional Blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Change Blindness
Failing to notice changes in the environment
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.
Environmental informational -into neural impulses
Psychophysics
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
Absolute Threshold
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
Signal Detection Theory
Second Card?
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.
Subliminal
Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness
- below 50%
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.
Difference Threshold
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time
- difference threshold increases with the size of the stimulus
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)
- it is more difficult to detect the difference threshold in high stimulus situations than it is to detect difference threshold in low stimulus situations
Sensory Adaptation
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Perceptual Set
A mental predisposition (tendecy) to perceive one thing and not another
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition
Parapsychology
The study of paranormal phenomena including ESP and psychokinesis
Cocktail Party Effect
Your ability to attend to only one voice among many (while also being able to detect your own name in an unattended voice).
Who is Fechner and what did he study?
Gustave Fechner (1801-1887)
- First studied the relationship between incoming physical stimuli and the response to them
- two approaches: absolute threshold & difference threshold
Noise
Anything that interferes with our detection of a stimulus
Signal Detection Theory
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
What’s the difference between the difference threshold and the absolute threshold?
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
What are the steps of transduction?
They RECIEVE sensory stimulation
They TRANSFORM sensory stimulation to neural impulses
They DELIVER neural information to the brain.
