Module 20

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

sensory receptors

Answer 2

sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli.

Question 3

perception

Answer 3

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

Question 4

bottom-up processing

Answer 4

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

Question 5

top-down processing

Answer 5

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

Question 6

selective attention

Answer 6

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Question 7

inattentional blindness

Answer 7

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Question 8

change blindness

Answer 8

failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness.

Question 9

transduction

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

psychophysics

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Who created absolute thresholds

Answer 11

Gustav Fechner

Question 12

absolute threshold

Answer 12

the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

Question 13

signal detection theory

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

subliminal

Answer 14

below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Question 15

difference threshold

Answer 15

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference

Question 16

priming

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Weber’s law

Answer 17

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

Question 18

sensory adaptation

Answer 18

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Question 19

perceptual set

Answer 19

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Question 20

extrasensory perception (ESP)

Answer 20

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

Question 21

telepathy

Answer 21

mind-to-mind communication.

Question 22

clairvoyance

Answer 22

perceiving remote events, such as a house on fire in
another state.

Question 23

precognition

Answer 23

perceiving future events, such as an unexpected death in
the next month.

Question 24

perceiving future events, such as an unexpected death in
the next month.