Module #6 - Sensation Flashcards
Sensation
The process by which sensory systems (eyes, ears, and other sensory organs) and nervous system receive stimuli from our environment.
Bottom-up processing
A form of information processing that analyses the raw stimuli entering through your many sensory systems.
Top-down processing
Information processing that draws upon our experiences and expectations to interpret incoming sensations.
Threshold
An edge or a boundary
Absolute threshold
The minimum amount of a stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus. Amount of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time.
Difference Threshold
The minimal different to detect that two stimuli are not the same; the smallest detectable change in a stimulus.
Signal detection theory
Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulus (noise).
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting incoming sensory information.
Signal detection theory is dependent on…
- Stimulus variables
- Environmental variables
- Organismic variables
Sensory adaptation
Diminished sensitivity to constant and unchanging stimulation.
Selective attention
Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus to the exclusion of others.
Cornea
The clear, curved bulge on the front of the eye that bends light rays to begin focusing them.
Rods
Visual receptor cells located in the retina that can detect only black, white, and gray. Respond to less light than do cones.
Cones
Visual receptor cells located in the retina that can detect sharp details and color.
Need more light than the rods.
Many cones are clustered in the fovea.
Blind Spot
The point at which the optic nerve travels through the retina to exit the eye; the lack of rods and cones at this point creates a small blind spot.
