Perception I

Question 1

differentiate sensation from perception?

Answer 1

Sensation occurs when sensory receptors detect sensory stimuli. Perception involves the organization, interpretation, and conscious experience of those sensations

Question 2

why study perception?

Answer 2

• awareness of perceptual failures can enhance safety
• tell us about how the mind works -> ie. modularity (different cognitive modules for different types of information processing), distributed (multiple brain areas involved)

Question 3

bottom up processing AKA?

Answer 3

ecological processing/ direct perception

Question 4

explain bottom up processing? example?

Answer 4

• perception is direct from environment
• brain processes sensory information and converts this into perception
• higher level cognition not required
• perception then informs cognition
• ie. light enters eye -> certain cells fire in response to horizontal lines or certain color

Question 5

t/f: brain damage can impair a specific perceptual ability (such as color)

Answer 5

true

Question 6

what is visual agnosia?

Answer 6

Primary visual agnosia is a rare neurological disorder characterized by the total or partial loss of the ability to recognize and identify familiar objects and/or people by sight

Question 7

top down processing AKA?

Answer 7

constructivist processing

Question 8

define top down processing?

Answer 8

• taking fragments of information and constructing meaning
• actively interpret to understand (not passive)
• raw sensory info + complex mental processing
• guided by higher order cognitive processing (ie. schemas

Question 9

what is signal detection theory?

Answer 9

signal detection theory states that the most basic task for any sensory system is detecting the presence/ alteration of energy changes

Question 10

what is the ‘absolute threshold’?

Answer 10

minimum amount of energy needed to detect stimulus 50% of the time

Question 11

what is the ‘just noticable difference (JND)’?

Answer 11

smallest change in intensity of stimulus that we can detect

Question 12

t/f: even the most simple perceptual tasks involve cognition

Answer 12

true

Question 13

t/f: there is no real absolute threshold, as the observer is always involved in a cognitive act to decide whether or not the stimulus is present

Answer 13

true

Question 14

t/f: the most basic sensory acts (ie. determining if a hot candle is there near your skin) do not involve cognition

Answer 14

false - all have a cognitive component

what about a spinal reflex arc? lmao this aint HBP

Question 15

t/f: motivation and expectancies affect perceptual

judgements as much as stimulus reception itself

Answer 15

true

Question 16

t/f: we are passive observers/ perceivers of stimuli

Answer 16

false- we involved, always a degree of cognition (really driving this point home huh)

Question 17

naive realism - what is it

Answer 17

what we perceive is objective, bias free, what we experience is how it truly is

Question 18

being able to figure out that an image is that of a bike, even though 80% of the image is covered, is an example of what?

Answer 18

top down processing

Question 19

t/f: the old school way of viewing absolute threshold is the either or approach; as in you either detect it the response or you do not

Answer 19

true