Sensation Flashcards
What is sensation?
Detecting stimuli from the environment and converting it to neural signals
What is perception?
Selecting and organizing sensations - creating meaning form sensory information
What is Bottom-up processing?
Constructing a whole from it’s parts - no prior knowledge
What is Top-down processing?
Conceptually driven and based on expectations - looks at the big picture and then the details
What is Selective attention?
hearing one voice among many, etc.
What is the Cocktail Party effect?
When you’re in a crowded situation and can hear someone call your name
What is inattentional blindness?
failing to see visible objects when attention is elsewhere
What is change blindness?
failing to notice change in an environment
What is Choice Blindness?
Failure to recall a choice after you made it already (ex: those face cards from brain games)
What is choice blindness blindness?
inability to recognize that we are unable to recognize our own choice blindness
What is the “Pop out” phenomenon
some stimuli appears to pop out, like those dots
What is absolute threshold?
smallest detectable level of stimuli against background
What is SDT? (Signal Detection Theory)
Assumes that there is no absolute threshold and depends on
persons experience
expectations
motivation
level of fatigue
What is Sublimal Stimulation?
Stimuli below the absolute threshold
ex: smelling something bad but cant describe it
What is difference threshold?
detecting differences in stimuli
What is webers law?
2 stimuli must differ by a constant % to be perceived as different
ex: bodybuilder
What is sensory adaptation?
Getting used to something constant - like hair tie on wrist
nerve cells fire less frequently
What is light?
waves of electromagnetic NRG
what is transduction?
sensory info converted into action potential
What does the wavelength of light effect?
Hue
What does amplitude of light waves effect?
brightness and intensity
What does the saturation of light waves have to do with?
how strong a color is
What is the cornea?
outer covering of the eye (protection) that bends light to focus it
What is the pupil?
A whole into the eye where light enters
What is the iris?
Surrounds the pupil and dilates/constricts in response to light intensity
What is the lens?
where light hits after it goes through the pupil - focuses to the retina
bends the image upside down
What is the retina?
membrane at the back of the eye which contains rods and cones
What is the retinas area of focus?
The fovea
What are rods?
responsible for light and motion detection - can send messages with other rods
What are cones?
responsible for details and colors (only in bright light)
clusters around the fovea and can preserve precise infromation
How does the retina react to light?
Triggers reaction in rods and cones
creates chemical signals and neural signals
bipolar cells activate ganglion cells
goes to the brain
what are ganglion cells?
cells that form the optic nerve
what is the optic nerve?
carries information from the eyes to the brain (thalamus)
what is a bling spot?
area where there are no optic nerve cells that leave the eye - no receptor cells