sensation and perception

Question 1

define sensation

Answer 1

Initial detection and processing of stimuli

Question 2

define perception

Answer 2

Organising and interpretating what sense organs take in

Question 3

what is the cornea?

Answer 3

• Transparent covering
• Protects the eye
• Helps focus the light rays onto the retina

Question 4

what is the pupil?

Answer 4

• A small adjustable opening
• Black circle in middle of the eye
• Dark conditions = expands to let more light in
• Light conditions = contracts to reduce light let in

Question 4

what is the pupil?

Answer 4

• A small adjustable opening
• Black circle in middle of the eye
• Dark conditions = expands to let more light in
• Light conditions = contracts to reduce light let in

Question 5

what is the iris?

Answer 5

• Control expansion and contraction

- Coloured muscle

Question 6

what is the lens?

Answer 6

• Focuses light into the retina

- Held by ring of ligaments attached to ciliary muscles

Question 7

what are the cilary muscles?

Answer 7

• Holds lens
• Change the shape of the lens and focal length
• Allows us to see objects clearly close up and at a distance

Question 8

what is the retina?

Answer 8

• Sensitive surface
• Back of eye
• Contains photoreceptors & neurons = specialised to detect and respond to different features of light

Question 9

what parts of the eye are within the retina?

Answer 9

• Rods = responds to low levels of light and used for night vision
• Cones = respond to higher levels of light and enable us to see in the bright light used for day vision

Question 10

what is the fovea?

Answer 10

• Back of eye
• Cones are plentiful
• Clearest vision

Question 11

what is the vitreous humour?

Answer 11

• Helps maintain shape of eyeball

- Helps focusing

Question 12

what are the 3 steps of sensation?

Answer 12

• reception
• transduction
• transmission

Question 13

what is the first step of sensation?

Answer 13

Reception

• Presence of physical stimuli such as sound waves and light
• Detected by sensory neurons in our sense organs

Question 14

what is the second step sensation?

Answer 14

Transduction

- Different forms of stimuli are converted into electrochemical energy = energy that human brain can process

Question 15

what is the third step sensation?

Answer 15

Transmission

- Energy is transferred to brain for processing

Question 16

what are the 3 steps in perception?

Answer 16

• selection
• organisation
• interpretation

Question 17

what is the first step of perception?

Answer 17

Selection

• Brain filters the stimuli
• Selecting importing features for further processing
• Ignoring unimportant features that receive no further processing

Question 18

what is the second step of perception?

Answer 18

Organisation

• Grouping the selected features of stimuli to form a whole
• Referred to as Gestalt

Question 19

what is the third step of perception?

Answer 19

Interpretation

• Brain interprets the image
• Gives it meaning
• Our understanding of the visual

Question 20

what did gestalt believe?

Answer 20

• We rely on four main types of principles to organise separate stimuli into meaningful patterns

Question 21

what are gestalts 4 perceptions?

Answer 21

• figure ground
• proximity
• similarity
• closure

Question 22

what is figure ground?

Answer 22

• Viewer uses an imaginary contour line to divide features of the stimulus into an object and background

Question 23

what is proximity?

Answer 23

• Stimuli that are close together in space are perceived as belonging together

Question 24

what is similarity?

Answer 24

• Stimuli that are similar in some way such as having the same shape or colour are perceived as grouped together

Question 25

what is closure?

Answer 25

• Gaps in objects are closed so they are perceived as a recognisable whole shape