Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Sensation
A physical feeling that occurs when something comes in contact with the body.
Stimulus
Something that evokes a specific functional reaction.
Absolute Threshold
Smallest amount of stimulus that could be detected.
Subliminal Stimulation
Receiving messages below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Selective Attention
Focused awareness of only a limited aspect of what can be experienced.
Perceptual Constancy
Perceiving an object as the same despite the sensation of the object changing.
Top-down processing
Information processing guided by pre-existing knowledge or expectations. Concept-driven.
Bottom-up processing
Information processing beginning with sensory receptors and working up to the brain’s integration of sensory information. Data-driven.
Perception
Selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensations.
Transduction
Transformation of stimulus energy to the electrochemical energy of neural impulses.
Weber’s Law
Difference thresholds increase in proportion to the stimulus’ size.
Just Noticeable Difference
Experience of the difference threshold.
Difference Threshold
Minimum difference between any two stimuli that a person can detect 50% of the time.
Signal Detection Theory
Minimum threshold varies with fatigue, attention, expectations, motivation, emotional distress, and from one person to another.
Minimum threshold
Minimum energy required to envoke a sensation.
