Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Sensation
Receiving stimuli from environment
Perception
Interpreting what senses have provided and making behavioral decisions based on them
Bottom Up Processing
Entry level, basic processing of sensory information
Top Down Processing
Deeper processing and interpreting of info
Selective Attention
Ability to focus on one stimuli despite being bombarded w/ multiple
“Cocktail Party Effect”
Inattentional Blindness
When senses are so focused on a ‘task’ that you block out obvious stimuli
Magic Shows
Change Blindness
When something changes very distinctly in the environment, but senses don’t detect changes
Psychophysics
relationships between physical stimuli and resulting sensations and mental states.
Absolute Threshold
Minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect 50% of time
Scented Marker Test
Signal Detection Theory
Predicts how and when we will respond to weak signals
Sleeping Baby test
Subliminal Message
Visual or auditory content that is not perceived consciously, but may influence behavior
Priming
implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus
Difference Threshold
Minimum difference needed to detect 50% of the time
Weber’s Law
Ability to detect a difference is constant proportion, not amount
Sensory Adaptation
sensory receptors change their sensitivity to the stimulus
Transduction
Transformation of light INPUT into neural messages sent to brain (Occipital lobe)
Wavelength
Distance from wave peak to next
Hue
Wavelengths determine hue (color we see)
Intensity
Amount of energy in light waves, determine brightness
Pupil
Light passes
Iris
Adjust how much light is allowed in
Lens
Light passes through
Feature Detectors
Ganglion cells respond to specific features of a scene
Parallel Processing
Visual “multitasking” Ability to recognize different aspects of vision all at once
Retina
Back of eye
Image projected back of eye
Accommodation
lense changes shape as needed
Rods
Night Vision
