Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Unit 3
The process by which we receive information from the environment and encode it as neural signals:
Sensation
The process of selecting and interpreting information from the environment (How individuals put things together):
Perception
The study of the relationship between physical energy and psychological experience:
Psychophysics
The first area of psych to be studied as a science:
Psychophysics
The sensory analysis that starts at the entry level and works up to a higher level:
Bottom-up Processing
Constructing perceptions drawing both on sensations coming bottom-up and on our experiences and expectations (applying what we know):
Top-down Processing
The first person to study the relationship between stimulus intensity and sensation intensity
Gustav Fechner
Who created the absolute threshold?
Fechner
- The point at which a stimulus can be detected 50% of the time
- The minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus
Absolute Threshold
There is no absolute threshold because the threshold changes with a variety of factors:
Signal Detection Theory
The receipt of messages that are below one’s absolute threshold (no trigger):
Subliminal Stimulation
A change between two stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time:
Difference Threshold
Who discovered Weber’s Law?
Ernest Weber
Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different:
Weber’s Law
What forms do environmental info exists as?
Air vibrations, gases, and chemicals
What the body receives the forms through:
Special Receptor Cells
Converting one form of energy into another:
Transduction
What is receptor sensitivity sensitive to?
Change
A weakened sensitivity due to prolonged stimulation:
Sensory Adaptation
A decline of the sensory sensitivity at the neural level due to repeated stimulation:
Habituation
How is habituation different from sensory adaptation?
Responsiveness can reappear if the stimulation is increased or decreased (Habituation)
What you choose to attend to out of all the stimulation reaching you:
Selective Attention
You can pay attention to multiple sensory inputs:
Divided Attention
You hear/see two different things and are told to pay attention to both:
Dichotic Listening/Viewing
People are asked to name the colors of the words and not read the words:
Stroop Effect
The interference occurs because words are read faster than colors are named:
Speed or Processing Theory
