SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Question 1

SENSATION

Answer 1

transforming energy from stimuli to neural energy

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

mentally creating a picture of the outside world

-constructing meaning out of sensation

Question 3

PSYCHOPHYSICS

Answer 3

area of psychology that address SENSATION

Question 4

SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY

Answer 4

our ability to notice stimulus VARY due to psychological factors i.e motivation, past experience, expectations

Question 5

absolute threshold

Answer 5

minimum stimulation needed to detect given stimulus

Question 6

just noticeable difference

Answer 6

aka. difference threshold

- smallest difference a person can detect between two similar stimuli

Question 7

WEBER’S LAW

Answer 7

threshold increases in proportion to the intensity or magnitude of stimuli
-given difference is much harder to notice with more intense powerful stimuli than with weaker ones

Question 8

What happens to nerve cells when exposed to unchanging stimulus?

Answer 8

• stimuli need to change in some way in order to remain noticeable
• nerve cells involve in detecting unchanging stimuli begin to FIRE LESS FREQUENTLY, SENSITIVITY to stimulus DIMINISHES

Question 9

SENSORY ADAPTATION

Answer 9

make us focus on stimuli that matters and ignore stimuli that don’t

Question 10

selective attention

Answer 10

illustrate that our ideas about reality have to be chosen, organized and interpreted not simply detected

Question 11

GESTALT

Answer 11

” a whole or a form”

-mind fills gaps in our sensations

Question 12

DEPTH PERCEPTION

Answer 12

allows us to estimate the distance between ourselves and the objects we see.

Question 13

BInocular cues

• what?
• two types

Answer 13

require both eyes

1) retinal disparity
2) convergence

Question 14

retinal disparity

Answer 14

• difference between what right eye and left eye sees

- low retinal disparity cue indicate object is far

Question 15

convergence

Answer 15

the extent to which the eyes must turn inward to view an object
-the greater the convergence, the closer the object

Question 16

MONOcular cues

Answer 16

depth perception requiring only ONE eye

1) linear perspective
2) motion parallax
3) interposition
4) texture gradient

Question 17

Linear perspective

Answer 17

parallel lines appear to converge as they get farther away

Question 18

motion parallax

Answer 18

aka. relative motion
- apparent movement of stable objects as we see ourselves move
- objects closer than the fixation point (tree) seem to be moving backward
- the nearer they are, the faster they are moving
- objects farther than fixation point seem to move with you, slowly and farther away

Question 19

interposition

Answer 19

when one object blocks out another, we perceive it as closer

Question 20

texture gradient

Answer 20

objects that are closer appear more distinct coarser, objects farther away appear indistinct, fine texture

Question 21

What term is used to describe the ff. event:

Kittens are kept from seeing for several months when they were infants, later on, they are unable to tell the difference between objects of different shapes

Answer 21

sensory restriction

Question 22

critical period

Answer 22

• sensory restriction doesn’t happen in adulthood

- time required in order for various perceptual skills to develop

Question 23

perceptual sets

Answer 23

predispositions to perceive one thing an not the other
ie. gender stereotypes
crying baby girl = weak,scared but crying baby boy= strong and mad

Question 24

BOTTOM UP

Answer 24

processing information from simple sensory receptors to more complex neural networks

Question 25

TOP-DOWN

Answer 25

from expectations, motives and contextual cues to raw sensory data