Sensation and Perception Flashcards
What 3 things need to happen in order to feel sensations?
1: Detection
2: Transduction (translated to a message for the brain to understand)
3: Transmission (message must be sent to brain for analysis)
What do sensory receptors do?
They respond to stimulation and energy from the world.
What is bottom-up processing?
Our senses collect raw data from the external world. With the sensation, we start from scratch and we build up.
What is psychophysics?
The scientific study of the link between the characteristics of the physical world, and our psychological experiences of them.
Define ‘absolute threshold’.
The minimum amount of energy/stimulation that must be there in order for us to detect it 50% of the time.
Define ‘difference threshold’.
Not enough for us to detect an energy; it’s essential for survival that we can detect changes in stimulation. It is the minimum amount of changes in stimulation that must take place in order for us to detect it 50% of the time.
Signal detection theory is the theory that…
…our ability to detect stimulation/energy does not depend ONLY on how strong the stimulation is but also external factors like motivation, emotion, health, fatigue, etc.
What is the definition of perception?
The meaning of what you’re looking at.
More info: The brain is going to interpret information in a meaningful way. That means the brain is going to use its existing knowledge, past experiences, beliefs, assumptions, expectations, etc, in order to interpret the information
What is prosopagnosia?
People that see properly but can’t remember faces, sometimes even their own.
Prosopagnosia is an example of…
…having a sensation but no perception.
What are two examples of having perception but no sensation?
Hallucinations and being on drugs.
In order for us to see, there must be _____.
Light.
Light is a form of _____________ __________, which travels in the form of a wave.
Electromagnetic radiation.
Humans can only detect ___ to ___ Nanometers (nm).
400 to 700
Which 2 physical characteristics of the light wave that are of interest to us?
Wavelengths and hue.
What is a wavelength?
A wavelength is a physical characteristic that is going to translate into the psychological experience of colour or hue.
example: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=mXN5_Q0xjTArGI_B
In order for us to see, light must enter the eye and it must reach the _______.
Retina.
Where is the retina located?
The back of the eye.
What are the sensory receptors of the eye?
Rods & Cones
Bipolar cells are connected to ________ cells.
Ganglion.
The axons of the ganglion cells are going to bunch up together, and they form ___ _______ ________.
The optic nerve.
What does the optic nerve do?
It leaves the eye to transmit the information to the brain.
What is the blind spot?
This is where the optic nerve leaves the eye.
What does the fovea do?
It allows us to see fine details.
What are photoreceptors?
They are the ones that detect the light, transduce it, and transmit the information to the brain.
Where does the process of visual information begin?
The retina.
Where does the processing of visual information begin?
Bipolar cells.
What does the parietal lobe do?
It let us knows where an object is in space, is it moving or not.