Sensation and Perception Flashcards
What is sensation?
The process through which the senses detect visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit them to the brain
What is perception?
The process by which sensory information is actively organized and interpreted by the brain
What does sensation do?
Gives you the visual cues
What does perception do?
Fills in the blanks
What is absolute threshold?
The difference between not being able to perceive a stimulus and being able to just barely perceive it. (nothing versus something)
What is the difference threshold?
The smallest increase or decrease in a stimulus that’s required to notice a difference; called the ‘just noticeable difference’ (JND). (something vs. more/less of something)
What is sensory adaptation?
Becoming less sensitive to unchanging sensory stimulus over time,
automatic process,
allows us to shift attention
What are 2 kinds of processing functions?
Bottom up processing, top down processing
What is bottom up processing?
Individual components of stimulus detected by sensory receptors, bits of information translate mites to areas of brain to be combined and assembled into unified whole
What is top down processing?
Past experience and knowledge influence our perceptions,
we find meaningful links between the individual elements taken in by our sensory receptors
use existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, expectations
What is perceptual set?
Where individuals’ expectations affect their perceptions
How can Top-Down Influences be good?
Efficiency
How can Top-Down Influences be bad?
Error/limit interpretation
What is chemical sense?
They rely on chemical molecules not a form of ‘energy’
What is smell/olfaction?
Receptor sites resemble neurotransmitter binding site.
Odour molecules (odorants) lock into certain sites.
Action potential
Receptors send messages to olfactory area in brain.
linked to amygdala (emotion)
hippocampus (memory)
available early/prenatal (but airborne)
What do we mean when we refer to taste?
Chemical receptors = taste buds - consist of several receptor cells.
about 9,000 taste buds grouped in different regions, which was located on edges & top of tongue, thalamus
prenatal-childhood more
What is taste flavour gustation influenced by?
appearance/palatability
texture
previous experience
What are the 3 dimensions of colour vision?
Hue, brightness, saturation
What is hue?
It is the specific colour perceived, wavelength
What is brightness?
It refers to the intensity of the light energy that’s perceived, amplitude of wave
What is saturation?
It refers to the purity of the colour
What are the theories of colour vision?
Trichromatic theory (Young-Helmholtz)
Opponent-Process theory
Explain afterimages
Dual Process Theory
What is trichromatic theory?
There are 3 types of colour receptors.
Cones most sensitive to blue/purple, green, red wavelengths.
Visual system combines activity from these cells.
Colours are perceived by additive mixture of impulses.
If all are equally activated - white colour is produced