sensation and perception Flashcards
processes of sensation and perception
reception: the detection of sensory information in the sense organs of the body by sensory receptors
transduction: the changing of sensory information into electrochemical energy
transmission: the movement of electrochemical energy from sensory receptors to the brain for interpreting
selection: the important features of information are selected for further processing and insignificant content is disregarded
organisation: selected information is categorised allowing for the arrangement of meaningful patterns.
interpretation: meanings assigned to the groups of patterns.
selective and divided attention (cocktail party effect)
experiment 1: participants used both ears and presented with 2 different spoken messages simultaneously (no headphones and different topics on one tape).
Participants asked to single out and repeat one of the messages verbatim or phrase by phrase. Participants were allowed to play the tape back as much as they’d like and had to complete the task verbally and were unable to write anything down. Researchers marked down on the scripts the words and phrases that were correctly recognised by the participants.
participants described the task as very difficult with some replaying the tape up to 20 times but most participants were successful in separating the speeches.
experiment 2: two recorded speeches were played simultaneously to participants via headphones with a different speech in each ear. Participants were asked to verbally repeat back one of the messages while listening to it.
participants were able to complete this task easily with a slight delay behind the recording. It was difficult to recall what the speech was about even when repeated correctly. Participants couldn’t describe what was played in the other ear.
cherry’s experiments demonstrate how we use divided attention via our awareness of simultaneous conversations in a noisy place, and how we are able to focus our attention toward one conversation and subsequently disregard all other conversations using selective attention.
Define selective and divided attention
selective: the process of concentrating on chosen stimuli while disregarding others.
divided: the ability to concentrate on 2 or more stimuli simultaneously.
