Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Sensation
Sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
Perception
Process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory input.
Bottom up processing
Starts at sensory receptors and works its way up to higher levels.
Top down processing
Constructs perceptions from the sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations.
Selective Attention
Focusing awareness on a particular stimulus.
Cocktail Party Effect
Attending to only one voice among many (selective listening).
Selective Inattention
Inattentional blindness; failing to notice changes in the environment.
Transduction
Process in which sensory signals are transformed into neural impulses that deliver info into our brain.
Sensory adaption
Diminished sensitivity to stimuli due to constant stimulation.
Sensory habituation
Our perception of sensations is partially due to how focused we are on them.
Absolute threshold
The smallest amount of stimulus we can detect 50% of the time.
Subliminal
Stimuli below our absolute threshold.
Difference threshold
The minimum difference a person can detect between any 2 stimuli half the time.
Weber’s Law
To detect a change, the change needed must be proportional to the original intensity of the stimuli.
Signal detection theory
People respond differently to the same stimuli; takes into account how motivated we are to detect certain stimuli and what we expect to perceive.
