Sensation And Perception Flashcards
Perception
Process of integrating, organizing, and interpreting sensations
Sensory receptors
Cells unique to each sense organ that respond to a particular form of sensory info
Transduction
Process which a form of physical energy is concerted into a coded neural signal that can be processed by the nervous system.
Sensation
Process of detecting physical stimulus such a slight, sound, heat, or pressure.
Absolute threshold
Smallest possible strength of a stimulus that can be detected half the time
Difference threshold
Smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time;
noticeable difference
Sensory adaption
Decline in sensitivity to a constant stimulus.
Subliminal perception
Detection of stimuli that are below the threshold of conscious awareness
Nonconscious perception
Mere exposure effect
Findings that repeated exposure to a stimulus increases a persons preference for that stimulus.
Cornea
A clear membrane covering the visible part of the eye that helps gather and direct light
Pupil
Opening in middle of iris that changes size to let in different amounts of light
Iris
Colored part of eye which is muscle that contracts pupil
Lens
Transparent structure, focuses, bends light
Accommodation
Process by which the lens changed shape to focus
Retina
Light sensitive membrane in back of eye contains sensory receptors (rods/cones)
Rods
Long thin blunt sensory receptors
Sensitive to light
Responsible for peripheral vision and night vision
Cones
Short thick pointed sensory receptor
Detect color
Responsible for color vision and visual acuity
Fovea
Small area in center of retina, composed of cones where visual info is sharply focused.
Optic disk
Area of retina w/o rods/cones where optic nerve exits.
Blind spot
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye.
Ganglion cells
In retina, specialized neuron’s that connect to bipolar cells, bundle of ganglion cells form the optic nerve.
Bipolar cells
In retina
Connect rods/cones w/ ganglion cells
Optic nerve
Thick nerve carries info to visual cortex.
Optic chiasm
Point in brain where optic nerve fibers from each eye meet and partly cross over to opp side of brain.
Bottom up processing
Detect basic features to recognize whole pattern
Data driven processing
Top-down processing
Emphasizing observers knowledge, expectations and other cognitive processes in arriving at meaningful perception
Conceptually driven processing
Gestalt psychology
School of psych that maintained sensations are actively processed according to consistent perceptual rules , Producing meaningful whole perceptions
Figure-ground relationship
Gestalt principle stating that a perception is automatically separated into the figure which clearly stands out from its less distinct background– the ground.
Monocular cues
Relative size Overlap Aerial perspective Texture gradient Linear perspective Motion parallax
Binocular cues
Convergence - degree to which muscles rotate eye to focus
Binocular disparity - object slightly diff in ea eye, close object. Object appears the same, object farther away
