Sensation And Perception (6%-8%) Flashcards
Transduction
The process of converting physical energy into electrical signals
Bottom up processing
Build up from the smallest pieces of sensory information
Top down processing
Brain applies what it knows and expects to perceive sensory information
Absolute threshold
The point where you notice a stimulus is present
Difference threshold
The point where you can detect the difference between stimuli
Sensory adaptation
Reduced sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure to it
Cocktail party effect
Ability to focus on a particular sound while partial filtering out other sounds
Inattentional blindness
Focus on one stimulus will lead to between blind to other stimulus
Perceptual set
Predisposition to perceive things in a certain way (notice certain aspects of an object/situation while ignoring other details)
Rods
Responsible for vision at low light levels
Cones
Vision at higher light levels and capable of color vision
Blind spot
Area in eye with no receptor cells
Opponent-process theory
Repeated exposure to a stimulus will cause less of an initial reaction and stronger opposing reaction
Red-green, blue-yellow, black-white
Binocular cues
Depth perception using two eyes
Monocular cues
Depth perception using one eye
Perceptual organization
Ways that humans organize information
Figure ground
Ability to differentiate an object from its background
Grouping
Tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
Visual cliff
Laboratory device for testing Depth perception in infants
Shape and size constancies
We perceive the form of familiar objects as constant even while our retinas perceive changing images of them
Sensorineural hearing loss
Damage in your inner ear (tiny hair cells)
Conduction hearing loss
Anatomical structure in the ear block the passage of sound
Cochlea
Sound waves traveling through the cochlea fluid trigger nerve impulses
Gate control theory
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
Vestibular sense
Our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance
