Sensation and Perception

Question 1

What is sensation?

Answer 1

process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain

Question 2

What is perception?

Answer 2

process by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets sensations

Question 3

What is transduction?

Answer 3

translation of physical energy into electrical signals

Question 4

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 4

starts with raw sensory data that feed up to the brain

listening to a song for the first time

Question 5

What is top-down processing?

Answer 5

starts with observer’s expectations and knowledge

listening to a song for the 100th time

Question 6

What are absolute thresholds?

Answer 6

• minimal amount of stimulation that can be detected

- Occurs when person can detect signal 50% of the time

Question 7

What are difference thresholds?

Answer 7

lowest level of stimulation required to sense that a change in stimulation has occurred

Question 8

What is the jnd?

Answer 8

smallest difference in intensity between 2 stimuli that person can detect (same as difference threshold)

Question 9

What is Weber’s law (fraction)?

Answer 9

for 2 stimuli to be perceived as different in intensity, the second must differ from the first by a constant proportion

Question 10

What is signal detection theory?

Answer 10

-Sensation is not a passive process
-Experiencing a sensation means making a judgment
-Detection depends on:
~Sensitivity
~Response bias

Question 11

What is response bias?

Answer 11

person’s readiness to report detecting a stimulus

Question 12

What is a hit?

Answer 12

A response is given and a signal is present.

Question 13

What is a miss?

Answer 13

A response is not given but a signal is present.

Question 14

What is a false alarm?

Answer 14

A response is given but a signal is not present.

Question 15

What is a correct rejection?

Answer 15

A response not is given and a signal is not present.

Question 16

What factors affect response bias?

Answer 16

Expectations -

Motivation-

Question 17

What is sensory adaptation?

Answer 17

Tendency of sensory systems to respond less to stimuli that continue without change

Question 18

What is the Gestalt approach?

Answer 18

the whole is greater than the sum of its sensory parts

Question 19

What is figure-ground perception?

Answer 19

we inherently distinguish between figure and ground

Question 20

What are the grouping principles?

Answer 20

Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, and Closure

Question 21

What is proximity?

Answer 21

we tend to group together objects that are close to one another

Question 22

What is similarity?

Answer 22

we tend to group together objects that are similar to one another

Question 23

What is continuity?

Answer 23

brain organizes stimuli into continuous lines or patterns

Question 24

What is closure?

Answer 24

we tend to perceive incomplete figures as complete

Question 25

What are binocular and monocular cues for depth?

Answer 25

binocular - Each eye has slightly different view of same scene

monocular - can only use one eye

Question 26

What is retinal (binocular) disparity?

Answer 26

images produce different image on each retina

Question 27

What is convergence?

Answer 27

• turning inward of eyes toward nearby object

- Closer object -> greater convergence

Question 28

What is relative size?

Answer 28

when something is smaller, we perceive it to be farther away

Question 29

What is perceptual constancy?

Answer 29

organization of changing sensations into perception that is relatively stable in size, shape, and color

Question 30

What is color constancy?

Answer 30

tendency to perceive color of objects as stable despite changing illumination

Question 31

What is shape constancy?

Answer 31

perception that object’s shape remains constant despite changing shape of retinal image

Question 32

What is size constancy?

Answer 32

perception that the size of objects remains constant despite different sizes of images on retina