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Applied Psychology > Sensation and Perception > Flashcards

Sensation and Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

What is sensation?

A

How our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

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2
Q

What is perception?

A

How we organise and interpret sensory information. Enables us to recognise meaningful objects and events

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3
Q

How do we construct or perceptions and sensations?

A

Using bottom up processing whilst relying on experiences and expectations to interpret stimuli through top down processing

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4
Q

What is bottom-up processing?

A

Starts at sensory receptors and works up to brain’s integration of sensory information

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5
Q

What is top-down processing?

A

Constructs perceptions from sensory input by drawing on experiences and expectations

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6
Q

What are the core concepts of sensation?

A
  • Transduction
  • Thresholds
  • Signal Detection
  • Subliminal Stimulation
  • Sensory Adaptation
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7
Q

What is transduction?

A

Converting characteristics of a stimulus into nerve impulses

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8
Q

What is the study of psychophysics?

A

Studies relationships between physical characteristics of stimuli and sensory capabilities

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9
Q

What is the absolute threshold?

A

Minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus

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10
Q

What is signal detection theory?

A

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulus (noise)

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11
Q

Describe subliminal stimulation

A
  • Stimulus is so weak or brief that although it is received by senses, it cannot be perceived consciously (below absolute threshold)
  • Can be affected by this stimuli without being aware of it (subliminal stimuli responses to later question)
  • Subtle effects on attitudes and judgements
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12
Q

What is difference threshold?

A

Minimum difference between two stimuli that people perceive 50% of the time

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13
Q

What is Weber’s Law?

A

Principle that to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

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14
Q

What is sensory adaptation?

A
  • Diminished sensitivity as a consequences of constant stimulation
  • Frees up senses from mundane and detect changes important for survival
  • Eyes constantly moving to ensure retinal image changes, sense receptors do not become fatigued by focusing on same image
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15
Q

What is perceptual set?

A

Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

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16
Q

What is wavelength?

A

Distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to peak of next

17
Q

What is hue?

A

Dimension of colour that is determined by the wavelength of light

18
Q

Describe intensify with vision

A

Amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness

19
Q

What are parts of the eye?

A
  • Retina
  • Cornea
  • Iris
  • Pupil
  • Lens
  • Blind Spot
  • Optic Nerve
20
Q

What is the retina?

A

Light sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones, plus layers of neuron’s that begin the processing of visual information

21
Q

What is the cornea?

A

Bends light to help provide focus as light enters

22
Q

What is the iris?

A

Responds to cognitive and emotional states. Muscle that dilates/constricts in response to light intensity

23
Q

What is the pupil?

A

Small, adjustable opening where light passes through into eye

24
Q

What is the lens?

A

Focuses light rays onto retina, that pass through to create clear images of objects positioned at various distances

25
Q

What is the blind spot?

A

Where optic nerve and blood vessels leave eyeball, creating a “blind spot” because no receptor cells are located there

26
Q

What is the optic nerve?

A

Nerve that carries around neural impulses from eye to visual centres in brain

27
Q

What is accommodation?

A

Process which eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far object

28
Q

What are rods?

A

Retinal receptors detects black, white, gray are sensitive to movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond

29
Q

What are cones?

A

Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the centre of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to colour sensation

30
Q

Describe use adaptations of audition

A
  • Keen differentiation frequently around human voice
  • Very sensitive to faint sounds and changes in sound that might alert us to danger
  • Process aspects in different areas of brain
  • Sound localisation: nervous system uses time to intensify differences of sounds arriving at 2 ears to locate sounds
31
Q

Describe senses of olfaction

A
  • Smell via receptors that project through nasal cavity int mucous membrane
  • Receptors have binding site for thousands of potential odour molecules
  • Send input to olfactory bulb, force brain structure able nose coding for odours
32
Q

Describe sense of touch

A
  • Pressure, pain and temperature
  • Allows us to escape external danger
  • Alerts us to disorders within our body
  • Source of pleasure
  • Essential to our development
  • Pain strongly tied to perception
33
Q

Describe sense of kinaesthesia

A

Provides us with feedback about our muscles and joint positions and movements

  • Nerve endings in muscles, tendons, joints
  • Receptors provide basis for coordinated movements
34
Q

Describe vestibular sense

A
  • Sense of body orientation or equilibrium

- Receptors in vestibular apparatus in inner ear

35
Q

What is Gestalt Principles?

A
  • Argue that whole is more than sum of its parts

- Emphasised our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

36
Q

What are figure-ground relations?

A

Organisation of stimuli into a foreground figure and a background

37
Q

What is grouping?

A

Perceptual tendency to organise into coherent groups

38
Q

What is depth perception?

A

Ability to see objects in 3D although the images that strike the retina are 3D, allows us to judge distance

39
Q

Describe perceptual schemas

A
  • Mental representations containing the distinctive features of a person, object, event or other perceptual phenomenon
  • Allows us to identify and classify sensory input

Applied Psychology (12 decks)

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