Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Synesthesia
Some people experience intermixing of two or more sensory systems E.g. when you hear the word “river”
A person who has this form of synesthesia always sees colour in response to a specific letter or number E.g. the number 9 is always perceived as turquoise
Grapheme-colour synesthesia
What are the two closely related processes involved in sensory perception
Sensation and Perception
sensation
The act of using our sensory systems to detect environmental stimuli
what do you call the physical energy from environmental to electrical signals for the brain
transduction
Perception
The conscious recognition and identification of a sensory stimulus
sensory receptor cells
specialized cells that convert a specific form of environmental stimuli into neuron impulses
The PROCESS of converting a specific form of environmental stimuli into neural impulses (the process of sensory receptor cells)
Sensory transduction
Threshold
A stimulus must reach a certain amount of intensity before we can detect it
Absolute Threshold
The minimal amount of stimulus needed to be detected by an individual
The minimal difference between two stimuli necessary for the detection of a difference between the two
Difference Threshold or Just Noticeable Differences
Give an example of an absolute threshold for olfactory
a drop of perfume diffused throughout a six-room apartment
olfactory somatosensory Gustatory Visual Auditory
smell touch/pain/heat taste sight hearing
sensory adaption
the process whereby a repeated stimulation of a sensory cell leads to a reduced response (getting used to a bad smell)
Processing sensory Information: bottom-up processing
The perception that proceeds by transducing environmental stimuli into neural impulses that move into excessively more complex regions
Top-down processing
Perception processes led by cognitive processes, such as memory or expectations
readiness to interpret a certain stimulus in a certain way. For example, consider whether a dish would taste good if you thought the dish was chicken or rattlesnakes
Perceptual Sets
Ambiguous Stimuli
Stimuli that could be interpreted in different ways. For example, what you see in a drawing is what you expect to see
_____ are part of the nervous system consisting of sensory receptors that receive stimulus information and conduct information to parts of the brain responsible for processing sensory information
Sensory system
