Sensation and Perception WEEK 6 Flashcards
Making sense of what our brain is telling us
Perception
the branch of psychology that studies the relationship between attributes of the physical world and our psychological experience of them.
psychophysics
Sensation is an active process in which humans, like other animals, focus their senses on potentially
important information
sensation
There is an inexact correspondence
between ——- and —– reality
physical and psychological
——- is an active process: it organises and interprets sensations
perception
The world as subjectively experienced by an individual,
—is a joint product of external reality and the person’s creative efforts to understand and depict it mentally - constructed from sensory experience
—the phenomenological world
Three basic principles apply across all the senses.
physicaland psychological reality;
sensation and perception are active, not passive
Evolutionary purpose
—— translate physical stimulation into sensory signals.
senses
sensation requires constant —— ——–
decision making
receptors that transform energy in the environment
into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain
sensory receptors
The process of converting physical energy or stimulus information into neural impulses is called
.
transduction
——– requires converting energy in the world into internal signals that are psychologically meaningful
Sensation
For each sense, the brain —— sensory stimulation for intensity and quality
codes
all sensory systems have specialised cells called
sensory receptors
Sensation begins with an —– ——–;
environmental stimulus
sensory receptors that respond to environmental stimuli and typically generate ——- ——– in
adjacent sensory neurons.
action potentials
Within each sensory modality, the brain codes sensory stimulation for ———- and ———
intensity and quality
The process of converting stimulus information into neural impulses is called.
transduction.
The minimum amount of physical energy needed for an observer to notice a
stimulus is called an
absolute threshold
to measure absolute thresholds is by
presenting a particular stimulus (light, sound, taste, odour, pressure) at varying intensities and determining
the level of stimulation necessary for the person to detect it about ——— of the time.
50 percent
irrelevant, distracting information is called
noise
Specialised cells in the nervous system, called —— ——–, transform energy in the environment
into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain
sensory receptors
The process of converting physical energy or stimulus information into neural impulses is called
.
transduction
sensation is not a passive process that occurs when the amount of stimulation exceeds a critical threshold; rather, experiencing a sensation means making a judgement
about whether a stimulus is present or absent is the basis of what theory
Signal detection theory (SDT)
In SDT an the individual’s readiness to report detecting
a stimulus when uncertain is known as
response bias (or decision criterion)
absolute thresholds, the lowest level of stimulation required to sense that a stimulus is present is called
absolute threshold
The lowest level of stimulation required to sense a change in stimulation.
Difference THreshold
JND is the
just noticeable difference (or
jnd
Regardless of the magnitude of two stimuli, the second must differ from the first by a constant
proportion for it to be perceived as different. This relationship is called
Weber’s law.
The logarithmic relation between subjective and objective stimulus intensity became known as
Fechner’s law.
Fechner’s law means that people experience only a small percentage of actual increases in stimulus
intensity but that this percentage is ——-.
predictable
the tendency of sensory receptors to respond less to stimuli that continue without
change.
sensory adaptation
Constant sensory inputs provide no
new information about the environment, so the nervous system ignores them. This is known as
Sensory adaption
