Sensation & Perception Flashcards
Sensation
Taking info from the environment through sense organs and turns it into neural signals
Perception
How our brain makes sense of the info that are senses provide
Bottom-up processing
Starting at the sensation and forming a perception as you get more info. (building up)
Top-down processing
Starting at the perception and confirming what you already know
Selective attention
Focusing out awareness on one type of stimulus and ignoring others
Inattentional Blindness
Failing to see an object when out attention is elsewhere
Absolute threshold
The awareness/activation of a sense
Signal detection theory
When we anticipate a stimulus so we are more likely to detect it
Subliminal messages
occur bellow are absolut threshold and are not consciously perceived
Priming
Increased sensitivity to certain stimuli due to prior experience related to visual or audio messages.
Difference threshold
A sense is activated and the point you notice a change
Webers law
The amount of change needed to detect a difference is equal to the size of the original stimuli
Sensory adaptation
Getting use to a sensation and being unable to detect after a period of time
Perceptual sets
Tendency to use surrounding info to help interpret what we experience in the world
How dose the environment impact our perceptual sets
How does the ENVIRONMENT impact our perceptual sets
It can change ow you perceive the info
How does MOTIVATION impact our perceptual sets
Forces us to focus on one thing that is relevant at that point in time.
How dose EMOTIONS impact our perceptual sets
May force someone to see everything in a negative light
Hue of colors
The wave length
Stroop Effect
the Stroop Effect allows us to measure a person’s selective attention capacity and skills, as well as their processing speed ability.
Cornea
Protective outer layer of the eye
Pupil
Controls how much light is allowed into the eye
Iris
Colored part of the eye
Lens
Bends light and focuses it on the retina to help you see images clearly.
optic nerve
sends info to the thalamas
Cones
Color and fine detail
Rods
light and dark (black and white) and peripheral vision
schemas
concept frame-works that allow us to organize and interpret information
Figure-Ground
We organize things into figures that stand out from our surroundings.(background)
Proximity
Things that are close to on another appear to belong to the same group
Continuity
We perceive a flow of items so it appears to go on even if it doesn’t
Closure
Our brain fills in the gap to close of an object even if it isn’t closed
Similarity
We group things that are similar to one another into the same group
Connectedness
We group things that are touching one another
Phi Phenomenon
Motion is perceived because lights blink to make you perceive motion.
Stroboscopic Movement
Motion is produced by rapid succession of slightly varying images.
Visual Cliff
Device to test depth perception in infants suggests that depth perception is innate.
Binocular Cues
Used by both eyes to perceive 3D
Retinal Disparity
Each eye gets a slightly different image but your brain combines them together
Convergence
Ability of your eyes to turn inward to see things really close to you face
Monocular Cues
Used by only one eye to perceive depth; used to see a 3D image in a 2D image
Relative Height
Farther away=higher in visual field closer=lower in visual field
Relative Motion
motion parallax
As we move objects that are actually stable may appear to move
Relative Size
Close=larger, farther away=smaller
Interposition
Something in front of another object lets you know the front object is closer.
Linear Perspective
Two parallel lines appear farther apart=coser, lines getting closer to each other=farther
Light and Shadow
Shading produces a sense of depth consistent with our assumption that light comes from
Texture Gradient
Objects far away look smooth
Objects closer look rough
Relative Clarity
Hazy objects appear farther away
Sound waves length detriment…
pitch
The three bones in the ear
Hammer
Anvil
Stirrup
Sensorineural hearing loss
damage to hair in ear fixed with a hearing aid
Conduction hearing loss
caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. fixed by cochlear implant
Place Theory
location, where hair cells bends, determines high pitches
Frequency Theory
How fast a neural impulses travels determines low pitches
the gate-control theory
says that we experience pain only if the pain messages can pass through a gate in the spinal cord on their route to the brain.
5 basic tastes
sweet, sour, bitter, salty, & umami
Kinesthesia
sense of body position and awareness of body parts in space
Vestibular sense
sense of balance and orientation; keeps our body upright while standing, sitting, or walking
sensory interaction
one sense influence another
