Sensation & Perception Flashcards
What is sensation?
The process of our sensory receptors receiving input from a stimulus, and the production of a neural message. (Bottom up process)
What is a stimulus?
Anything that produces a neural response.
What are the 5 major sensory organs?
- Eyes
- Nose
- Tounge
- Skin
- Ears
What are the 3 steps in the process of sensation?
- Reception
- Transduction
- Transmission
Explain reception.
- Occurs when the stimulus is detected by sensory receptor cells in our sensory organs
- If the stimulus is strong enough to activate a response the second stage begins
Explain transduction.
- Involves the sensory receptors converting a stimulus into neural messages (electrochemical energy)
- Transduction is necessary as the nervous system can only process energy in electrochemical form
Explain transmission.
- Occurs when the electrochemical signal leaves the sensory receptor and travels along nerve fibres
- The nerve fibres are connected to specific sensory areas in the brain specialised to receive them
What is perception
The meaning given by the brain, to stimuli picked up by our sense organs. Effected by someones past experiences and motivation (top down)
What are the 3 processes in perception?
- Selection
- Organisation
- Interpretation
Explain selection.
- Attention is focused on particular sensory stimuli
- We are constantly bombarded with sensory info, and we must pay attention in order to perceive, the info we focus on is salient info
- Selection is often subconscious and takes little effort
Explain organisation.
- After receiving the selected info, the brain assembles it into patterns and forms that can be recognised based on innate and learned cognitive processes
- We unconsciously simplify and categorise stimuli based on patterns to process faster
Explain interpretation.
Once the forms have been processed, the brain gives meaning to them based on past experiences and is cognitively attended to so we understand what we have perceived.
