Topic 1- Introduction to Perception Flashcards
What you hear/taste/smell/ feel is the result of BLANK BLANK activity alongside your BLANK gained from BLANK experiences
Nervous system, knowledge, past
How do we achieve these perceptions?
Give 3 examples.
By activating sensory receptors designed to respond to very specific stimuli.
Ex- light, sound waves, pressure
What does your perception depend on?
Your perception depends on the presence and properties of these sensory receptors.
What is the difference between sensation and Perception?
2 points each plus 2 examples each.
Sensation: Focus is on the registration of physical stimuli on the sensory receptors that gets transformed into information in our nervous system
- “Detecting” that something is there
- Ex- light reaches retina, sound waves enter ears
Perception: Involves turning sensory input into a meaningful experience
- “Interpreting” what is there
Ex- identifying the food in your mouth, remembering the last time you heard a song
The perceptual process, simply what does it begin with and what 3 things does it end with?
Perception begins with a stimulus in the environment and ends with perceiving the stimulus, recognizing it, and taking action relative to it (perception, recognition, action)
What is step 1 and 2 of the perceptual process
3 points
Distal and Proximal Stimuli
Step 1: Stimuli from the environment reaches our sensory receptors
Begins with the distal stimuli (meaning out there/distant)
Step 2: The distal stimuli gets represented on the sensory receptors and becomes the proximal stimulus
Our perception is based not on direct contact with the stimuli, but rather on BLANK of that stimuli
what is the blank and what principle is this?
-Representation
- Principle of representation
What is step 3 of the perceptual process?
Step 3: Sensory receptors
Sensory receptors are cells specialized to respond to environmental energy
- Each sensory systems receptors are specialized to respond to a specific type of energy (vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste)
In step 3, what is one thing that happens when the receptors receive information from the environment?
Transduction: Transform this environmental energy into electrical energy to help our nervous system understand what’s outside in the world
What is step 4 of the perceptual process?
Once transduction has occurred, these electrical signals travel through our nervous system and undergo neural processing
What is step 5 and 6 of the perceptual process?
Give examples of each
Step 5: Once neural processing has occurred, this electrical activity becomes perception
Ex- conscious awareness of the tree- “I see something”
Step 6: This perception can then lead to recognition
Ex- place an object in a category that gives it meaning
“Oh its an oak tree”
Inability to visually recognize whole objects?
What difference does it highlight?
Visual agnosia
Difference between perception and recognition highlighted by those with visual object agnosia
What is step 7 of the perceptual process?
Give an example.
Once we’ve perceived and potentially recognized the thing I’m looking at, we now make motor activities in response to the stimulus (action)
Ex- lets walk closer to the tree to look at it in more detail
Give the 3 step tree example of the perceptual process
I see something, I recognize its a tree, I walk closer to the tree to look at it in more detail
What two types of processing help us determine our perception of what we are looking at and describe them?
Bottom-up processing: starting off with smaller details and gradually putting them together to form the big picture
Top -down processing: Processing based on knowledge/experience
What is the main goal of perception research/ what are the 3 major components?
Understanding the relationship between behaviour (perception, recognition, action), Stimulus (proximal, distal) and Physiology (processing, receptors)
What are the 3 methods for measure absolute thresholds in perception?
3 points each
- Method of Limits:
- Stimuli presented on an ascending or descending scale
- Ask participants if they can detect/see it.
- The threshold is where they stop being able to detect/see it - Method of Constant Stimuli:
- Stimuli presented at different intensities in random order
- Ask participants if they can detect/see it.
- The threshold is the intensity where they can detect/see it 50% of the time - Method of Adjustment:
- Participant adjust the intensity of the stimuli until they can barely detect/see it
- Repeat this multiple times
- The average threshold is taken
Smallest amount of physical change observers notice as a perceptual change
Ex- I light up a dark room with 1000 candles. If I add 1 more candle, would you notice a difference? What about if I added another 1000 candles?
What concept is this?
Just-noticeable-difference
What is magnitude estimation?
Participants judge and assign numerical estimates of the perceived strength of a stimulus
What is reaction time?
Time between presentation of a stimulus and a person’s reaction to it
