Unit 3 - Basics of Sensation Flashcards
Sensation
Sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
Perception
Organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Bottom-up processing
Taking in sensations and integrating them.
Top-down Processing
Interpretation of sensory experiences.
Selective Attention
Focusing on one thing at a time.
Inattentional Blindness:
The inability to see an object or a person in our midst - Observers failed to see the gorilla while passing the basketball.
Change Blindness:
Two-thirds of individuals giving directions failed to notice a change in the individual asking for directions.
Transduction
The transformation of stimulus energy to neural impulses - conversion of one form of energy to another.
Absolute Thresholds
Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
Difference Threshold
Minimum difference between two stimuli required for detections 50% of the time.
Signal Detection Theory
Personal focus can affect levels of absolute thresholds. Depends on experience, expectations, motivations, and level of fatigue.
Subliminal Thresholds
When stimuli are below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing ones, perception, memory, or response.
Weber’s Law
To perceive as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage not amount. Ex. The intensity of a light must differ by 8%.
Sensory Adaptation
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
