Unit 3- Perception and Sensation Flashcards
Transduction
The act of sensing. When a stimulus is computed into sensory experiences.
Absolute Threshold
The minimum intensity of a stimulus you can detect.
Difference Threshold
AKA just noticeable threshold.
Minimum difference between two stimuli to notice change.
Weber’s Law (the physics of DT)
Just noticeable difference between two stimuli is a function of intensity
Sensory Adaptation
Our senses adapt to stimuli
Psychophysics
The study and psychology of sensation. (How things we sense impact us psychologically.)
Gestalt Psychology
Looking at the whole instead of a part of something. Max Wertheimer
Top Down Processing
Constructing perception on our prior experiences and expectations.
Selective Attention (cocktail party effect)
Focusing of attention on selected aspects of the environment and blocking out others
Change Blindness
Part of selective attention. Stimulus undergoes change without being noticed by the observer
Inattentional Blindness
Part of selective attention. Failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because of attention to another task
Perceptual Set
The expectancies and predispositions that the observer brings to a perceptual situation.
Visual Cliff
Depth perception. Gibson and Walks’ visual cliff
Stroboscopic Motion
The illusion of motion using light
Phi Phenomenon
The illusion of motion usually by rapid succession of drawings. (animation)
Optical Illusion
Muller Lyer Illusion. Carpenter vs non carpenter societies.
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information
Bottom up processing
Starting with basic details and building up our understanding
