Unit 4 Flashcards
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Perception
the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
Sensation
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
Bottom-Up Processing
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experiences and expectations.
Top-Down Processing
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
Selective Attention
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Inattentional Blindness
The failure to notice changes in our environment.
Change Blindness
The transforming of stimulus energies (sights, sounds, smells) into neural impulses our brain can interpret.
Transduction
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them.
Psychophysics
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
Absolute Threshold
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of faint stimulus amid background stimulation (noise).
Signal Detection Theory
Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Subliminal
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.
Priming
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. (Just a noticeable difference.)
Difference Threshold
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage rather than by a certain constant amount.
Weber’s Law
Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation.
Sensory Adaptation
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
Perceptual Set
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Includes telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
The study of paranormal psychology, including ESP and psychokinesis.
Parapsychology
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.
Wavelength
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light.
Hue
The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, as determined by the wave’s amplitude. We perceive as brightness or loudness.
Intensity
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
Pupil
A ring of muscle tissue that forms the ring of color around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.
Iris
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
Lens