Wk6 Flashcards
Perception
Making sense of what our senses tell us. It is not determined by an actual stimulus but our prediction and interpretation of it
Sensation
Stimulus-detection process where our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli. The process by which our sensory system detects info from the outside world.
Psychophysics
Relationship between physical energy needed to notice a stimuli and sensory capabilities.
Absolute threshold
Minimum amount of physical energy needed to notice a stimulus
The difference threshold
Smallest difference between 2 stimuli that people can perceive 50% of the time.
Weber’s law
The just noticeable difference is directly proportional to magnitude of stimulus.
Signal detection theory
Judgements about the presence or absence of stimulus reflect the observers sensitivity to the stimulus and their response bias
Sensory receptors
Transform energy in the environment into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain.
Transduction
Process of converting physical energy into neural impulses.
Response bias
The individuals readiness to report detecting a stimulus when uncertain
Fechner’s law
The logarithmic relation between subjective and objective stimulus intensity.
Stevens power law
As the perceived intensity of a stimulus grows arithmetically the actual magnitude of the stimulus grows exponentially
Sensory adaptation
The tendency of sensory receptors to respond less to stimuli that continue without change.
Subliminal perception
Process that occurs outside of conscious awareness
2 processes that occur in the eye
- The cornea, pupil and lens focus light on the retina
- Retina transduces the visual image into neural impulses that are relayed to and interpreted by the brain
The cornea
A tough, transparent tissue covering the front of the eyeball - light enters through the cornea.
Aqueous humour
A chamber of fluid behind the cornea which supplies oxygen and other nutrients to the cornea and lens.
Pupil
An opening in the centre of the iris
Iris
The pigmented tissue that gives the eye its colour. Muscles fibres in the iris cause the pupil to expand and contract to regulate the amount of light coming into the eye.
Lens
Elastic, disc-shaped structure involved in focusing the eyes. Muscles attached to cells surrounding the lens alter its shape to focus on objects at varying distances.
Accommodation of the lens
Flattens for distant objects and rounded for closer.
Retina
A light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye that transduces light into visual sensations
Rods and cones
Light receptors at the back of the retina, when they absorb light they generate an electrical signal stimulating the nearby bipolar cells. There are 120 million rods and 8 million cones.
Bipolar cells
Combine the info from many receptors and produce graded potentials on ganglion cells.
Ganglion cells
Integrate info from bipolar cells The axons bundle together to form the optic nerve.
Optic nerve
Carries visual info to the brain.