Dr. Fraser Psych Terms Ch. 5 1/2

Front 1

absolute threshold

Back 1

the minimum amount of stimulus detectable 50% of the time

Front 2

auditory scene analysis

Back 2

the perceptual process through which sounds are mentally represented and interpreted

Front 3

closure

Back 3

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that people tend to fill in missing contours to form a complete object

Front 4

common fate

Back 4

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that objects moving in the same direction at the same speed are perceived as belponging together

Front 5

common region

Back 5

a principle of perceptual organization in which elements located within some perimeter or other boundary tend to be grouped together

Front 6

computational approach

Back 6

an apporach to perception that focuses on how perception occurs

Front 7

contructionist approach

Back 7

a view of perception taken by those who argue that the perceptual system uses fragments of sensory information to construct an image of reality

Front 8

continuity

Back 8

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that sensations that appear to create a continous form are perceived as belonging together

Front 9

difference threshold

Back 9

the smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy

Front 10

ecological approach

Back 10

an approach to perception maintaining that humans and other species are so well adapted to their natural environment that many aspects of the world are perceived automatically at the sensory level, without requiring higher-level analysis and inferences

Front 11

Gestalt psychologists

Back 11

a group of psychologists who suggested, among other things, that there are 6 principles or properties behind the grouping of stiumuli that lead the human perceptual system to glue raw sensations together in particular ways, organizing stimuli into a world of shapes and patterns

Front 12

likelihood principle

Back 12

the notion that people perceive objects in the way that experience tells them is the most likely physical arrangement

Front 13

noise

Back 13

stimulation caused by a source other than the main stimulus or signal

Front 14

perception

Back 14

the process through which people take raw sensations from the environment and interpret them, using knowledge, experience, and understanding of the world, so the sensations become meaningful experiences

Front 15

perceptual organization

Back 15

the task of determining what edges and other stimuli go together to form an object

Front 16

proximity

Back 16

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that the closer objects are to one another, the more likely they are to be perceived as belonging together

Front 17

psychophysics

Back 17

an area of research that focuses on the relationship between the physical characteristics of of envrionmental stimuli and the conscious psychological experience those stimuli produce. These reseraches seek to understand how people make contact with and become conscious of the world

Front 18

response criterion

Back 18

the internal rule a person uses to decide whether or not to report a stimulus; relfects the person's motivation and expectations

Front 19

sensitivity

Back 19

the ability to detect a stimulus

Front 20

signal-detection theory

Back 20

a formal mathematical model of what determines a person's report that a near-threshold stiumulus has or has not occurred

Front 21

simliarity

Back 21

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that simliar elementa are perceived to be part of a group

Front 22

simplicity

Back 22

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that people tend to group stimulus features in a way that provides the simplest interpretations of the world

Front 23

subliminal stimuli

Back 23

stimuli that are too brief or weak to be perceived

Front 24

supraliminal stimuli

Back 24

stimuli that fall above the absolute threshold and thus are consistently preceived

Front 25

texture

Back 25

a Gestalt grouping principle stating that when features of stimuli have the same texture they tend to be grouped together

Front 26

Weber's Law

Back 26

a law stating that the smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy is is a constant fraction of the intensity of the stimulus