Gre Psych: Sensation And Perception

Front 1

Ernst Weber (what's his theory? Who's Feschner?)

Back 1

Ernst Weber: Came up with jnd.

Weber's Law: Made by Feschner, the mathematical expression.

Front 2

Sir Francis Galton

Back 2

Sir Francis Galton: One of the first researchers interested in individual differences.

Front 3

Who founded Gestalt?

Back 3

Who founded Gestalt? Max Wertheimer: Starting with phi phenomenon.

Front 4

Psychophysics (what's it mean? What's absolute threshold? What's difference threshold? What's standard and comparison stimulus? What's Weber's law?)

Back 4

Psychophysics: Measures physical stimuli and psychological response. Studied thresholds...

1. Absolute threshold: The minimum of stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory system. Like, HOW bright and HOW loud something is before it's perceived.

*limen= threshold.

2. Difference Threshold: How different in magnitude two stimuli must be before we perceive them as different. Compares a Standard Stimulus to a Comparison Stimulus

3. Difference Threshold: The differences between the weight of the standard stimulus and the comparison stimulus are averaged to get this score.

4. jnd: The AMOUNT (a UNIT) of change needed to predict a difference between two stimuli. One jnd needs to be added to/subtracted from stimulus for a person to say they notice the difference.

5. Weber's Law: a RATIO. [The change in stimulus intensity needed to make a JND] divided by [stimulus intensity of standard stimulus] is a CONSTANT. The smaller the constant, the better the sensitivity.

Front 5

Concepts in Psychophysics

Back 5

Concepts in Psychophysics:

1. Absolute threshold: The amount of stimulus energy needed for a person to say they perceive it.

2. Difference Threshold: The AMOUNT of stimulus energy that needs to be added/ subtracted from a stimulus for a person to say they notice a DIFFERENCE.

3. JND: One JND must be added or subtracted from a stimulus for a person to day that they notice a difference. It's a UNIT.

4. Weber's Law: What's important in producing a jnd is not the absolute difference between the two stimuli, but their RATIO.

Front 6

Fechner's Law

Steven's Power Law

Back 6

Fechner's Law: the relationship between the intensity of the sensation and the intensity of the stimulus. So: Sensation increases more slowly as intensity increases.

Steven's power law: A better equation expressing the same thing: Relating intensity of stimulus to the intensity of the sensation.

Front 7

Signal Detection Theory (what's response bias?)

Back 7

Signal Detection Theory: Other, nonsensory factors influence what the subject says they sense (like motives, expectations, how sure someone needs to feel before they report hearing something).

Response bias: The tendency of subjects to respond in a particular way due to nonsensory factors. Measures how risky the subject is in sensory decision-making.

Front 8

Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) (Who's John A. Swets? ROC Curve? What's a hit? Miss? False Alarm? Correct Rejection?)

Back 8

ROC (part of signal detection theory): Graphically summarize a subject's responses, measures operating (sensitivity) characteristics of a subject receiving signals.

Sensitivity: How well the subject can sense a stimulus.

Signal Detection Theory:
1. Hit: "Yes" @ present signal
2. False Alarm" "Yes" @ absent signal.
3. Miss: "No" @ Present signal
4. Correct Rejection (Correct Negative): "No" @ Signal Absent.

Front 9

Sensory Information Processing (what do they all have in common? What's receptors? What's transduction? What's Projection Areas?)

Back 9

Sensory Information Processing:

All have this in common:

1. Reception: react to physical external energy.
2. Transduction: Translation of physical energy into neural impulses or action potentials.
3. After transduction, the energy's sent to Projection Areas in the brain along different neural pathways, to be processed by the nervous system

Front 10

The Eye

Back 10

The Eye:
1. Cornea: Gathers and focuses incoming light. It's a clear window in front of your eye


2. Pupil: Hole in the iris. Contracts in bright light, expands in dim light to let light in.

3. Iris: Controls the size of pupil so the amount of light entering the eye. The colored part of the eye, has involuntary muscles and autonomic nerve fibers.


4. Lens: Can focus on close or nearby objects. It's right behind the iris, and controls the curvature of light coming in, focusing on near or distant objects ON THE RETINA.

Front 11

Retina (where? Function?)


What's the blind spot?

Back 11

Retina:

In the back of the eye. It's like a screen filled with neural elements, blood vessels.

The retina is the IMAGE-DETECTING part of the eye.

The blind spot: Where the optic nerve leaves the eye. No photoreceptors here.

Front 12

What's the Duplexity (Duplicity) Theory of Vision?

Back 12

What's the Duplexity (Duplicity) Theory of Vision?

The retina has TWO KINDS of photoreceptors. The retina's cells are organized such that light passes through INTERMEDIATE sensory neurons, then stimulates PHOTORECEPTORS.

Front 13

Rods and Cones (where and what do they do?)

Back 13

1. Cones: for COLOR vision, fine detail. Work best at fine light, see chromatic and achromatic colors.

2. Rods: Work best in dim light, allow perceptions of ACHROMATIC color. Low sensitivity to detail, NO color vision. There's more rods than cones in the eye.

Fovea: The middle section of the retina has ONLY CONES! The farther from the fovea, the more rods and less cones.

SO: Visual acuity is best in the fovea, the most sensitive area in normal day light vision.

At the PERIPHERY of retina, there's only RODS!

Front 14

Are the receptors (rods and cones) directly connected to the optic nerve?

(What's the role of horizontal, amacrine, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells?)

Back 14

Are the receptors (rods and cones) directly connected to the optic nerve?
No, there's a few neuron layers in between...
1. Rods and cones connect to BIPOLAR NEURONS.
2. B. Neurons connect to BIPOLAR CELLS, which connect to GANGLION cells. (amacrine cells are in there too, before the optic nerve)
3. The Ganglion cells group together to form the OPTIC nerve.

Front 15

Why is there a loss of detail as information from the photoreceptors is combines? How does this explain why cones are more detail-sensitive?

Back 15

Why is there a loss of detail as information from the photoreceptors is combines?

Because there's more RECEPTORS than ganglion cells, so each ganglion cell represents the combined activity of many rods and cones.

So: The more receptors converging through a bipolar neuron onto a ganglion cell, the worse the FINE DETAIL.

And: There's more rods converging onto a ganglion cell than there are cones (so cones have MORE FINE DETAIL sensitivity)

Front 16

Visual Pathways in the Brain (what happens to the nasal fibers? What happens to the temporal fibers? What's the optic chaism? Where does information from the left visual field of BOTH eyes go?)

Back 16

Visual Pathways in the Brain

1. Image is reversed onto the retina. The image on the right side of each eye's visual field forms the left half of each eye's retina.
2. The image of the stimulus on the left side of each eye's visual field forms on the RIGHT side of each eye's retina.
3. The optic chaism: Where the fibers from the nasal half of the retina (nasal fibers) cross paths.
[NOTE: fibers from the temporal halves of the retina DO NOT cross paths]
4. Information from the left visual field of both eyes: Processed in the right cerebral hemisphere.
Information from the right visual field of both eyes: Processed in the left hem.

Front 17

Visual Pathways in the Brain (where does information go post optic chaism?)

Back 17

Visual Pathways in the Brain:

1. From the Optic Chiasm, the information may go:
i. Lateral Geniculate Nucleaus of the Thalamus
ii. The Visual Cortex in the Occipital Lobe
iii. The Superior Colliculus (in the midbrain)

Front 18

Hubel and Wiesel's Theory? (what's a simple, complex, and hypercomplex cell? What's single-cell recording?)

Back 18

Hubel and Wiesel's Feature Detection Theory

Hubel and Wiesel: Found a neural basis for feature detection theory (suggest certain cells in the cortex are maximally sensitive to certain features of stimuli)

2. Single-Cell Recording: Placing a microelecrode in the cortex that records from a SINGLE nerve fiber.

3 cells in the cortex:
1. Simple: Orientation, boundaries
2. Complex: Movement
3. Shape

Front 19

Brightness Perception (what's dark adaptation? What's rhodopsin, what's retinal and opsin? How's it related to bleaching? What's light adaptation?)

Back 19

Brightness Perception

1. Illumination: Physical, objective measurement = the AMOUNT of light falling on a surface.
2. Brightness: The SUBJECTIVE impression of the intensity of a light.

We perceive brightness with these factors:
Adaptation

1. Dark Adaptation [you first can't see anything in a bright room b/c your rods were bleached by brighter light.]

Bleaching:

*The rod's only photopigment is RHODOPSIN (made of vitamin A derivative called RETINAL and a protein, OPSIN).
*Bleaching: When a rhodopsin molecule absorbs a photon of light, and the pigment decomposes into retinene and opsin.
*After bleaching: It takes time for the pigment to regenerate, then you see better.

2. Light Adaptation: When you come back out of the dark and start seeing again.

Front 20

Brightness Perception II: What's simultaneous brightness contrast?

Back 20

Brightness Perception II:

Simultaneous brightness contrast: A target area appears bright when surrounded by a darker stimulus.
Why?
Lateral Inhibition: Adjacent retinal cells inhibit one another. Inhibited cells don't fire as often, so the corresponding area appears less bright.
*Lateral Inhibition: Sharpens, highlights the BORDERS between light and dark areas.

Front 21

Brightness Perception Review:
1. Illumination
2. Brightness
3. Dark Adaptation
4. Lateral Inhibition

Back 21

Brightness Perception Review:

1. Illumination: An OBJECTIVE measure of the amount of light falling on a surface.

2. Brightness: The SUBJECTIVE measure of the intensity of a stimulus.

3. Dark Adaptation: Caused by the generation of rhodopsin (the photopigment in the rods)

4. Lateral Inhibition: Adjacent retinal cells inhibit one another. It sharpens and highlights the borders between light and dark areas.

Front 22

Color Perception (what's additive, subtractive color mixing, and how do we perceive things that don't give off light?)

Back 22

Color Perception: The wavelength of the light entering the eye. Humans: 400- 800 nanometers.

Subtractive Color Mixture: When we mix PIGMENTS. ex/ Blue and yellow = green.

Additive Color Mixing: Lights. Primary colors are red, green, red.

If a stimulus doesn't give off its own light, we process the light REFLECTED off it.

Front 23

Young-Helmhotz's Theory re: color vision?

Back 23

Young-Helmhotz's Trichromatic Theory:

The retina has THREE types of color receptors: Red, Green, and Blue.

Today: Helmhotz was right...We know there's three types of cones in the retina, each maximally sensitive to a different primary color.

Front 24

Edward Hering's Theory re: color vision?

Back 24

Hering's Opponent- Processing Theory color vision?

Three opposing pairs: red-green, blue-yellow, black-white.

ex. Color red excites a red-green cell. Implies you can never have a reddish-green color.

Afterimages (of colors) support Hering.

Today: Hering's theory applied to other cells in the visual system (not retinal), like the lateral geniculate nucleus in the brain.

Front 25

Depth Perception (who's George Berkeley? What are the depth cues?)

Back 25

The images on our retina are 2D, so how do we see depth?

George Berkeley suggested there's depth cues in 1709.

1. Interposition (overlap): When one object overlaps another, it looks like it's in front!

2. Relative Size: As an object gets further away, its retinal image gets smaller. You compare the retinal image's size with your knowledge about actual size.

3. Linear Perspective: Convergence of = lines in the distance. But you know they don't really converge.

Front 26

Depth Perception II

(Who's JJ Gibson? What's texture gradients, motion parallax? Kinetic depth effect? Binocular disparity? Stereopsis? What's binocular parallax? Binocular depth cue? monocular depth cue? And what's the stereoscope?)

Back 26

Depth Perception II

JJ Gibson added depth cues to George Berkeley...

1. Texture Gradient: Differences in perceived surface texture as a function of distance from the observer. The more distant something is, the more densely packed the elements, and sudden changes in texture= change in distance OR change in direction.

2. Motion Parallax: When you're moving and looking off at something, objects between you and your point of gaze look like they're coming towards you! Their speed of "movement" changes depending how close they are to you.
Kinetic Depth Effect: When an object (not you) moves, they give KDE cues.

3. Binocular Disparity (stereopsis): The distance between the eyes gives us two slightly different views. The degree of the difference is the Binocular Parallax.

SO: When the brain combines the two views, it's called Stereopsis.

NOTE: Steropsis is the only depth view that requires two eyes (binocular depth cue). All the others are monocular depth cues.

A steroscope: Used for stereoptic research. Give the eyes 2 different images, like a 3D image would do naturally.

Front 27

Perception of Form (what's figure and ground? What's top-down, bottom-up processing?)

Back 27

Perception of Form

Figure: The integrated visual experience that stands out @ center of attention
Ground: The background of the figure.

Bottom-Up Processing (data-driven):
• stimulus information arrives from the sensory receptors (the bottom level of processing)
• allows us to recognized more complex, whole patterns
• feature analysis

Top-Down (conceptually-driven)
• our knowledge (memory) about how the world is organized helps in identifying patterns
•:We RECOGNIZE the whole object, and then the components.

Without top-down, we'd never recognize anything, but without bottom-up, we'd never see features.

Front 28

Form Perception II
Don't get me started on GESTALT

(What are the five laws? What's proximity? Similarity? Good continuation? Closure? Pragnanz?)

Back 28

Form Perception II:
GESTALT

Five laws:
1. Proximity: Elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit.
2. Similarity: Elements similar to one another tend to be grouped together.
3. Good continuation: Elements that appear to follow in the same direction tend to be grouped together
*Subjective Contours: Perceiving contours (so, shapes) that aren't there.
4. Closure: Incomplete figures look complete. Spaces enclosed by a counter look complete.
5. Pragnanz: Perceptual organization will always be a "good" (ie. regular, similar, symmetrical) as possible.

Front 29

Form Perception:

Who's Wolfgang Kohler? Theory of

Back 29

Wolfgang Kohler and Form Perception:

Theory of Isomorphism: There's a direct correspondence between the object in the perceptual field and the pattern of stimulation in the brain.

Explains figure-ground configurations' representation in the brain.

Front 30

Motion Perception:

Five Illusions of Motion (Apparent motion- Phi Phenomenon, Induced motion, Autokinetic Effect, Motion Aftereffect).

Back 30

Motion Perception:

Five Illusions of Motion

1. Apparent motion (Phi Phenomenon aka Stroboscopic): When two or more stationary lights in different places are show seconds apart, they tend to be perceived as a single moving light.

2. Induced motion: A nonmoving point of light appears to move when the background moves!

3. Autokinetic Effect: When a nonmoving point of light in a totally dark room looks like it's moving. Maybe caused by involuntary eye movements?

4. Motion Aftereffect (aka the waterfall effect): If a moving object is viewed for a long time, it'll appear to move in an opposite direction when the motion stops.

Front 31

Visual Constancies:

(What's distal and proximal stimuli?)
(What's... 1. Size Constancy 2. Shape Constancy3. Lightness Constancy 4. Color Constancy?)

Back 31

Visual Constancies:

1. Distal Stimuli: The actual object or event
2. Proximal Stimuli: The information we receive about the object. ex. the image on the retina.
Perception: Seeks to perceive the distal stimulus.

4 major constancies in visual perception (so we don't get confused by proximal stimuli)

1. Size Constancy: Tendency for the perceived size of an object to stay constant despite variations in the size of the retinal images.
i. Visual Angle: The size of the image on the retina. Determined by:
a. the size of the object
b. the distance between the object and the eye.
SO: If the distance is constant, a big object will make a big visual angle, and a bigger retinal size.
AND: A close object will make a larger visual angle, and larger retinal size.
NOTE: Good distance perception is ESSENTIAL for good size constancy.

2. Shape Constancy: Tendency for perceived shape of an object to remain constant despite variations in the shape of its retinal images. (ex. a door opening always looks like a rectangle)

3. Lightness Constancy: Tendency for the perceived lightness of an object to remain constant despite changes in illumination.

4. Color Constancy: Tendency for perceived color of an object to remain constant despite changes in the spectrum of light falling on it.

Front 32

Visual Constancy (What's Emmert's Law? What's Ames Room? Moon illusion?)

Back 32

Visual Constancy

1. Emmert's Law: The relationship between size constancy and apparent distance. Size constancy depends on apparent distance. Farther objects require more scaling to compensate for retinal size.

2. Ames Room: Erroneous depth info confuses our nothing of size. Someone standing by a larger left window appear equally far away as a person standing at a closer right rear window. In Ames room, the differences in visual angles is NOT due to a difference in distance.

3. Moon Illusion: The moon on the horizon looks bigger than the moon at its zenith (top). But both are the same size in retina and real life. So: Maybe it looks bigger in horizon cause of distance cues.

Front 33

Illusions: Muller-Lyer, Ponzo, Hering and Wundt, Poggendorff, reversible figure.

Back 33

Illusions:
1.Muller-Lyer: lines are the same size
2.Ponzo: Lines are the same size
3.Hering and Wundt: Lines are straight and parallel.
4.Poggendorff: Line on bottom continues line on top
5.reversible figure: A pattern in which two alternate, equally compelling perceptual organizations oscillate.

Front 34

Visual Perception and Experience (preferential looking, habituation- in infants Visual Cliff, by Gibson and Walk?)

Back 34

Visual Perception and Experience

1.Preferential Looking: Two different stimuli are presented side by side; if an infant looks at one longer, it's inferred he can perceive the difference between the two.

SO: Infants prefer complex and socially relevant stimuli, like a face, and patterns.

2. Habituation: A stimulus is presented to the infant, and he eventually stops attending to it. A different stimulus is presented, and if the infant attends to it, it's inferred he can perceive the difference between the old and new stim.

*First 2 months: The Visual Areas of Cerebral Cortex develop. Birth: Kid can't see fine detail, but can follow an object in the center of the visual field, they CAN see color, simple figures, see in dim light.

3. Visual Cliff: Designed by Gibson and Walk to assess infant depth perception. Kids won't try to cross even at 6 months!

4. Animal studies: In visually impoverished environments, suggests sensitive periods, experience is important.

Front 35

Auditory System: Dimensions of Sound

Back 35

Auditory System: Dimensions of Sound

1. Objective Dimensions:
a. Frequency: The number of cycles per second. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency.
Humans: 20Hz-20,000Hz.
b. Intensity: The AMPLITUDE of the sound wave. Measured in decibels. The more decibels, the noisier a sound. (Humans: Over 140 decibels hurts).

2. Subjective Dimensions of Sound
a. Pitch: The subjective experience of the FREQUENCY of sound. (low tone? High tone?)
b. Loudness: The subjective experience of the INTENSITY of sound.
c. Timbre: The QUALITY of sound. (ex. High C on piano vs. on guitar)

Front 36

Structure of the Ear:

1. Outer Ear
2. Middle Ear
3. Inner Ear

Back 36

Structure of the Ear:

1. Outer Ear:
a. Pinna: The fleshy part of the ear visible from the outside. Where sound waves hit first.
b. Auditory canal: Where the pinna channels the sound waves.
c. Eardrum (aka tymphanic membrane): Where the auditory canal channels the sound. The eardrum vibrates in phase with the incoming sound, moves at a high rate for high-Hz sounds.


2. Middle Ear: Has three tiny bones (the Ossicles):
a. Hammer (aka malleus)
b. Anvil (incus):
c. Stirrup (Stapes).

The Ossicles: Transmit the vibrations on the eardrum (tympanum) to the inner ear.

3. Inner Ear:
a . The Oval window: The entrance to the inner ear. Sits on the edge of the stirrup (stapes)
b. Cochlea: Filled with cochlear fluid.
c. Basilar Membrane
d. Organ of Cori: Runs on top of, along the length of, the basilar membrane. Has thousands of hair cells: RECEPTORS. When they bend, the bending is transduced into electrical charge.
SO: The signal is transmitted out of the chchlea along the nerve fiber, which connects to other nerve fibers in the...
e. Auditory nerve.

Front 37

What's the deal with the hair cells in the ear?

(from eardrum to ossicle, stirrup (stapes) to oval window, to cochlear fluid, to basilar membrane, to hair cells to tectorial membrane). Easy...

Back 37

The hair cells in the ear BEND when sound waves enter the eardrum (tymphanic membrane). This causes the ossicles to vibrate. The stirrup (stapes), the last ossicle, causes the oval window (the entrance to the middle ear) to vibrate. That creates movement in the basilar membrane: Causes a traveling wave that makes the hair cells bump into the tectorial membrane.

SO: The cochlear vibrations make the basilar membrane move, which makes the hair cells bend.

Front 38

Auditory Pathways

Back 38

Auditory Pathways: The auditory nerve projects to the superior olive, the INFERIOR colliculus, the medial geniculate nucleus, and the temporal cortex.

Front 39

Pitch Perception Theories

1.Helmholtz's Place Resonance Theory
2. Frequency Theory (and weber and bray's modification?)
3. Bekesy's Traveling Wave

Back 39

Pitch Perception Theories

1.Helmholtz's Place Resonance Theory: A different pitch causes a different place in the basilar membrane to vibrate. Different places cause different hair cells to vibrate.

So: Place theory is operative for tones over 4,000Hz.
2. Frequency Theory: The BM vibrates as a whole, the rate of the vibration equals the frequency of the stimulus. The vibration rate is translated to the right number of neural impulses per second. (ex/ tone = 500Hz, BM vibrates 500x/sex, nerve fibers fire @ 500 impulses/ sec).

Weber and Bray's modification: The original Hz theory only worked up to 1,000Hz. Weber and Bray: Modified it w/ the VOLLEY PRINCIPLE: High neural firing can be maintained if the nerve fibers work together.

So: Frequency Theory works for tones up to 500Hz.

NOTE: Both place (Hemz) and frequency theory work between 500- 4,000Hz.


3. Bekesy's Traveling Wave: Movement of the BM is maximal at a different place along the BM for each DIFFERENT FREQUENCY (although the whole BM does vibrate for any given stim).
i. High Hz: Vibrates the part near the cochlear near oval window.
ii. Low Hz: Vibrates near the apex of cochlea.
iii. Under 400Hz: Maximally displaced a huge part of the BM.

Front 40

Taste and Smell

(what's the chemical sense? What's the papillae? What's the olfactory epithelium? Where's the taste center? Where does smell go in the brain?)

Back 40

Taste and Smell:

Taste and Smell are CHEMICAL senses. Receptors must physically touch the molecules that make up the stimulus.
i. Taste Buds: Taste receptors. Located in Papillae: Little bumps on the tongue. Travels to Taste Center in the THALAMUS.
ii. Smell Receptors: In the upper nasal passage of the nose (the olfactory epithelium). Travels to the Olfactory Bulb in the brain.

Front 41

Touch

4 basic categories.

Back 41

Touch

4 basic categories [with relevant receptors]:

1.Pressure (Pacinian corpuscles),
2. Pain
3. Warmth (Ruffini endings)
4. Cold.

Receptors: Merkle discs, free nerve endings, Meissner corpuscles (touch), Pacinian corpuscles (deep pressure), and Ruffini endings (warmth).


Other

Front 42

Touch (Concepts in touch perception)

1. Two-Point Threshold:
2. Physiological Zero:
3. Gate Theory of Pain (proposed by Melzach and Wall)

Back 42

Key concepts in touch perception:

1. Two-Point Threshold: The minimum distance necessary between two points of stimulation on the skin so the points'll feel distinct.

The size of the TPT will depend on the density of nerves in a particular area in the skin.

2. Physiological Zero: A neutral temperature (not hot or cold). Can and does change depending on what you've been touching.

"I'm cold" means you've dropped below physiological zero.

3. Gate Theory of Pain: A gating mechanism in the spinal cord turns pain signals on or off. (proposed by Melzach and Wall). So it can block sensory input from large, thick sensory fibers BEFORE the brain gets the message.

Front 43

Proprioception

1. Vestibular
2. Kinesthetic

Back 43

Proprioception

1. Vestibular: Our sense of BALANCE, body position relative to gravity. Receptors= the semicircular canals in the inner ear, around the cochlea.

2. Kinesthetic: Awareness of body movement and POSITION, like muscles and joints. The receptors are around there.

Front 44

Brain Structures Important to Sensation and Perception

1. Lateral Geniculate Nucleaus (Thalamus):
2. Superior Colliculus:
3. Visual Cortex in the Occipital Lobe:

4. Inferior Colliculus:
5. Medial Geniculate Nucleaus in the Thalamus:
6. Auditory Cortex in the Temporal Lobe:

7. Somatosensory Cortex:

Back 44

Brain Structures Important to Sensation and Perception:

1. Lateral Geniculate Nucleaus (Thalamus): Vision
2. Superior Colliculus: Vision
3. Visual Cortex in the Occipital Lobe: Vision

4. Inferior Colliculus: Audition
5. Medial Geniculate Nucleaus in the Thalamus: Audition
6. Auditory Cortex in the Temporal Lobe: Audition

7. Somatosensory Cortex: Touch.

Front 45

Selective Attention:

1. Donald Broadbent's filter.
2. Cocktail party
3. Dichotic Listening

Back 45

Selective Attention:

1. Donald Broadbent: Selective attention is a FILTER between sensory stimuli and our processing system. If a stimulus IS attended to, it'll pass the filter and get analyzed further.

Broadbent Filter: Selective Attention is an All-or-Nothing process (we attend to on thing and nothing else)

2. Cocktail Party Phenomenon: Suggests selective attention is no all or nothing, rather a LOUDNESS control that dampens other stimuli.

3. Dichotic Listening Task: Asked to shadow (repeat) a message as it's presented. So: You can attend to one message and dampen another.

Front 46

Yekes-Dodson Law

Back 46

Yerkes-Dodson Law: Attention required some arousal, but too much or too little will hurt performance.