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34 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Psychophysics |
the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience - sensation begins with detectable stimuli |
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Sensation and perception: the distinction |
sensation: the detection of physical energy by the sense organs 5 senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch |
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Transduction |
the process of converting an external stimulus into electrical signals within neurons |
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When senses meet the brain... |
our brain pieces together - what's in our sensory field - what was there a moment ago - what we remember from the past |
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Perception |
the brain's interpretation of raw sensory data |
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Threshold |
a dividing point between energy levels that do and do not have a detectable effect - example, automatic lights turn on when a threshold is reached |
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Absolute threshold |
the stimulus intensity that can be detected 50% of the time - example, the softest sound you can hear |
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Signal detection theory |
hit- true positive correct junction- you are correct about it not being there false alarm- the stimulus was not there but the subject says it was there miss- the stimulus was there and the subject says it was not there |
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Just noticeable differences (JND) |
the smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that s specific sense can detect - "anchoring" a reference point to which we compare the differences
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Weber's law |
size of JND is proportional to size of initial stimulus intensity |
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Fechner's law |
the magnitude of the perceptual experience is proportional to the number of JNDs that the stimulus is above the absolute threshold |
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Cross-modal sense |
Perceptionand psychological experience is determined by the sense receptor, not thestimulus Inour brain, it doesn’t matter what sense activated the sense receptor …our brainreacts the same way in either case |
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Phosphenes |
Vivid sensations of light caused by activation(pressure) on your eye’s receptor cells but not by light |
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The McGurk effect |
When the auditory component of one sound ispaired with the visual component of another sound |
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Synesthesia |
A condition in which people experiencecross-modal sensations |
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Parallel processing |
Theability to attend to multiple senses at once - Multi-tasking - Bottom-upvs. top-down processing |
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Bottom-up processing |
According to feature detection theory, peopledetect specific elements in stimuli and build them up into recognizable forms |
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Top-down processing |
Form perception involves top-down processing,clearly emphasized by the Gestalt psychologists, who demonstrated that thewhole is more than the sum of its parts |
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Gestalt principles |
Rules that govern how we perceive objects aswholes within their overall context m of its part |
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Illusion |
An illusion is a distortion of the senses,revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation |
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Perceptual set theory |
Whenour expectations influence our perceptions - Atendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data andignore others |
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Perceptual constancy |
The process by which we perceive stimuliconsistently across varied conditions |
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Form Perception |
Perceptual sets demonstrate that the samevisual stimulus can result in very different perceptions |
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Reversible figures |
Anoptical illusion that is designed to create an unstable visual perception Onewhich leads the beholder to notice between two or more differentinterpretations |
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Role of attention |
Selectiveattention allows for emphasizing some sensory inputs while inhibiting others - Focus - Theother channels are still being processed at some level |
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Inattention blindness |
A failure to detect stimuli that are in plainsight when our attention |
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Change blindness |
A failure to detect obvious changes in one’senvironment |
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Cues: Depth perception |
Abilityto judge distance and three-dimensional relations -Monocularand binocular cues |
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Monocular depth cues |
Rely on one eye -Relativesize -Texturegradient -Interposition -Linearperspective -Heightin plane -Lightand shadow |
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Binocular depth cues |
Requires both eyes - Binoculardisparity - Binocularconvergence |
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Visual cliff |
Hesitationas young as 6 months’ old - Demonstratesthat depth perception is partly innate and as a result of experience |
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When perception deceives us |
Understanding why we misperceive informationprovides insight into how we make sense of our surroundings |
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Visual perception |
The term illusory motion, also known as motionillusion, is an optical illusion in which a static image appears to be movingdue to the cognitive effects of interacting colour contrasts and shapepositions |
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Colour perception |
Opponent process theory sees colour vision asa functioning of complimentary, opposing colours (ex. Red vs. green and bluevs. yellow) |
