Sensation & Perception Ch. 1

Front 1

Perceptual Process

Back 1

(make sure and study Figure 1.1)

P
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A
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A
S
T
P

Front 2

Environmental Stimulus

Back 2

All of the things in our environment that we can potentially perceive.

Front 3

Attended Stimulus

Back 3

What becomes the center of attention

Front 4

Transduction

Back 4

The transformation of one form of energy into another form of energy.

Front 5

Neural Processing

Back 5

Refers to operations that change the electrical responses of neurons in various ways.

Front 6

Perception

Back 6

Is conscious sensory experience.

Front 7

Recognition

Back 7

Our ability to place an object in a category such as "moth", that gives it meaning.

Front 8

Agnosia

Back 8

Inability to recognize objects.

Front 9

Action

Back 9

Includes motor activities such as moving the head or eyes and locomoting through the environment.

Front 10

Knowledge

Back 10

Any information that the perceiver brings to a situation.

Front 11

What does the Rat-Man Demonstration show?

Back 11

Shows how recently acquired knowledge can influence perception.

Front 12

Bottom-Up Processing

Back 12

Is processing that is based on incoming data.

Front 13

What is another name for Bottom-Up Processing?

Back 13

Data-Based Processing

Front 14

Top-Down Processing

Back 14

Processing that is based on knowledge.

Front 15

What is another name for Top-Down Processing?

Back 15

Knowledge-Based Processing

Front 16

Levels of Analysis

Back 16

Idea that we can observe processes at different scales.

Front 17

Psychophysical level of Analysis

Back 17

Stimulus-Perception Relationship

Front 18

Who introduced the term Psychophysics?

Back 18

Gustav Fechner

Front 19

Psychophysics

Back 19

Any measurement of the relationship between the stimulus and perception.

Front 20

Physiological level of Analysis

Back 20

How a person's perception is related to physiological processes that are occurring within the person.

Stimulus-Physiology Relationship

Front 21

Cognitive Influences on Perception

Back 21

How knowledge, memories, and expectations influence perception.

Front 22

Phenomelogical Method

Back 22

When a researcher asks a person to describe what he or she is percieving or to indicate when perception occurs.

(1st step in studying perception)

Front 23

Classical Psychophysical Methods

Back 23

The original Methods used by Fechner in his book (Elements of Psychophysics) which include:

1.limits
2.adjustment
3.constant stimuli

Front 24

Absolute Threshold

Back 24

The smallest amount of stimulus energy necessary to detect a stimulus.

Front 25

How is an absolute threshold determined?

Back 25

by the Method of Limits

Front 26

The Method of Limits

Back 26

The experimenter presents stimuli in either ascending or descending order, to see the limit at which the stimulus is detected.

Front 27

Method of Adjustment

Back 27

The experimenter or observer adjusts the stimulus intensity in a continuous manner until the observer can just barely detect the stimulus.

Front 28

Method of Constant Stimuli

Back 28

The experimenter presents five to nine stimuli with different intensities in random order. The threshold is usually taken as the intensity that results in detection 50% of the trials.

Front 29

Difference Threshold (DL)

Back 29

Is the smallest difference between two stimuli that a person can detect.

Front 30

Weber's Law

Back 30

DL/S=K

Front 31

In Webers Law

DL/S=K

What is K?

Back 31

The Weber Fraction
(depending on the type of stimulus, it is usually percentage at which a difference can be detected)

Front 32

In Webers Law

DL/S=K

What is S?

Back 32

S is the value of the standard stimulus.

Front 33

Magnitude Estimation

Back 33

Answers the questions:


If we double the intensity of a a tone, does it sound twice as loud?

If we double the intensity of a light, does it look twice as bright?

Front 34

Response Compression

Back 34

Doubling the intensity of light does not "double" the perceived intensity of that brightness due to response compression.

Front 35

Response Expansion

Back 35

Doubling the intensity of a shock more than doubles the perceived shock.

Front 36

Power Functions

Back 36

The Functions that describe the intensity of a stimulus and our perception of it.

Front 37

Stevens's Power Law

Back 37

P=KS^n

Front 38

In Stevens's Power Law

P=KS^n

P is the:

Back 38

Perceived Magnitude

Front 39

In Stevens's Power Law

P=KS^n

K is the:

Back 39

constant

Front 40

In Stevens's Power Law

P=KS^n

S is the:

Back 40

Stimulus Intensity

Front 41

In Stevens's Power Law

P=KS^n

n is the:

Back 41

the power

Front 42

Visual Search

Back 42

A method sometimes used by researches in which the observers task is to find one stimulus among many, as quickly as possible.

Front 43

Reaction Time

Back 43

The time between presentation of a stimulus and the observer's response to the stimulus.

Front 44

What 3 common steps do the senses share?

Back 44

1) A Physical Stimulus

2)A sensor (receptor) and neural circuits that transduce (receptor) and process (neural circuits) the stimulus into nerve impulses.

3) A response to this signal in the form of perception, or conscious experience of sensation.

Front 45

Who demonstrated that mental activity could be measured quantitatively?

Back 45

Fechner

Front 46

Which is the most accurate method to measure thresholds?

Back 46

The Method of Constant Stimuli

(takes the longest time)

Front 47

Which is the least accurate method to measure thresholds?

Back 47

Method of Adjustment

(Fastest)