click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
GPSYC 101
Exam #2
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Sensation | Process of taking in the sensory information from our 5 senses |
Perception | Process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events |
Bottum-up Processing | Taking sensory information and the assembling and integrating it (all senses) |
Top-down processing | using models, ideas and expectations to interpret sensory information (using what we already know to ensure what we are seeing) |
3 Steps in the Process of Sensation | Reception, transduction, and transmission |
Reception | Stimulation of sensory receptor cells by energy (feeling heat) |
Transduction | Transforming this cell stimulation into neural impulses (Neurons tell the brain the hand feels something hot) |
Transmission | delivering this neural information to the brain to be processed (Brain receives neuron and moves hand from hot object) |
Threshold | The minimum level of stimulus intensity needed to detect a stimulus half the time (minimum level to perceive something) |
Subliminal | Stimulus is not intense enough to reach the threshold-- bellow threshold |
Signal Detection Theory | whether of not we detect a stimulus (especially admist background noise) Specific noise clues you in, like the sound of your child crying standing out when in a noisy crowded room |
Difference Threshold | minimum difference(height, weight, temp.) for person to be able to detect the difference half of the time |
Weber's Law | the principle that for two stimuli to be perceived as different, they must differ by a minim percentage |
Sensory Adaptation | help detect novelty in our surroundings, our senses tune out a constant stimulus (ticking of a clock) |
Perceptual set | what we expect to see which influences what we do see (top-down processing) |
The Blind Spot | there are no receptors on a specific a spot on the back of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye |
Photoreceptors | rods and cones which are chemically changed when light reaches the back of the retina |
Rods | Helps see black and white actions in our peripheral view and in the dark |
Cones | Helps us see sharp colorful detail in bright light (aren't as sensitive, and not as many) |
Thalamus | In brain, sends information where it needs to go |
Feature | neurons in the visual cortex |
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic Theory | there are 3-types of color receptor cones (red, green, and blue) and all colors we perceive are created by light waves stimulating combinations of these cones |
Color Blindness | people missing red cones or green cones have trouble differentiating red from green |
Opponent-process theory | the neural process of perceiving white as the opposite of perceiving black |
Visual Cliff | a test of depth perception-- babies seem to develop the ability at crawling age |
Retinal Disparity | both eyes having slightly different views and the more different the views are, the closer the object must be-- Binocular Method |
Monocular cues | relative motion-- the farther away they are, the longer it takes for them to pass away |
Frequency | Corresponds to our perception of pitch (length of sound wave, high and low sounds) |
Amplitude | corresponds to our perception of loudness (hight intensity of the sound wave, loud and soft) |
Complexity | corresponds to our perception of timbre (sound quality or resonance) |
Sound wave - outer ear | collects the sound and funnels it to the eardrum |
sound wave- middle ear |