All Flashcards
What is Bottom-up Processing?
Analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
What is Top-down Processing?
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, drawing on experience and expectations.
What is Weber's Law?
To be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.
What is Signal Detection Theory?
Predicts how and when we detect a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise).
What is the Cocktail Party Effect?
Ability to attend to only one voice among many.
Explain Figure-Ground Relationship.
Organizing visual information into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground).
What are Monocular Cues?
Depth cues available to either eye alone, such as relative size and linear perspective.
What are Binocular Cues?
Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes, such as retinal disparity and convergence.
What is Perceptual Constancy?
Perceiving objects as unchanging (consistent shape, size, lightness, color) even as illumination and retinal images change.
What is the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory?
Retina contains three color receptors (red, green, blue) that produce perception of any color when stimulated in combination.
What is the Opponent-Process Theory?
Opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision.
Explain the Gate-Control Theory.
The spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.
What is the effect of constant stimulation on sensory receptors?
Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity.
What is the effect of damage to the cochlea's receptor cells?
Sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness).
What is the effect of damage to the mechanical system of the ear?
Conduction hearing loss.
What is the effect of expectations on perception?
Perceptual set: perceiving what you expect to see.
What is the effect of selective attention?
Focusing conscious awareness, potentially leading to inattentional blindness.
What is the effect of retinal disparity?
Provides binocular cue for depth perception.
What is the effect of wavelength on light?
Determines the hue (color) we perceive.
What is the effect of amplitude on light?
Determines the intensity (brightness) we perceive.
What is the effect of context on perception?
Context effects: influences our perception of a stimulus.
What is the effect of the McGurk effect?
An error in perception when visual and auditory speech cues don't match.
What is Sensation?
Process where sensory receptors receive and represent stimulus energies.
What is Perception?
Process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.
What is Absolute Threshold?
Minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
What is Difference Threshold (JND)?
Minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.
What is a Subliminal stimulus?
Stimulus below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
What is Sensory Adaptation?
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
What is Perceptual Set?
Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
What are Schemas?
Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information.
What is Inattentional Blindness?
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
What is Change Blindness?
Failing to notice changes in the environment.
What is Retinal Disparity?
The difference between the images seen by the left and right eyes.
What is Accommodation (eye)?
Process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus on near or far objects.
Define Kinesthesis.
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
Define Proprioception.
The sense of the position of one's own body.