Psychology - Sensation and Perception

The 5 Senses

• touch

• taste

• hearing

• smell

• sight

Sensation

the activation of the sense organs by a source of physical energy; EX: sensing a bright light, sound, or pinch

Perception

The sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimulus involving the sense organs and brain (brain kicks in); EX: feeling the heat of a hot pepper

Stimulus

Energy that produces a response; EX: bright light causes you to squint

Absolute threshold

The minimum stimulation level an organism needs to sense a stimulus

Sensory Adaptation

a phenomenon in which the body adjusts to external stimuli over time, becoming less sensitive or responsive to that particular stimulus

Extra Sensory Perception (ESP)

belief that some people have knowledge of information that is not gained through the senses

Cornea

the clear tissue in front of your eye, helps to protect your eye and filters out some UV light

Lens

a clear disk behind the iris, that bends light and focuses it for the retina to help see images clearly

Blind Spot

the spot in the retina where the optic nerve connects, there are no light-sensitive cells, so this part of the retina cannot see

Telepathy

mental transfer of information from one person to another

Clairvoyance

medium (communicate with the dead) or finding lost people

Pre- Cognition

predicting future events

Intuition and Deja-Vu

gut feeling/feeling that something has happened

Peripheral Vision

How well you can see what your not staring at

Rods

microscopic structures in the eye that help you see in the dark

Cones

microscopic structures in the eye that help you see color

Light Adaptation

Eyes Adapting to bright light

Dark Adaptation

Eyes adapting to dark environment

Color Blindness

when you have fewer or no cones

Afterimage

an image that you seem to see when you are no longer looking at an image

Pheromone

Naturally occurring chemicals in the body that are secreted into the environment. These secretions produce a reaction in other members of the same species

Flashbulb Memory

a memory is triggered when one of the senses is stimulated. That memory is so memorable because it was surprising, unexpected, and/or unusual (songs, scent)