Attention

What is attention?

What is attention?

Actively focusing on particular information while simultaneously ignoring other information.

What is internal stimuli?

Information or sensations that originate from the body.

What is external stimuli?

Information or sensations that originate outside the body.

What is divided attention?

Splitting attention across two or more stimuli at one time.

What is selective attention?

Exclusively focusing attention on a specific stimulus or task while ignoring all other stimuli or tasks.

What is sustained attention?

Focusing on one stimulus or task across a prolonged, continuous period of time.

What is sensory stimuli?

The raw pieces of information that are detected by the five senses.

What is sensation?

The process of receiving and detecting raw sensory stimuli via sensory organs and sending this information to the brain.

What is perception?

The process of selecting, organising and interpreting sensory information.

What is the visual sensory system?

The network that is involved in the sensation and perception of visual stimuli.

What is visual perception?

The process of becoming consciously aware of visual stimuli as a result of the interactions between the visual sensory system and the individual’s internal and external environments.

What is sensation?

Visual stimuli received by the eye in the form of light.

What is selection?

Feature detectors select and filter specific visual signals.

What is organisation?

These visual signals are regrouped and organised using guiding principles.

What is interpretation?

Primary visual cortex works with other brain areas to make sense of visual stimuli.

What is gustatory perception?

The process of becoming consciously aware of flavour.

What is bottom-up processing?

Perception is determined by incoming sensory information, moving from specific stimulus information to general knowledge.

-Direction of processing: specific to general.

-Type of information processed: unfamiliar and complex.

What is top-down processing?

Perception is driven by prior knowledge and expectations, moving from general knowledge to specific stimulus information.

-Direction of processing: General to specific.

-Type of information processed: Familiar and less complex.

What are biological factors?

Internal genetic and/or physiologically based factors.

What is visual acuity?

The level of detail and clarity of vision.

What are the two types of photoreceptors?

Rods and cones.

What are rods?

Photoreceptors that allow someone to see in low levels of light.

What are cones?

Photoreceptors that allow someone to see colour and fine details in well-lit conditions.

What is myopia?

One refractory error is myopia, which refers to short-sightedness due to the focal point of one or both eyes being in front of, instead of on, the retina.

What are depth cues?

Visual cues that allow someone to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge the distance and position of objects in their environment.

What is monocular depth cues?

Rely on visual information perceived by just one eye.

What is binocular depth cues?

Rely on visual information from both eyes.

What is accommodation?

Involves the automatic focusing of the lens in the eye to adjust shape in response to changes in the distance of view from an object.

What is motion parallax?

Uses our perception of movement to gauge how far away things are.

What are pictorial cues?

Depth cues that are used in 2D images.

What is retinal disparity?

Refers to the very slight difference in the location of visual images on the retina.

What is convergence?

A binocular depth cue that involves the inward turning of the eyes to focus on nearby objects.

What are psychological factors?

Internal factors pertaining to an individual’s mental processes.

What are visual perception principles?

Guiding rules that apply to incoming visual signals and determine how they are organised and interpreted.

What are Gestalt principles?

The guiding rules of perception that allow us to organise and group separate visual stimuli into a meaningful whole.

What is the proximity principle?

The tendency to perceive parts of a visual image that are positioned close together as belonging in a group.

What is the similarity principle?

Refers to the perceptual tendency to perceive parts of a visual image that have similar features- such as size, shape, texture of colour as belonging together in a unit, group or whole.

What is the figure-ground principle?

Refers to the tendency to perceptually divide a visual scene into a figure, which stands out from the ground, which is its surroundings.

What is the closure principle?

Closure refers to the perceptual tendency to mental close up, fill in any or ignore gaps in a visual image and to perceive incomplete objects as complete.

What is perceptual constancy?

Refers to the tendency to perceive an object as remaining stable and unchanging despite any changes that may occur to the image cast on the retina.

What is the perceptual set?

The predisposition or, ‘readiness’, to perceive something in accordance with what we expect it to be.

What is context?

-1.

-In visual perception, context refers to the setting or environment in which a perception is made.

What is motivation?

-2.

-Motivation refers to internal processes which activate behaviour that we direct towards achieving a particular goal.

What is emotional state?

-3.

-Emotional state can also influence the way visual information is perceived as different emotions can set individuals to perceive information in a particular way which is consistent with the emotion being experienced.

What is past experiences?

-4.

-Past experience includes everything an individual has learned both intentionally and unintentionally- unique which leads individuals to be predisposed to perceive things in a particular way.

What is culture?

-5.

-Culture refers to the way of life of a particular community or group that sets it apart from other communities and groups.

What are social factors?

External factors relating to an individual’s interactions with others and their external environment, including their relationships and community involvement.

What is a cultural norm?

A standard, value or rule that outlines an appropriate behaviour or experience within a culture.

How does the biological factor of age influence taste?

As we age out sensation of flavours become less sensitive.

How does the biological factor of genetics impact taste?

Super-taster: higher sensitivity to flavour (including bitterness and sweetness). They inherit more taste buds on avergae.

How does the psychological factor of appearance impact taste?

-Colour influences our perception: if it does not match our expectation, we may “taste” something is wrong with it.

-Shape influences our perception: round shapes associated with sweet/smooth flavours whereas angular/cornered foods are associated with bitter and savoury.

How does the psychological factor of packaging impact taste?

-Familiarity of a brand (brand names and logos).

-Images influence flavour perception through association.

How do social factors impact taste?

-Differences in ethnic culture (what is normal to eat).

-Differences in values (healthy, convenience, vegetarian/vegan).

(Errors of sight) What is fallibility?

The quality of being prone to error or experiencing difficulties in judgement.

What is perceptual distortion?

An error in the judgement or interpretation of sensory stimuli.

What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?

A visual illusion in which one of two lines of equal length, with opposite shapes on the ends, is incorrectly perceived as being longer than the other.

What is the Ames Room Illusion?

Occurs when a person views two people in a special Ames room.

-A trapezium shape room.

What is agnosia?

A disorder involving the loss or impairment of the ability to recognise familiar stimuli through the use of one or more senses, despite the senses functioning normally otherwise.

(errors of taste) What are supertasters?

Individuals who have significantly low thresholds for taste stimuli and an unusually high number of tastebuds.

What is miraculin?

A type of protein extracted from the ‘miracle berry’ which alters taste perception.

(Perceptual distortions) What are perceptual distortions?

Are when sensory data is processed in a way that differs from the neurotypical experience.

What is synaesthesia?

A perceptual phenomenon characterised by the experience of unusual perceptions in one sensory system after another sensory system has been activated.

What are visual constancies?

Our ability to perceive visual objects as staying the same, even though they may appear to change or do change in our sensation.

What is spatial neglect?

An individual’s inability to perceive, report, or orient sensory information located within one side of space.