Sensation and Perception

Vestibular sense

sense of body movement and position

• a loss of this happened to Mr.Starr’s Mom for a bit

Two-point discrimination threshold

different areas of the body are more sensitive to touch than others

Gate-control theory

the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks or accepts pain signals to the brain

Gestalt

our brain orgainzes what we see to give a better understanding of the whole

Figure-ground

first step of perception is to discern the center of our attention and the ___ upon which it rests

Grouping

you know your body is connected even if it is blocked by a table

• after you distinguish the figure from the ground

Law of closure

objects grouped together are seen as a whole (we tend to ignore gaps and complete contour lines)

Depth perception

an innate visual process discerning the approximate distance/height of surrounding object

• related to visual cliff and baby study

Retinal disparity 

• differnent visual from each eye- brain puts them together

• how we see depth

Convergence

the inward movement of both eyes when focusing on nearby objects. This helps determine how close or far away an object is.

Binocular cues

depth cues that require both eyes to perceive depth and distance

• retinal disparity

• convergence

shape constancy

you know a door is always a rectangle, even if the image that hits the retina is different

Color constancy

a red apple will still look red on a sunny day or cloudy day – or in a grocery store or a home.(intrinisic)

Perceptual adaption

the brain's ability to adjust and adapt to changes in sensory input over time

perceptual set

cognitive bias that affects the way people interpret things based on their expectations and past experiences.

Context effects

the influence of environmental factors on one's perception of a stimulus

Absolute thresholds

the weakest amount of stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time (Absolute min we need to sense something)

Subliminal messaging

stimuli that are presented below the threshold of conscious awareness, typically through visual or auditory means.

Sensory adaptions

diminished sensitivity due to constant stimulation (you get used to the smell of a house after a couple mins)

Bottom-Up Processing

Analysis that begins with sensory receptors, works up to the brains integration of sensory info

Top-Down processing

info processing guided higher-level mental processes and perceptions that draw on our experience

Top-Down processing example

when at a muesam reading title/info while looking at art

Webers law

for difference to be noticeable stimuli must differ by a constant proportion (not amount)

greater amp

bright colors, loud sounds

smaller amp

dull color, soft sounds

higher frequency

blueish colors, high pitched sounds

lower frequency

reddish colors, low pitched sounds

Parallel processing

our mind processes several aspects of our vision at once

Young- Helmholtz Trichromatic theory

3 types of cones

S cones

sensitive to blue

M cones

sensitive to green

L cones

sensitive to red

Opponent process theory

hearing propsed that we process 4 primary colors combined in pairs:

• red-green

• blue-yellow

• black-white

Kinesthesis

system for sensing postion/movement of body parts- enabled by joints, tendons, and bones

Figure Ground

the same stimulus can trigger more than one perception

ex). we see a cloud as a figure against the background of the sky

size constancy

based on close connection between an objects perceived size and percieved distance

perceptual constancy

we perceive the size of a familar object as constant even as the retinal image gets smaller

interposition

The object that is partially obscured is perceived to be farther away than the object that appears to be whole or complete.

similarity

We group similar figures together

proximity

tendency to group objects near to one another as a single unit

continuity

we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

red

green

blue

yellow

black

white