Psych 5.1 Sensation Vs Perception Notes

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture on sensation and perception, including definitions of sensory processes, thresholds, and influences on perception.

Sensation

The process when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor.

Sensory receptors

Specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli.

Transduction

The conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential.

Audition

The sense of hearing.

Olfaction

The sense of smell.

Gustation

The sense of taste.

Somatosensation

The sense of touch.

Vestibular sense

A sensory system that provides information about balance.

Proprioception and Kinesthesia

Sensory systems that provide information about body position and movement.

Nociception

A sensory system that provides information about pain.

Thermoception

A sensory system that provides information about temperature.

Absolute threshold

The minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time.

Subliminal messages

Messages that are presented below the threshold for conscious awareness.

Just noticeable difference (jnd) / Difference threshold

The amount of difference in stimuli required to detect a difference between them.

Weber's law

States that the difference threshold is a constant fraction of the original stimulus.

Perception

The way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced.

Bottom-up processing

Sensory information from a stimulus in the environment drives a perceptual process.

Top-down processing

Knowledge and expectancy drive a perceptual process, often goal-directed and deliberate.

Sensory adaptation

The phenomenon where we don’t perceive stimuli that remain relatively constant over prolonged periods of time.

Inattentional blindness

The failure to notice something that is completely visible because the person was actively attending to something else.

Signal detection theory

The ability to identify a stimulus when it is embedded in a distracting background.

Müller-Lyer illusion

A visual illusion where lines appear to be different lengths although they are identical, often influenced by cultural context.

Carpentered world hypothesis

The theory suggesting that people in Western cultures, accustomed to environments with straight lines, are more susceptible to certain visual illusions like the Müller-Lyer illusion.