Sensation & Perception Lecture 4

These flashcards cover the key concepts, definitions, and principles related to sensation and perception discussed in the lecture.

Sensation

Process by which sensory receptors and the nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from the environment.

Perception

Process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, enabling recognition of meaningful objects and events.

Transduction

Converting one form of energy into another.

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.

Top-down processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, constructed from experience and expectations.

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.

Subliminal threshold

When stimuli are below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Weber's Law

Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different.

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Perceptual set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Color vision

The ability to perceive differences in color due to the presence of different types of cone receptors.

Trichromatic theory

Theory suggesting that the eye contains three receptors sensitive to red, green, and blue colors.

Opponent colors

Color vision theory that states color perception is controlled by the activity of three opponent systems: red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white.

Gestalt principles

Principles describing how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes.

Depth perception

The ability to judge distances and perceive the world in three dimensions.

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.

Kinesthesis

The sense of our body parts’ position and movement.

Vestibular sense

The sense that monitors the head (and body’s) position.