psych unit 8 (sensation and perception)

DONT BE A FUCKING IDIOT.

sensation

process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

perception

process in which we understand sensory info, different for everyone

bottom up processing

info processing that starts w sensory inputs and works up to brain’s integration and trying to make meaning (ex:

top down processing

people interpret what their senses detect

absolute threshold

the senses you feel at the very moment of the stimulus, it is detected only 50% of the time

different threshold

stimulus that has reached absolute threshold, how long between absolute threshold and difference from that absolute threshold, detected only 50% of the time (ex: how many more papers can you put on a stack b4 you feel a difference in weight)

weber’s law

there has to be a % change (in our perception) to see if we would take that change (proportion changes) (ex: $200 more on a $800,000 makes little difference, but $200 on a $1000 bag makes a lot of a difference)

habituation

cognitive adaptation after time. ex: hearing a clock but now you get used to the ticks

transduction

change from energy to different energy (changing forms of energy), from eye to brain

trichromatic theory

3 color receptors are most sensitive (red, green, blue)

grouping

after distinguishing the figure from the ground, our perception needs to organize figures into a meaningful form using rules (proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness)

closure

we fill in gaps to create a complete/whole object (ex: open circles create a triangle but if the circles become complete, you don’t see the triangles anymore)

depth perception

enables us to judge distances

binocular cues

depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes

retinal disparity

images from two eyes differ

monocular cues

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eyes

relative size

if two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts a smaller retinal image to be farther away

interposition

objects that occlude or block other objects tend to be perceived as closer

relative height

we perceive objects that are higher in our field of vision to be farther away than those that are lower

relative motion

objects closer to a fixation point move faster and in opposing direction to those objects that are farther away from a fixation point, moving slower and in the same directionl

linear perception

parallel lines appear to converge in the distance (ex: train tracks)

light and shadow

nearby objects reflect more light into our eyes than move distant objects, if given two objects the dimmer one looks to be farther away

perceptual constancy

ability to recognize than an object or organism has not changed even though other stimuli have changed (ex: school renunian, ppl look different but you’re still able to recognize the person)

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color even if changing illumination alter the wavelenths reflected by the object

light constancy

two squares can look like different colors due to lighting changes/shadows

sensory deprivation

need sensory input, if they don’t get input, they don’t have anything to work with

percpetual adaptation

visual abiltiy to adjust to an artifically displaced visual field (ex: wearing prism glasses at first it’ll be weird but then your eyes will adjust)