AP psych: Sensation and Perception

What are sensation and perception? What do we mean by bottom-up processing and top-down processing?

Our bottom-up processing starts at the sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing

What are sensation and perception? What do we mean by bottom-up processing and top-down processing?

Our top down processing constructs perceptions from the sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations

What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?

bottom-up processing enables our sensory systems to detect lines that form flowers are leaves while top-down processing contructs perceptions from sensory inputs by drawing on our experiences and expectations

The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the rods and cones is the….

Retina

Which of the following describes a percetion process that Gestalt psychologists would have been interested in?

Gestalt: German word for form.

How an organized whole is formed out of its component pieces

Kinesthesis is the system for sensing the ______ and movement of individual body parts

Position

Stand atop a mountain on an utterly dark, clear night, most of us would see a candle flame atop another 30 mountains away this best illustrates

Absolute Threshold

Long Reach HS were most likely to cross streets unsafely if they were talking on a cell phone. This best illustrates…

Selective Attention

Standing in the checkout line at a grocery story, Jerry kept looking at his watch to see the time. As a result, he failed to see that a store employee was being robbed by a person just infront of him. Jerry most clearly suffered…

In-attentional blindness

The Anvil, Hammer, and Stirrip are all part of the…

Bones of the middle ear

According to the Young-Hemholtz trichromatic theory the retina has three types of color receptors. Each of these types is sensitive to one of three comors: blue, red, or ______

green

The coiled, fluid-filled tube in which sound waves trigger nerve impulses is called the…

cochlea

our tendency to see faces in clouds and other ambiguous stimuli is partly based on what perception principle?

perceptual set

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaingful objects and events

Perception

The principle that to be perceived as different two stimuli must vary in percentage rather than the amount…

Weber’s law

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for attention

Difference threshold

A mental prediposition to perceive one thing and not another

Perceptual set

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes (experiences)

Top-down processing

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous systems receive and represent stimulus

sensation

the conversion of ine form of energy into another

transduction

The activation, often consciously, of certain associations, this predisposing one’s perception

priming

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

bottom-up processing

Stimuli that occurs below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

subliminal

A diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Sensory adaptation

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus

Absolute threshold

A ring of muslce tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil

Iris

An illusion of movement in stationary objects

Phi phenomenon

A laboratory device for testing depth perception infants and young animals

Visual Cliff

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Figure-Ground

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the image that strike the retina are two-dimensional

DEPTH perception

An organized whole; from our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Gestalt

Depth perception for example and retinal disparity that depend on the use of both eyes

Binocular Cues

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Perceptual Constancy

Carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

Optic Nerve

The processing of many aspects of a problem simutaneously

Parellel processing

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Frequency

Controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input

ESP, Extrasensory Perception

The principle that one sense may infleunce another, as when the smell of food influences its taste

Sensory interactions

The idea that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulate

Place theory

A device for converting sounds into rlectrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve

Cochlear implant

A coiled, bong, fluid-filled tub in the inner ear; that triggers nerve impulses

cochlea

the theory that many features of cognition, whether human or otherwise, are shaped by aspects of the entire body of organism

embodied cognition

part of the ear that contains hammer, anvil and stirrup

middle ear

a tone’s experienced highness or low ess; depends on frequency

pitch

The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Kinesthesia

The sense of body movement and position; including balance

Vestibular sense

The sense or act of hearing

Audition