(1) 1.10 Sensation and Perception

• Sensation

  • How sensory receptors receive info from the environment

• Perception

  • How our brain organizes and interprets sensory input

• Bottom-up processing

  • Begins sensory receptors & works up to higher levels of processing

    • No prior info or knowledge

• Top-down processing

  • Creates perceptions based on our experience & expectations

• Transduction

  • Transforming physical energy (sight, sounds, & smells) into neural impulses that the brain can interpret

• Subliminal

  • Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

• Priming

  • Activation, often unconsciously, of certain association

• DIfference Threshold

  • The minimum amount needed to tell a difference a person can detect between any 2 stimuli half the time

• Weber’s Law

  • 2 stimuli must differ by a minimum percentage rather than a constant amount

• Sensory Adaptation

  • Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

For absolute and difference, because I am unable to make sense of it:
An absolute threshold determines whether stimuli are detected, whereas a difference threshold determines a perceptible change in stimuli