Psych U2

Processing Types

  • Bottom-Up Processing → Starts with sensory input; brain builds perception from raw data.

  • Top-Down Processing → Uses expectations, experience, and context to interpret data.

    • Connects with perceptual and color constancy → Our brain maintains consistent perception (like color) even when sensory input changes.

Thresholds

  • Absolute Threshold → Minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.

  • Difference Threshold (Just Noticeable Difference) → Smallest change in stimulation that can be detected.

Attention & Adaptation

  • Inattentional Blindness → Missing visible objects when focused elsewhere.

  • Change Blindness → Failing to notice changes in environment.

  • Sensory Adaptation → Diminished sensitivity to constant stimuli.

  • Selective Attention → Focusing on one stimulus while ignoring others.

  • Habituation → Decreased response to repeated stimuli.

  • Subliminal Threshold → Stimuli below conscious awareness can still affect behavior slightly.

👁 Module 17: Perception and Context

  • Perceptual Set → Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

  • Cultural & Context Effects → Culture, background, and surroundings shape how we perceive things (e.g., optical illusions vary across cultures).

👀 Module 18: Vision and the Eye

(Know functions, not locations — focus on what each part does)
Study pages 172–173 for how light → eye → brain works.

  • Rods and Cones → Rods: light/dark, peripheral vision; Cones: color, detail.

  • Peripheral Vision → Mainly uses rods; blurry and less color-sensitive.

  • Foveal Vision → Sharp central vision using cones.

  • Brightness → Perceived intensity of light.

  • Feature Detectors → Neurons responding to specific shapes, angles, or movements.

  • Parallel Processing → Brain processes color, motion, form, and depth simultaneously.

  • Face Recognition → Specialized neural networks for recognizing faces.

  • Retinal Disparity → Difference between images in both eyes = depth perception.

Know what can go wrong:

  • Rod/cone damage → vision loss or color blindness

  • Cornea/lens issues → blurry vision

  • Retinal/optic nerve damage → partial blindness

🎨 Module 19: Perceptual Organization

Gestalt Principles (how we organize perception):

  • Figure-Ground → Distinguish object from background.

  • Closure → Fill in gaps to create whole images.

  • Proximity → Group nearby figures together.

  • Continuity → See smooth, continuous patterns.

Depth Cues

  • Retinal Disparity → 3D perception from different eye images.

  • Convergence → Eyes move inward for close objects.

  • Texture Gradient → Detail decreases with distance.

  • Common Fate → Objects moving together = part of the same group.

  • Perceptual Adaptation → Adjusting to changed visual input (like new glasses).

👂 Module 20: Hearing and Balance

Hearing

  • Perceiving Loudness → Number of hair cells activated.

  • Perceiving Pitch → Frequency of sound waves (place theory vs. frequency theory).

  • Locating Sounds → Based on which ear hears sound first/louder.

Balance

  • Vestibular Sense → Balance and head movement (inner ear).

  • Proprioception → Awareness of body’s position in space.

👅 Module 21: Other Senses

  • Sensory Interaction → Senses influence each other (taste + smell = flavor).

  • Vestibular Sense → Sense of balance (inner ear fluid movement).

  • Sense of Taste → Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami.

  • Sense of Touch → Pressure, warmth, cold, pain.

  • Sense of Pain → Warning system for bodily harm.