C6: Sensation & Perception

• Sensation is the perception of stimuli by the sensory receptors
• Transduction is the conversion of physical energy to neural signals that can be processed by the brain
• Perception is the process of taking in information to make it mean something applied to the world
• Bottom-up Processing is the process of perception driven by external stimulus itself
• Top-down Processing is the process of using its former knowledge and expectations to interpret new information
• The difference between sensation and perception is that sensation is stimulus and perception is the response
• Selective Attention is the process of focusing on one thing for a long period of time
• Inattention blindness is the failure to consciously perceive an unexpected object within a visual field
• Change Blindness in which the person is unable to detect a change in the environment
• Selective Attention affects our attention span cognitively
• Thresholds are a range of sensory stimuli humans can detect
• Psychophysics is the study of the relationship between the physical and psychological properties of stimuli
• Absolute thresholds is the minimum intensity required to detect a stimulus 50% of the time
• Signal Detection Theory is the theory that determines when and how humans react to stimuli "signals"
• Subliminal is the stimuli that are below the absolute threshold, cannot be consciously identified
• Priming is the process in which the introduction of a stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus
• Difference Threshold is the smallest amount of stimulus required for us to detect
• Weber's Law is the perception of stimulus intensity that grows at a slower rate than the actual rate of the stimulus
• Sensory Adaption is the decreased sensitivity that occurs with continued exposure to an unchanging stimulus
• Habituation is the decreased response to repeated exposure to a stimulus over time, helps identify what poses a threat/harm
• Wavelength is the distance between from the peak of a wave to the peak of the next
• Hue is a colour or shade that is produced by a single wavelength of light
• Intensity is the amount of energy in a light or sound wave by a wave's amplitude
• Pupil is the black center of the eye that has a hole for light entry, its size is controlled by iris
• Iris is the coloured part of the eye that controls the pupil's size, it allows light entry
• Retina has rods and cones that has electrical impulses for the brain
• Accommodation is the process of lens changing shape to focus on near or distant objects
• Rods detect low light, black and white vision and peripheral vision
• Cones detect colour and fine details, active in brighter light
• Optic nerve transmits visual signals from the retina to the brain
• The Blind Spot is the area of the visual field that cannot be seen by the eye
• The Fovea is the central part of the retina where the eye is most sensitive to light
• Feature detectors detect features in an image, such as edges, corners and lines.
• Parallel Processing is the brains process of different visual stimuli qualities, allowing a quick response to visual information
• Young-Helmholtz trichromatic Theory is the theory of three types of colour receptors in retina that combines to create a perception of every colour
• Opponent-process Theory is the theory that colour vision is based on opposing retinal processes (eg. red-green, blue-yellow, white-black)
• Afterimage is the visual aftereffect of a stimulus not present in the vision field
• Myopia (Nearsightedness) is a common refractive error; distant objects appear blurry, close objects are seen clearly
• Hyperopia (Farsightedness) is a refractive error; distant objects seem blurry, distant objects are seen clearly
• Colour blindness is the inability to distinguish between certain colours