Chapter Eight

• What is attention in the context of information processing?

  Attention is actively focusing on particular information while simultaneously ignoring other information.
• What are internal stimuli?

  Internal stimuli are information or sensations that originate from within the body.
• What are external stimuli?

  External stimuli are information or sensations that originate from outside the body.
• What is sustained attention?

  Sustained attention is focusing on one stimulus or task across a prolonged, continuous period of time.
• What are distractions in the context of attention?

  Distractions are internal or external stimuli that draw attention away from the current task.
• What does divided attention refer to?

  Divided attention refers to splitting attention across two or more stimuli at one time.
• What is multitasking?

  Multitasking is the act of working on multiple tasks at one time.
• What is selective attention?

  Selective attention is exclusively focusing attention on a specific stimulus or task while ignoring all other stimuli or tasks.
• What are sensory stimuli?

  Sensory stimuli are the raw pieces of information that are detected by the five senses.
• What is sensation?

  Sensation is the process of receiving and detecting raw sensory stimuli via sensory organs and sending this information to the brain.
• What is perception?

  Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information.
• What is selection in relation to perception?

  Selection is the process of attending to certain sensory stimuli, or features of certain stimuli and excluding others.
• What does the term salient refer to?

  Salient refers to something that is distinctive, prominent, or important.
• What is organization in relation to perception?

  Organization is the process of regrouping selected features of sensory stimuli in order to form a cohesive and meaningful understanding.
• What is interpretation in relation to perception?

  Interpretation is the process of understanding and assigning meaning to sensory information.
• What is the visual sensory system?

  The visual sensory system is the network involved in the sensation and perception of visual stimuli, including the eyes, the brain, and the neural pathways connecting them.
• What is visual perception?

  Visual perception is the process of becoming consciously aware of visual stimuli as a result of the interactions between the visual sensory system and the individual’s internal and external environments.
• What are feature detectors?

  Feature detectors are specialized cells along the neural pathway connecting to, and found within, the primary visual cortex.
• What is gustatory perception?

  Gustatory perception is the process of becoming consciously aware of flavor.
• What are tastants?

  Tastants are the sensory stimuli received in the form of chemical molecules that can be tasted.
• What are gustatory receptors?

  Gustatory receptors are the sensory receptors for taste.
• What are taste buds?

  Taste buds are clusters of gustatory receptors.
• What is the primary gustatory cortex?

  The primary gustatory cortex is a sensory area in the parietal lobe responsible for receiving and processing tastes.
• What is bottom-up processing?

  Bottom-up processing is when perception is determined by incoming sensory information, moving from specific stimulus information to general knowledge.
• What is top-down processing?

  Top-down processing is when perception is driven by prior knowledge and expectations, moving from general knowledge to specific stimulus information.
• What are schemas?

  Schemas are the collection of basic knowledge about a concept or stimuli.
• What are biological factors in perception?

  Biological factors are internal genetic and/or physiologically based factors.
• What are photoreceptors?

  Photoreceptors are the sensory receptors of the eye which receive light and convert this sensory information into a form that can be sent to the brain.
• What are rods?

  Rods are photoreceptors that allow someone to see in low levels of light.
• What are cones?

  Cones are photoreceptors that allow someone to see color and fine details in well-lit conditions.
• What is visual acuity?

  Visual acuity is the level of detail and clarity of vision.
• What are refractory errors?

  Refractory errors are defects in the eye causing it not to bend light as it is supposed to, resulting in reduced visual acuity.
• What is myopia?

  Myopia is short-sightedness due to the focal point of one or both eyes being located in front of, instead of on, the retina.
• What are depth cues?

  Depth cues are visual clues that allow someone to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge the distance and position of objects in their environment.
• What are monocular depth cues?

  Monocular depth cues rely on visual information perceived by just one eye.
• What are binocular depth cues?


  Binocular depth cues rely on visual information from both eyes.
• What are psychological factors in perception?

  Psychological factors are internal factors pertaining to an individual’s mental processes, including their cognition, affect, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.
• What are visual perception principles?

  Visual perception principles are guiding rules that apply to incoming visual signals and determine how they are organized and interpreted.
• What are Gestalt principles?

  Gestalt principles are the guiding rules of perception that allow us to organize and group separate visual stimuli into a meaningful whole.
• What are visual constancies?

  Visual constancies are our ability to perceive visual objects as staying the same, even though they may appear to change or do change in our sensation.