DP 2

• experience of the external environment beings with sensation
• sensation is an automatic physical process that involves the bodys sensory receptors detecting and responding to external energy
• sensation: 1. reception - sensory receptors in sense organs detect and respond to external stimulus energy
• sensation: 2. transduction - sensoey receptors convert stimulus energy into individual impulses of electrochemical energy
• sensation: 3. transmission - impulses are sent to specific areas in the brain specialised to process them
• perception is the psychological process that occurs in the brain that gives meaning to sensations
• perception 1. selection - during transmission, feature detector cells filter the impulses by selecting some for further processing and ignoring others
• perception 2. organisation - the brain assembles the selected impulses into a pattern that can be recognised
• perception 3. interpretation - the brain gives meaning to the reassembled pattern so we know what we have sensed
• bottom up processing involves the perception of the details of sensory stimuli first, and builds upwards towards a perception of the whole stimulus
• bottom up processing is used when we are presented with unfamiliar stimuli
• top down processing involes perceiving the general features of a whole stimulus first, then its specific details
• top down processing is influenced by past experiences
• bottom up processing - when someone is learning a new word for the first time
• top down processing - the ability to avoid dangerous situations.