Sensation and Perception Concepts

Front

Sensation: Detecting stimuli from the environment and sending signals to the brain. Example: Feeling heat or hearing music.

Back

Perception: Organizing and interpreting sensations to understand the world. Example: Recognizing a friend’s face.

Front

Top-Down Processing: Using prior knowledge and expectations to interpret sensory information. Example: Reading messy handwriting using context.

Back

Bottom-Up Processing: Using only raw sensory data to perceive something new. Example: Seeing a new fruit and figuring out what it is.

Front

Absolute Threshold: The smallest stimulus detectable 50% of the time. Example: Hearing a ticking clock in a quiet room.

Back

Difference Threshold (JND): The smallest change in stimulus you can notice 50% of the time. Example: Noticing 2 lbs difference on a 10-lb weight.

Front

Weber’s Law: Bigger stimuli require bigger changes to notice differences.

Back

Signal Detection Theory: Detection depends on experience, expectation, motivation, and fatigue. Example: Hearing your phone buzz when expecting a message.

Front

Sensory Adaptation: Decreased sensitivity to constant stimuli. Example: Jewelry, glasses, cold pool.

Back

Gestalt Psychology: Organizing sensory info into meaningful wholes (“whole is more than the sum of its parts”).

Front

Figure-Ground: Seeing an object (figure) against the background (ground). Example: Words on a page.

Back

Gestalt Grouping: Using rules to group objects into meaningful patterns. Examples: Proximity, similarity, continuity, closure.

Front

Stroboscopic Motion: Seeing motion in a series of rapidly flashed still images. Example: Flipbooks or animated movies.

Back

Phi Phenomenon: Lights flashing at certain speeds create the illusion of motion. Example: Neon signs, arrow lights.

Front

Perceptual Constancy: Perceiving objects as unchanging even when retinal image changes.

Back

Size Constancy: Seeing an object as the same size even if its image changes. Example: Ponzo Illusion – railroad tracks make objects look bigger farther away.

Front

Sensory Deprivation: Lack of exposure can impair perception. Example: Kittens raised without horizontal lines struggled to see horizontal bars.

Back

Perceptual Adaptation: Adjusting to altered sensory input. Example: Prism glasses, “drunk goggles,” or upside-down vision.

Front

Perceptual Set: A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Back

Schemas: Frameworks for organizing and interpreting information.