Unit 4 Notes Sensation and Perception

What is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory inputs into something meaningful called?

• Transduction

• Sensory adaptation

• Perception

• Absolute threshold

What starts at the sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing, looking at the raw stimuli and making an assumption of what it should be?

• Top-down processing

• Bottom-up processing

• Perceptual set

• Transduction

What constructs perceptions from the sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations?

• Bottom-up processing

• Sensory adaptation

• Perceptual set

• Top-down processing

What is the minimum stimulation necessary to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste, or odor called?

• Just Noticeable Difference (JND)

• Sensory adaptation

• Absolute threshold

• Perceptual set

What is the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) also known as?

• Difference threshold

• Absolute threshold

• Weber's law

• Signal detection theory

According to Weber's law, two stimuli must differ by what for an average person to perceive a difference?

• A constant amount

• A constant proportion

• A variable proportion depending on the stimulus

• A variable amount depending on the stimulus

What happens during sensory adaptation?

• We become more aware of a stimulus that does not change

• Our nerve cells fire more frequently

• We become less aware of a stimulus that does not change

• We perceive the world exactly as it is

What is a perceptual set?

• A constant proportion difference between two stimuli

• A set of mental tendencies that affects what we perceive

• The minimum stimulation necessary to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste, or odor

• The process of converting one form of energy into another that the brain can use

What can influence our perceptions according to the text?

• Only our expectations

• Only the context in which we perceive

• Our emotions and motivation

• Our expectations, context, emotions, and motivation

What is the concept of 'visual capture'?

• The ability to see in the dark

• The dominance of vision over other senses in creating our perceptions

• The process by which we capture visual memories

• The adjustment of vision in response to light intensity