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Sensation and Perception
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1
Question
What is sensation?
Page 2
Answer
Sensation is the process through which sense organs detect physical energy or stimulations from the environment and send neural messages to the brain, called transduction.
2
Question
What is perception?
Page 2
Answer
Perception is the process that organizes sensations into meaningful patterns, giving them order and meaning.
3
Question
Distinguish between sensing and perceiving using the example of hearing.
Page 2
Answer
Sensing is hearing sounds, which is largely a sensory process; perceiving is seeing colors, which is largely a perceptual process.
4
Question
What are the two general laws of sensation that explain how sensation works?
Page 3
Answer
Sensory thresholds and sensory adaptation.
5
Question
What is the absolute threshold?
Page 3
Answer
The absolute threshold is the minimum level of stimulation that can be detected 50 percent of the time.
6
Question
How do psychologists define the absolute threshold in terms of detection percentage?
Page 3
Answer
Psychologists define the absolute threshold as the minimum level of stimulation that can be detected 50 percent of the time.
7
Question
What factors can affect the absolute threshold besides stimulus intensity?
Page 3
Answer
Individual psychological factors such as response bias.
8
Question
What is the absolute threshold for vision?
Page 4
Answer
A candle flame viewed from about 30 miles on a clear, dark night.
9
Question
What is the absolute threshold for hearing?
Page 4
Answer
Hearing a watch ticking from about 20 feet away in a quiet room.
10
Question
What is the absolute threshold for taste?
Page 4
Answer
Tasting 1 teaspoon of sugar dissolved in 2 gallons of water.
11
Question
What is the absolute threshold for smell?
Page 4
Answer
Smelling about one drop of perfume diffused throughout a three-room house or 500 million air particles.
12
Question
What is the absolute threshold for touch?
Page 4
Answer
The pressure of a fly's wing falling on a cheek from about 0.4 inch.
13
Question
What is the difference threshold (just noticeable difference, JND)?
Page 5
Answer
The difference threshold or just noticeable difference (JND) is the minimum amount of change in a stimulus needed to recognize that a change has occurred.
14
Question
Give an example of a difference threshold using coffee and sugar.
Page 5
Answer
A cup of coffee requires a certain additional amount of sugar to detect an increase in its sweetness.
15
Question
How do psychologists formally define the difference threshold?
Page 5
Answer
The minimum change/increase in stimulation that can be detected 50 percent of the time by a given person.
16
Question
How does the difference threshold vary from person to person?
Page 5
Answer
Like the absolute threshold, the difference threshold for a particular sensory experience varies from person to person and from occasion to occasion.
17
Question
What is sensory adaptation?
Page 6
Answer
Sensory adaptation is a tendency of sensory receptors to have decreasing responsiveness to an unchanging stimulus.
18
Question
Why do we engage in sensory adaptation?
Page 6
Answer
Sensory adaptation changes your attention in your environment while ignoring unchanging aspects of it.
19
Question
Give an example of sensory adaptation in a living environment.
Page 6
Answer
People living in Ker/A/Addis Ababa stop noticing the bad smell of that environment.
20
Question
What are the potential risks of sensory adaptation to harmful stimuli?
Page 6
Answer
Adapting harmful stimuli might be harmful or even fatal.
21
Question
What is perception?
Page 7
Answer
Perception is a meaning-making process.
22
Question
What does the selectivity of perception (attention) refer to?
Page 7
Answer
The perceptual process that selects certain inputs for inclusion in your conscious experience or awareness at any given time, ignoring others.
23
Question
What are the main components included in perception?
Page 7
Answer
Selectivity of perception (attention), form perception, depth perception, perceptual constancy, and perceptual illusion.
24
Question
What is the field of experience divided into in terms of focus and margin?
Page 8
Answer
The field of experience is divided into focus and margin.
25
Question
How does attention shift between focus and margin?
Page 8
Answer
Attention shifts constantly; what is in the focus one moment may be in the margin the next, and vice versa.
26
Question
What are the two main factors that determine paying attention?
Page 9
Answer
External factors to the perceiver and internal factors to the perceiver.
27
Question
What external factors determine attention?
Page 9
Answer
Characteristics of objects such as size, intensity, repetition, novelty (or newness), and movement.
28
Question
Which external factors are more likely to get your attention?
Page 9
Answer
Brighter, more frequent occurrence, newer, or bigger and moving objects are more likely to get your attention.
29
Question
Why might you not attend to a big, bright, or moving stimulus?
Page 10
Answer
Even when a stimulus is bigger, brighter, new, frequent, or moving, you may not give it attention if you are not psychologically ready to attend to it.
30
Question
What are the two important psychological factors that influence attention?
Page 10
Answer
Set or expectancy and motives or needs.