Psych Reviewer

I.
Sensation and Perception
Sensation stimulation of sensory
organs & processing about this
stimulation
Perception integration and
meaningful interpretation of sensory
info
Sensation -> Perception
Sense organ -> higher level of cortex
Transduction process of
transforming physical energy to neural
impulse
Stimulus -> sensory receptors ->
neural impulse -> brain -> sensation
-> perception
Sensory receptors:
Eyes rods and cones
Ears hair cells
Skin skin receptors
Tongue tongue receptors
Nose odor receptors
Different senses:
Internal organs, motion, balance,
sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell
Processes used when sensing &
perceiving:
Bottom-up emphasized importance
of stimulus/details of stimulus
Top-down emphasizes importance
of observers expectations/knowledge
Psychophysics study of the
relationships between physical aspects
of stimuli & our psychological
perceptions of them

Factors:
1. Sensitivity threshold (opposite
of sensitivity); detect the
presence of an object or event
2. Absolute threshold minimum
amount of energy that a person
can detect; only in ideal
conditions; not absolute after all
3. Difference Threshold Just
Noticeable Difference (JND);
smallest difference in intensity
between 2 stimuli; threshold
increase with the magnitude of
the stimulus
Webers Law regardless of
magnitude, 2 stimuli must differ by
constant proportion to be detected;
large stimulus requires large change
to detect difference (and vice versa)
Signal Detection Theory threshold
depends on ones sensitivity of senses
and motivation
II.
Attention and Motivation
Factors affecting the selective
attention:
1. Environmental
Intensity (color, sounds)
Size
Contrast
Repetition
Motion
Familiarity & novelty
Incongruity
2. Physiological the human
senses and the physical body
have limits
Perceptual set perceive
stimuli in line with our
expectation or
anticipation