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Mod 16 Reading Assignment

1) Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors receive stimulus energies from the environment, while perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to recognize meaningful objects and events. 2) Bottom-up processing analyzes sensory information from receptors to the brain, while top-down processing is guided by higher-level mental processes like expectations and experiences. 3) Selective attention focuses conscious awareness on particular stimuli, while inattentional blindness and change blindness show failures to notice stimuli when attention is diverted.

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44 views2 pages

Mod 16 Reading Assignment

1) Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors receive stimulus energies from the environment, while perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to recognize meaningful objects and events. 2) Bottom-up processing analyzes sensory information from receptors to the brain, while top-down processing is guided by higher-level mental processes like expectations and experiences. 3) Selective attention focuses conscious awareness on particular stimuli, while inattentional blindness and change blindness show failures to notice stimuli when attention is diverted.

Uploaded by

Dana M.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AP Psychology Reading Assignment: ​Module 16 – Basic Principles of

Sensation and Perception

Directions - Complete the following assignment on a separate sheet of paper.


Part 1​: Define the following terms.
Sensation
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from
our environment.
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful
objects and events.
Bottom-up Processing
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory
information.
Top-down Processing
Informational processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions
drawing on our expectations and experiences.
Selective Attention
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
Inattentional Blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is diverted elsewhere.
Change Blindness
Failing to see changes in the environment.
Transduction
Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such
as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret.
Psychophysics
The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and
our psychological experience of them.
Absolute Threshold
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.
Signal Detection Theory
A theory predicting when and how we detect the presence elf a faint stimulus amid background
stimulation (signal and noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends
on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.
Subliminal
Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory,
or response.
Difference Threshold
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We
experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference.
Weber’s Law
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum
percentage (rather than a constant amount.
Sensory Adaptation
Diminished activity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
Gustav Fechner
Ernst Weber
Part 2​: Answer the following questions.

1. What is the difference between sensation and perception?

2. Give real-life examples of BOTH bottom-up and top-down processing.

3. How does selective attention work?

4. How does the cocktail party effect function as an example of a selective attention?

5. What do each of the following phenomena tell us about how humans attend to experiences around them:
● Pop out
● Inattentional blindness
● Change blindness
● Choice blindness
6. What are the three steps basic to our sensory systems?

7. How might an eye doctor test for your absolute threshold for observing light?

8. What do signal detection theorists try to understand about human sensation? (Be sure to elaborate your
answer.)

9. What determines if a signal is subliminal?

10. How does priming work? Give an example from your own life of a time you have been primed someone
else to perceive
stimuli in your environment (or when you have been primed by someone else).

11. What does Weber’s law tell us about human perception?

12. Why can’t a classmate who wears a lot of cologne notice that they are doing so?

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