Sensory and Perception Assignment
By: Lizzie Forrester and Kaitlin Howard
What's the difference between sensation and perception?
Types of Processing
Top-down Processing: in this type of processing, your brain is active first. The order of the processing goes from Brain/Thoughts/Beliefs to emotion then to Sensory Information/ Body Response.
Scenario Time!
If you are looking at a painting in the museum have you ever wondered why the facial expressions in the painting look angry, or scared; what type of processing occurs?
Answer: Top-down Processing
Selective Attention
Inattention and Change Blindness
Inattentional blindness is the failed to notice a fully visible, but unexpected object because our attention was engaged on another task, event, or object. Change blindness refers to the failure to notice something different about a display. Change blindness involves memory.
Absolute Threshold and Difference Threshold
Absolute threshold is the minimum level of stimulus intensity for a stimulus to be perceived. It is the amount of intensity needed for a person to detect a difference between something and nothing. Differential thresholds refers to the intensity difference needed between two stimuli before people can perceive that the stimuli are difference.
Signal Detection Theory
Signal Detection Theory holds that the detection of a stimulus depends on both the intensity of the stimulus and the physical and psychological state of the individual. For example if you were walking to your car at night you might be more on edge and hear noises that you would not normally hear if you were in a different not as threatening situation.
Let's look at some situations where this is important:
Marketing Specialists
Soldiers & Airport Security
Police
Weber's Law and Sensory Adaptation
Weber’s Law states that the change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio of the original stimulus. For example if the volume of a television is high, turning it down by a few decibels will not be a very big difference. But if you turn it down 4 or 5 decibels, then a difference will be detected. Sensory adaptation refers to a reduction in sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure to it People who live by busy roads are so used to the traffic outside their window that it doesn't bother them. However, if someone from a more rural area comes to visit, that person will most likely find the constant sound of the traffic irritating. These concepts can apply to the field of psychology because it shows how aware people can be about what they are doing and how much of the stimulus they need to register something.
Rods and Cones
Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels, but to not mediate color and have low spatial acuity. Cones are active at higher light level and capable of color vision and responsible for high spatial acuity and things in detail.
Prosopagnosia. What's life like with it?
Auditory Perception
Functions of the Middle and Inner Ear & Place Theory
Central Place Theory
Inner Ear
Middle Ear
What is Tinnitus and how does it affect my psychological health?
All about Gestalt Psychology
Closure
Similarity
Proximity
Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk
What is Strabismus?
Treatments include specialized computers, therapeutic lenses, prisms, and filters to help train the visual-motor skills and develop endurance.
Different Perceptions
Interposition
Linear Perspective
Perceptual Constancy
Perceptual Set
Extrasensory Perception
Extrasensory is perception that occurs independently of sight, hearing, or other sensory processes. In simpler terms, psychic or the "sixth sense". One argument against extrasensory perception being a legit field of study is that it's too hard to replicate. It also lacks a theory among the believers and many are unable to explain the abnormality of the situation. One may argue for extrasensory, however, being a legit field of study because of the experiments that have been performed. J.B Rhine performed a majority of these experiments and is often known as the father of parapsychology.
Should parapsychology be a legitimate field of study?
"The determination of whether parapsychology should be a legit field of study or not depends on the person. There are some people that believe it 100% and will continue to believe it even if you were to show them proof that it doesn't exist. Then on the other side of the scale, you have the people that don't believe it 100% and will continue to not believe it even if you showed them proof that it did. I fall somewhere in the middle because I think that it should be a legitimate field but I'm not going to be disappointed if it's not. More information about it would be nice though and I hope that it continues to be researched."
-Kaitlin
"Today many psychologist and research are debating if parapsychology should be considered a legit field of research and if more attention should be brought towards it. Because it is such a young and new concept still, there has not been a lot of research brought towards it. I think it is interesting and that it may very well be a possibility if it is true, but I am a little skeptical if people can knowingly actually predict things. I think the experiments and different studies of it that have been done are a good start but I do not know if it is actually a real thing."
-Lizzie