PSYC 1010 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Subjective Constancy, Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Detection Theory

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Rebecca Jubis

Document Summary

Sensation & perception are parts of one continuous process. Sensation = our sensory receptors & nervous system receive & represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception = organizing & interpreting this information, enabling recognition of meaningful events. Bottom-up processing = sensory analysis that begins at the entry level, with information flowing from the sensory receptors to the brain. Top-down processing = information processing guided by high-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions by filtering information through our experience & expectations. Our senses (1) receive sensory stimulation (using specialized receptor cells), (2) transform that stimulation into neural impulses, & (3) deliver the neural information to the brain. Transduction = process of converting one form of energy into another. Our absolute threshold = for any stimulus is the minimum stimulation necessary for us to be consciously aware of it. Signal detection theory predicts how and when we will detect a faint stimulus amid background noise.