Sensation Perception Sensory coding Transduction Taste Smell Touch Hearing Vision Qualitative info Quantitative info Psychophysics Absolute threshold Difference threshold Weber s law Signal detection theory Sense organs detection response to external stimulus the transmission of those to brain Brain s processing of detected signals resulting in internal representations of the stimuli that form a conscious experience of the world Sensory receptors translate physical properties of stimuli into patterns of neural impulses Process by which sensory receptors produce neural impulses when they receive phys or chem stimuli Molecules dissolved in fluid on tongue cells in taste buds travel to brain through facial glossopharyngeal vagus nerves Molecules dissolved in fluid of mucous membrane in noise olfactory neuron endings travels to brain by olfactory nerve Pressure on skin touch receptors in skin travels to brain by cranial spinal nerves Sound waves pressure sensitive hair cells in cochlea travels to brain by auditory nerve Light waves light sensitive rods cones in retina travels to brain by optic nerve Sensory receptors respond by firing in diff combos Sensory receptors respond by firing at diff rates Subfeld examining psych experiences of phys stimuli measures relationship between stimuli perception Min intensity of a stimulus needed for sensation Min amount of change required for person to detect a diff Barely noticeable diff between 2 stimuli is based on proportion of original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of diff SDT detecting stimulus requires making Sensory adaption Bottom up processing Top down processing Attending Attention Visual attention Parallel processing Targets Distractors Auditory attention Cherry s cocktail party phenomenon Broadbent s filter theory a judgment about its presence based on subj interpretation of ambiguous info Decrease in sensitivity to constant level of stimulation Data are related in brain from low to high levels of processing Info higher levels of mental processing can influence lower earlier levels in the processing hierarchy Getting info into memory attention Ability to focus on certain stimuli adaptive distracted by external sensory cues Works selectively serially Processing mult types of info same time by focusing on targets Objects that differ from others by 1 feature Other objects in display Listening selectively How a particularly pertinent stimulus can capture attention ie Hearing your name in a crowded room Maintains that attention I selective socially selective emotionally evoking