Perception

The process through which people take raw sensations from the enviroment and interpret them, using knowledge, experience, and understanding of thw world, so that the sensations become meaningful experiences

an approach to preception that focuses on how computation by the nervous system translate raw sensory stimulation into an experience of reality

a view of perception taken by those who argue that the perceptual system uses fragments of sensory information to construct an image of reality

an approach to perception maintaining that humans and other species are so well adapted to their natural environment that many aspects of the world are preceived without requiring higher-level analysis and inferences

an area of research focusing on the relationship between the physical characteristics of environmental stimuli and the psychological experiences those stimuli produce

the minimum amount of stimulus energy that can be detected 50 percent of the time

stimuli that are too weak or breif to be perceived

stimuli that are strong enough to be consistently perceived

the ability to detect a stimulus

the internal rule a person uses to decide whether or not to report a stimulus

a mathematical model of what determins a person's report that a newar-threshold stimulus has or has not occurred

the smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy

a law stating that the smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy is a constant fraction of the intensity of the stimulus

the task of determining what edges and other stimuli go together to form an object

the perceptual process through which sounds are mentally represented and interprested

the ability to perceive distance

a depth cue whereby closer objects block one's view of things farther away

a depth cue whereby larger objects are perceived as clser than smaller ones

a depth cue whereby objects higher in the visual field are preceived as more distant

a graduated change in the texture, or grain, of the visual feld, whereby objects with finer, less detailed textures are preceived as more distant

a depth cue whereby objects closer to the poin at which two lines appear to conver are preceived as eing at a greater distance

a depth cue whereby a difference in the apparent rate of movement of different objects provides information abou the relative distance of those objects

the ability of the lens of the eye to change its shape and bend light so that objects are in focus

a depth cue involving the rotation of theyes to project the image of an object on each retina

a depth cue based on the difference between two retinal images of the world

a motion cue involving a rapid expansion in size of an image so that it fills the available space on the retina

an illusion in which lights or images flashed in rapid succession are preceived as moving

the perception of objects as contstant size, shape, color, and other properties despite changes in their retinal image

aspects of recognition that are guided by higher-level cognitive processes and psychological factors such as expectations

aspects of recognition that depend first on the information about the stimlus that comes to the brain from the sensory receptors

mental representations of what we know, and have come to expect, about the world

an approach to understanding objects are thought to be simultaneously analyzed by a number of widely distibuted, but connected, neural units in the brain

the process of directing and focusing psychological resources to enhance perception, performance, and mental experience