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Perception
The processes that organize information in the sensory image and interpret it as having been produced by properties of objects or events in the external, three-dimensional world.
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Sensation
The process by which stimulation of a sensory receptor gives rise to neutral impulses that result in an experience, or awareness, of conditions inside or outside the body.
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Perceptual organization
The processes that put sensory information together to give the perception of a coherent scene over the whole visual field.
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Identification and recognition
Two ways of attaching meaning to percepts.
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Distal stimulus
In the processes of perception, the physical object in the world, as contrasted with the proximal stimulus, the optical image on the retina.
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Proximal stimulus
The optical image on the retina; contrasted with the distal stimulus, the physical object in the world.
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Psychophysics
The study of teh correspondence between physical simulation and psychological experience.
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Absolute threshold
The minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory signal is detected half the time.
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Psychometric function
A graph that plots the percentage of detections of a stimulus (on the vertical axis) for each stimulus intensity (on the horizon axis).
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Sensory adaption
A phenomenon in which receptor cells lose their power to respond after a period of unchanged stimulation; allows a more rapid reaction to new sources of information.
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