 The passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain.  The process is passive in the sense that we do not have to be consciously engaging in a "sensing" process.

a) Sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment. b) Sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain.

 The active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses.

When the brain organizes the information and translates it into something meaningful.

The interpretation of data is determined mostly by information from the senses, not by expectations or previous knowledge

Information processing based on previous knowledge or schemata—allows us to make inferences: to "perceive" or "know" more than is contained in the data.

Selective Attention

The process of discriminating between what is important & is irrelevant, and is influenced by motivation.  For example - students in class should focus on what the teachers are saying and the overheads being presented. Students walking by the classroom may focus on people in the room, who is the teacher, etc., and not the same thing the students in the class.

 Our impressive ability to tune our attention to just one voice from a multitude.  Example: At a party people are arrayed all around us and their conversations come from various different directions. We seem to be able to use this information to reject all but the one in which we are interested.

 A type of attention which involves focusing on a specific aspect of a scene while ignoring other aspects.attention  Conscious – When you chooses to attend to an interesting object, like a tv, instead of a less interesting one, like a coffee table  Unconscious- Like a green field with a single red tulip - the tulip will receive attention initially.  Often, we think we have taken in an entire scene when, in reality, we have processed only the area we are attending to and only have a general "gist" of the rest of the scene

 A phenomenon in visual perception where apparently large changes within a visual scene are undetected by the viewer. Typically for change blindness to occur, the change in the scene has to coincide with some visual disruption such as an eye movement or a brief obscuration of the observed scene or image.visual perceptioneye movement

How we perceive the world is a function of our past experiences, culture, and biological makeup.

 The study of psychological reactions to physical stimuli.  At what point does physical reality becomes human reality?  Absolute Threshold

 The smallest physical difference between two stimuli that can be recognized  Preamble

 The smallest, weakest amount of a stimulus that a person can detect.  Absolute threshold is when 50 percent of the time you can detect the stimulus  Absolute thresholds change with age  Example sounds- 

 Two Assumptions of subliminal stimulation 1. We can unconsciously sense below our threshold stimuli 2. Without our awareness, these stimuli have extraordinary suggestive powers. Can we? Do they? FrontBack

 A phenomenon in which sensory neurons change their level of sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time. This adaptation allows people to adapt to their environments while balancing the need to receive new sensory input. Neurons involved with smell, hearing, taste, touch, and sight can all exhibit sensory adaptation.  Glasses

We perceive the world not exactly as it is, but as it is useful for us to perceive it.