Chapter 3 Study Objectives

Griggs and Jackson, Chapter 3 Sensation

1. What are the detection, difference, and scaling questions concerned with? Be able to
define and differentiate between these three questions and recognize examples of each.
Detection question - Concerned with the limits on our ability to detect faint signals.
Difference question - Concerned with limits on our detection abilities, but in this case
with our ability to detect very small differences between stimuli.
Scaling question - Not concerned with sensory processing limits, but rather how we
perceive the magnitudes (intensities) of clearly detectable stimuli.
2. Define, differentiate between, and recognize examples of absolute threshold and just
noticeable difference.
3. (A) What is subliminal perception and subliminal persuasion? (B) Is there evidence of
either of these?
4. Define ESP. Is there evidence to support ESP?
5. What is “the bottom line” of Steven’s power law?
6. (A) What is sensory adaptation? Be able to recognize examples of sensory adaptation. (B)
Why does sensory adaptation make sense from an evolutionary vantage point?
7. (A) What is transduction? (B) What is accommodation? Be able to define and distinguish
between each.
8. Recognize the sequence of light passing through the eye. Where does it go first, second,
third, etc.
9. Be able to define and distinguish between the following terms: Retina, rods, cones, and
fovea.
10. What is sensation and what is perception? Be able to define, differentiate between, and
recognize examples of these two terms.
11. (A) What does bottom-up processing refer to and why is it called bottom-up processing?
(B) What is top-down processing and why is it called top-down processing?
12. (A) In lecture you will be provided with several examples that help illustrate that top-
down processing is subjective. Be able to recognize these examples and what they
demonstrate.
13. Another important Gestalt perceptual organizational principle is closure which refers to
what? Be able to recognize examples of closure.