INTRODUCTION TO PERCEPTION

AND SENSATION
Perception is referred to as organization, identification and
interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and
understand the environment or it can be defined as whatever is
experienced by a person. According to Joseph Reitz,
“Perception includes all those processes by which an individual
receives information about his environment—seeing, hearing,
feeling, tasting and smelling. The study of these perceptual
processes shows that their functioning is affected by three
classes of variables—the objects or events being perceived,
the environment in which perception occurs and the individual
doing the perceiving.” According to B. V. H. Gilmer, “Perception
is the process of becoming aware of situations, of adding
meaningful associations to sensations.” Uday Pareek said
perception can be defined as “the process of receiving,
selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking, and reacting to
sensory stimuli or data.” So, in simple words, we can say that
perception is the act of seeing what is there to be seen which
can be influenced depending on the person.
Sensation is a mental process like seeing, hearing, smelling or
tasting, resulting from the external stimulation of the sense
organs distinguished as a conscious awareness of the sensory
processes. In neurology and psychology any concrete,
conscious experience resulting from stimulation of a specific
sense organ, sensory nerve, or sensory area in the brain. A
Differential Threshold can be defined as a minimal difference
that can be detected b/w two stimuli which are the same, it is
also known as just a noticeable difference i.e., j.n.d. for e.g.,
packaging update of a brand or product with few features,
colours or advantages over a period of time to keep current
customers. While an Absolute Threshold in psychology is
defined as the lowest level at which an individual can
experience a sensation, any stimulus which can be detected by
humans like sound, touch, taste, smell and sight for e.g., When
we lit a candle flame meters away from us. The way we
measure a threshold is by the method i.e. The signal detection
theory which was first used in the 90’s by John A. Swets and
David M. Green for Psychophysics, SDT is used to predict how
and when we detect the presence of a stimulus. The detection
depends partly on a person’s experience, motivation,
expectations, level of fatigue etc. In sensation a sensory
adaptation is referred to as a decrease in sensitivity due to
constant exposure to the stimulus, it happens when our
receptors expose themselves to a stimulus such as loud noise
or a high temp. for too long that it becomes less noticeable.
Sensation and perception are two very different terms and
processes but both are closely related to each other, sensation
is the input of the surroundings that we receive through our
receptors while perception is the way we see what we see, it is
a process which the brain selects, organizes and then
interprets. For e.g. I can see (sensation), I can see a white cat
(perception). A sensation cannot be wrong but a perception can
be, a wrong perception is called an illusion. The psychological
concept of illusion is defined as a process involving an
interaction of logical and empirical considerations. Common
usage suggests that an illusion is a discrepancy between one's
awareness and some stimulus. It is a sensory distortion that
can fool a person’s senses. Illusion can be of different type
such as an auditory illusion which is the illusion of hearing, in
this sounds which are not present in the stimulus are listened.
Optical illusion which is the illusion of sight, which is set apart
by visually perceived images that are deceptive or misleading.
Optical illusion can be of a form, size or a direction. In illusion of
form the two-dimensional artwork that we draw on a 2D plane
can be created by using different tones of shades which will
fool a person’s eyes. illusion of size also known as Ebbinghaus
illusion was created by Hermann Ebbinghaus, one of the early
founders of experimental psychology, in this he took two
orange circles, one orange circle (A) was surrounded by large
grey circles while the other one (B) was surrounded by small
grey circles (dots), this created an illusion in the viewers eyes
which made the circle (B) appear bigger in size than circle(A),
nonetheless both were equal in sizes. Illusion of direction a.k.a.
illusion of orientations or of the sense or consciousness of
direction, are cases of disagreement between the person's
perception, or general "feeling," of north and the true north. In
J. Fraser’s "A New Visual Illusion of Direction" it investigates
about the lines of the figures which produce the illusion consist
of a series of visibly discrete similar parts, all inclined at the
same small angle to the line of direction of the series to which
they belong, instead of being uninterrupted black or white lines
on a contrasting background, the more usual structure of the
visual illusion of direction figures.
There are so many reasons because of which an illusion can
occur, it can be the effect of light on an object; emotions or prior
knowledge; incomplete or incorrect development of perception;
habit and familiarity; defects of sense organs such as
blindness/ visual impairment, colour blindness, partial hearing
loss etc; human sense organs are a very sensitive part of a
body, though human is one of most intelligent animal in
universe, still our sense organs lacks perfection in comparison
to others, human sense organs has functional limitations it is
referred to the limited range of stimulation, for humans if a
stimulus wants to be noticed it has to be of certain optimal
intensity and magnitude causing illusion; peculiarity of a sense
organs is one of the reasons, it’s Modality, timing, intensity, and
location of the stimulus are the four features that allow the brain
to identify a unique sensation; perceiving of a sign wrongly and
deducing it false meaning causes illusion; expectations and
preparatory set; similarity , contrast, recency, imperfect
isolation, the way we move our eyes and lastly fear can cause
illusion, however fear sometimes itself can be considered as an
illusion and not a cause of illusion such as a fear of ghosts.
Similar to illusion there is another term i.e., hallucination.
People often mistook them to be the same but a hallucination is
one’s perception of having seen, heard, touched, tasted or
smelled something that wasn’t actually present. It is a sensation
created by mind(imaginary). Being drunk or in effect of a drug
can cause hallucination, dementia is also one of its causes. A
hallucination is based on the absence of external stimulus for
e.g., perceiving that the wall or the lights are talking to you or
the chair is following you around town. There isn’t an external
stimulus for the talking/following however an illusion is based
on the presence of an external stimulus for e.g., perceiving a
rope on the floor of a room as a snake. The thick rope is the
external stimulus.
References:
Morgan, C. T., King, R.A., Weisz, J.R. & Schopler, J. (1986).
Introduction to psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Feldman, S. R. (2009). Essentials of understanding psychology
(7th Ed.) New Delhi: Pearson.
Ciccarelli, S. K., White, J. N. (2012) Psychology. Boston, Mass:
Pearson Learning Solutions.
Reynolds, R.I. (2008) A psychological definition of illusion. n.p.:
Taylor & Francis Online (internet). Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1080/09515088808572940
Privitera, A.J. (2001). Sensation and perception. In R. Biswas-
Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology.
Champaign, IL:DEF publishers. Retrieved from
http://noba.to/xgk3ajhy
Blake, R., & Sekuler, R. (2006). Perception (5th ed.). Boston:
McGraw-Hill.
Swift, E.J. (1909). A New Visual Illusion of Direction.
Psychological Bulletin, 6(9), 323-324.
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0069092