CHAPTER4 SENSATION AND
PERCEPTION
Sensation
conversion of energy from the environment
into a pattern of response by the nervous
system. is the detection of stimuli; energies
from the world around us that affect us in
some way
is the detection of stimuli—energies from
the world around us that affect us in some
way. Our eyes, ears, and other sensory
organs are packed with receptors—
specialized cells that convert environmental
energies into signals for the nervous system
Receptors
specialized cells that convert environmental
energies into signals for the nervous system
Light
part of the electromagnetic spectrum;
continuum of all the frequencies of radiated
energies
Pupil
adjustable opening in the eye
Iris
colored structure on the surface of the eye
Retina
layer of visual receptors covering the back
surface of the eyeball
Cornea
rigid transparent structure on the outer
surface of the eyeball, focus light onto the
retina
Lens
flexible structure that can vary in thickness
allowing it to focus on different objects
Fovea
central area of the retina, is adapted for
detailed vision. Of all retinal areas, the
fovea has the greatest density of receptors.
consists solely of cones. Also, more of the
cerebral cortex is devoted to analyzing input
from the fovea than input from other areas.
Myopia
Nearsightedness: impaired ability to focus
on distance objects
Hyperopia
Farsightedness: impaired ability to focus on
close objects
Visual receptors of the eye
specialized neurons in the retina at the back
of the eye that can respond to small amounts
of light
Cones
adapted for color, daytime, and detailed
vision; located toward the retina and fovea.
adapted for perceiving color and detail in
bright light. Of the visual receptors in the
human retina, about 5 percent are cones.
Although 5 percent may not sound like
much, the cone-rich parts of the retina send
more axons to the brain than do the rod-rich
an do the rod-rich areas, and cone responses
dominate the human visual cortex
Rods
adapted for vision in dim light; located
away from the fovea
periphery- more receptors converge their
output onto the next cell
Dark adaptation
gradual improvement in the ability to see in
dim light
Exposure to light chemically alters
molecules called retinaldehydes, thereby
stimulating the visual receptors.
(Retinaldehydes are derived from vitamin
A.) Under moderate light the receptors
regenerate (rebuild) the molecules about as
fast as the light keeps breaking them down.
In dim light, receptors regenerate their
molecules without competition, improving
your detection of faint light.
Cones and rods adapt at different rates.
When you enter a dark place, your cones
regenerate their retinaldehydes first, but by
the time the rods finish, the rods are more
sensitive to faint light than the cones are. At
that point, you see mostly with rods
How does exposure to light stimulate
visual receptors?
chemically altering a molecule
Why are Rods more sensitive to dim
light?
Rods regenerate this molecule much faster
How do Visual receptors send their
impulses?
Visual receptors send their impulses away
from the brain toward the eye, where they
make synaptic contacts with neurons called
bipolar cells.
Ganglion cells
neurons that receive their input from the
bipolar cells
Optic nerve
nerve that innervates the eye and are made
of axons from ganglion cells
Blind spot
the retinal area where the optic nerve exits
the eye; This part has no room for receptors
Trichromatic Theory or the Young-
Helmholtz theory
"Color vision depends on the response rates
of three types of cones"
One type is most sensitive to short
wavelengths (which we generally see as
blue), another to medium wavelengths
(green), and another to long wavelengths
(red). Every wavelength of light produces
its own distinct ratio of responses by the
three kinds of cones. White light excites all
three kinds equally. From the ratio among
the three types of cones, the brain
determines color.
Various wavelengths prompts varying levels
of activity in the three comes:
Short wavelength - Blue
Medium wavelength - green
Long wavelength – red
Thomas Young
English physician in 1700's that offered the
first theory about how people perceive color
Theory was modified by Hermann von
Helmholtz in the 1800's
Opponent-Process theory
"We perceive color in terms of paired
opposites- red vs. green, yellow vs. blue,
and white vs. black"
Negative afterimages- That result strongly
implies that the negative afterimage, and
indeed color perception in general, depends
on the cerebral cortex, not just interactions
within the retina
Negative afterimages
experiences of one color after the removal
of another
Ewald Hering
Proposed Opponent-Process theory
Edwin Land
Proposed Retinex Theory
Retinex theory
"We perceive color when the cerebral cortex
compares various retinal patterns" - the
cerebral cortex compares the patterns of
light from different areas and synthesizes a
color perception for each area
The color is something our brain constructs,
not a property of light itself
Color is something our brain constructs, not
a property of the light itself.
Brightness contrast- is the increase or
decrease in an object's apparent brightness
by comparison to objects around it
color constancy
Color constancy
tendency of an object to appear nearly the
same color under a variety of lighting
conditions
Color Vision Deficiency
Caused by recessive gene on the X
chromosome
Absolute sensory threshold
intensity at which a given individual detects
a stimulus of 50% of the time
Signal detection theory
the study of people's tendencies to make
hits, correct rejections, misses, and false
alarms
people's responses depend on their
willingness to risk misses or false alarms
Signal detection experiments depend on?
people's willingness to risk misses or false
alarms
Subliminal perception
Idea that stimuli sometimes influences our
behavior even when they are presented so
faintly or briefly that we do not perceive
them consciously
Subliminal perception effects emerge only
as small changes in average performance,
ordinarily in measurements taken shortly
after the subliminal stimulus. However, the
fact that such effects occur at all
demonstrates the possibility of unconscious
influences
Brightness contrast
increase or decrease in an object's apparent
brightness by comparison to objects around
it
Feature detectors
specialized neurons in the visual cortex that
respond to the presence of simple features
such as lines or angles
the feature that cells detect is probably more
complex than just a line. Furthermore,
because each cell responds to a range of
stimuli, no cell provides an unambiguous
message about what you see at any moment.
feature detectors cannot completely explain
how we perceive letters, much less faces
What evidence supports the idea of feature
detectors?-Recordings from laboratory
animals show that each neuron in the visual
system responds mainly to a particular kind
of stimulus.
Feature detector approach to neurons
Individual neurons in the visual cortex
respond to specific stimuli such as a specific
angle of a line
Bottom-up process
which tiny elements combine to produce
larger items
perceptual activity in which individual
sensory elements combine to produce larger
items
Gestalt Psychology
A field that focuses on our ability to
perceive overall patterns
The founders of Gestalt psychology rejected
the idea of breaking down a perception into
its component parts
Separate figure and ground, you distinguish
the object from the background
Insists that feature detectors are not enough
Closure- tendency to imagine the rest of an
incomplete, familiar figure
continuation- a filling in of the gaps
good figure- the tendency to perceive
simple, symmetrical figures
applies to hearing also- continuation and
closure work best when one item interrupts
something else
Top down process
apply your experience and expectations to
interpret what each item must be in context
Proximity
(A) in Gestalt Psychology, the Tendency to
Perceive Objects Close Together as
Belonging to a Group; (B) in Social
Psychology, the Tendency to Choose as
Friends People with Whom WE Come in
Frequent Contact
Similarity
the tendency to perceive similar items as
being a group
Common fate
tendency to perceive objects as part of the
same group if they change or move in
similar ways at the same time
Visual consistency
tendency to perceive objects as keeping
their shape, size, and color despite certain
distortions in the light pattern reaching our
retinas
Why do objects look stationary when we Linear perspective
move our eyes? as parallel lines stretch out toward the
The vestibular system informs the visual horizon, they come closer together
areas of the brain about your head and eye
movement Detail
we see nearby objects in much greater detail
What do we perceive motion relative to? than distant objects
We perceive motion relative to the
background Interposition
nearby objects interrupt our view of a more
Induced motion distant object
incorrectly perceive objects as moving
against a stationary background, apparent Texture gradient
movement, as opposed to real movement. at greater distances objects become more
"packed together"
Stroboscopic movement
illusion of movement created by a rapid Shadows
succession of stationary images help us gauge sizes and location of objects

Depth perception Accommodation

perception of distance, enables us to
experience the world in three dimensions
retinal disparity—the difference in the
apparent position of an object as seen by the
left and right retinas.
convergence of the eyes—that is, the degree
to which they turn in to focus on a close
object
Retinal disparity and convergence are called
binocular cues because they depend on both
eyes. Monocular cues enable you to judge
depth and distance with just one eye or
when both eyes see the same image
the lens of the eye changes shape to focus
on nearby objects allowing your brain to
infer the distance
Motion parallax
the difference in speed of movement of
images across the retina as you travel i.e.
while fixated on the horizon, closer objects
move very fast by you while those in the
distance move slower
Optical illusion
misinterpretation of a visual stimulus

Retinal disparity Example of misjudging distance thus

difference in the apparent position of an misjudge size
object seen by the left and right retinas Ames rooms

Convergence Purves's Empirical Approach to optical

degree to which the eyes turn in to focus on illusions
a close object No idea

Binocular cues Moon Illusion

depend on both eyes To most people, the moon appears about
30% larger on the horizon than when it is
Monocular cues higher in the sky
judge depth and perception with one eye;
Object size, Linear perspective, Detail,
interposition, etc.

Object size
other things being equal, a nearby object
produces a larger image than a distant one
conduction deafness
nerve deafness
hearing impairment because the bones
connected to the eardrum fail to transmit
sound waves properly to the cochlea
resulting from damage to the cochlea, hair
cells, or auditory nerve. Disease, heredity,
and exposure to loud noises are common
causes of nerve deafness
cochlea
fluid-filled canals of the snail-shaped organ,
which contains the receptors for hearing.
converts relatively weak sound waves into
more intense waves of pressure
frequency principle
concept that a sound wave through the fluid
of the cochlea vibrates all the hair cells,
which produce action potentials in
synchrony with the sound waves
At low frequencies (up to about 100 Hz)
gate theory
idea that pain messages must pass through a
gate, presumably in the spinal cord, that can
block the messages- other kinds of input
close the gate, preventing pain messages
from reaching the brain placebo
cutaneous senses
skin senses, somatosensory system, meaning
body-sensory system
Cutaneous receptors. We experience many
types of sensation on the skin, each
dependent on different receptors. Itch is a
sensation based on tissue irritation, inhibited
by pain. Tickle depends on the
unpredictability of the stimulus
place principle
idea that the highest frequency sounds
vibrate hair cells near the stirrup end, and
lower frequency sounds (down to about 100
to 200 Hz) vibrate hair cells at points farther
along the membrane
olfaction
sense of smell
synesthesia
a condition in which a stimulus of one type,
such as sound, also elicits another
experience, such as color
feature detectors
specialized neuron in the visual cortex that
responds to the presence of a simple feature,
such as a line
Signal-detection theory
study of people's tendencies to make hits,
correct rejections, misses, and false alarms
Subliminal perception
behavioral influence of stimuli presented so
faintly or briefly that we do not perceive
them consciously
absolute sensory threshold
intensity at which a given individual detects
a stimulus 50 percent of the time
visual constancy
tendency to perceive objects as keeping
their shape, size, and color despite
distortions in the actual pattern reaching the
retina
retinal disparity
difference in the apparent position of an
object as seen by the left and right retinas
motion parallax
difference in speed of movement of near and
far images across the retina as you travel
Perception
the interpretation of that information-
sensation
trichromatic vs. opponent-process vs
retained
Each of the trichromatic, opponent-process,
and retinex theories is correct with regard to
certain aspects of vision. The trichromatic
states that human color vision starts with
three kinds of cones. The opponent-process
theory explains how later cells organize
color information. The retinex theory notes
that the cerebral cortex compares color
information from various parts of the visual
field.
Color Vision
Color vision depends on three types of
cones, each sensitive to a particular range of
light wavelengths. Cones transmit messages
so that later cells in the visual system
indicate one color (e.g., blue) by an increase
in activity and another color (e.g., yellow)
by a decrease. The cerebral cortex compares
responses from different parts of the retina
to determine color experiences.
After light stimulates receptors at the
back of your retina, where do the
receptors send their output?
To other neurons that are closer to the center
of the eye
volley principle
Beyond about 100 Hz, hair cells cannot
keep pace. Still, each sound wave excites at
least a few hair cells, and "volleys" (groups)
of them respond to each vibration with an
action potential
place principle
At still higher frequencies, we rely on a
different mechanism. At each point along
the cochlea, the hair cells are tuned
resonators that vibrate only for sound waves
of a particular frequency. The highest
frequency sounds vibrate hair cells near the
stirrup end, and lower frequency sounds
(down to about 100 to 200 Hz) vibrate hair
cells at points farther along the membrane
vestibular sense
detects the tilt and acceleration of the head,
and the orientation of the head with respect
to gravity
pain
An area in the parietal cortex responds to
the sensation itself.
The brain area responsive to the emotional
aspect—the anterior cingulate cortex—also
responds to the emotional pain of watching
someone else get hurt
Endorphins are neurotransmitters that
weaken pain sensation
somatosensory cortex
area at the front of the parietal lobes that
registers and processes body touch and
movement sensations
phantom limb- a) Each area of the
somatosensory cortex gets input from a
different body area. (b) If one body part,
such as the hand, is amputated, its area of
the cortex no longer gets its normal input.
(c) Axons from a neighboring area branch
out to excite the vacated area. Now,
stimulation of the face excites both the face
area and the hand area, producing both a
facial sensation and a phantom hand
sensation.
taste
four primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and
bitter (+umami)
We have many kinds of bitter receptors, but
not many of any one kind.
smell
olfaction
synesthesia
describing one kind of sensation in terms of
another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")
reversible figure
inflict with the idea that feature detectors
fully explain vision- If vision were simply a
matter of stimulating feature detectors and
adding up their responses, then a given
display would always produce the same
perception.