Sensation

 The process of receiving, converting, and transmitting

information from the external and internal world to
the brain
 The activation of receptors in the various sense organs.
 Sensory receptors
 Specialized forms of neurons.
 These receptor cells receive and process sensory
information from the environment
 Sense organs
 Eyes
 Ears
 Nose
 Skin
 Taste buds
Perception
 The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting
raw sensory data into useful mental representations of
the world
 The method by which sensations experienced at any
given moment are organized and interpreted in some
meaningful fashion
Sensation Perception
 Transduction
 Sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue)
convert the stimulus into neural impulses which are sent
to the brain
Example of Transduction
 Receptor cells in the inner ear convert sound
waves/vibrations into electrochemical signals
 These signals are carried by neurons to the brain
Sensory Reduction
 Sensory reduction involves the filtering and analyzing
of incoming sensations before sending a neural
message to the cortex.
 For example
 If the reticular formation (located in the brainstem)
decides that information is important, it is passed on to
alert the cerebral cortex.
Sensory Thresholds
 Each sensory system has a threshold level of
energy that is required to activate that sense.
 Absolute threshold
 The smallest amount of stimulus needed to detect
that the stimulus is present
 Difference threshold/ Just Noticeable Difference
 The smallest change in amount of sensory stimulus
needed for someone to notice that change
 Different people can have widely varying sensory
thresholds.
 Thresholds can change within a person over time and
as a function of hormone status.
 Ability to taste foods as we get older
Sensory Systems
 A key function of sensory systems is to detect change
within the environment.
Habituation and Sensory
Adaptation
 Habituation
 Tendency of the brain to stop attending to constant,
unchanging information.
 Sensory adaptation
 Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less
responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.
Vision
 External light falls on receptors within the eye to
generate the visual message.
 Light = electromagnetic energy that moves in waves
 Wavelength of light determines color
Structure of the Eye
 Cornea: tough, transparent layer
 Pupil: adjustable opening
 Iris: colored part of the eye; controls size of pupil
 Lens: transparent elastic structure
 Retina: group of light receptors
 Optic Nerve: carries neural messages to the brain
 Fovea: tiny pit in the center of the retina filled with
cones and responsible for sharp vision
 Rods: visual sensory receptors found at the back of the
retina, responsible for non-color sensitivity to low
levels of light.
 Cones: visual sensory receptors found at the back of
the retina, responsible for color vision and sharpness
of vision.
 Blind spot: area in the retina where the axons of the
three layers of retinal cells exit the eye to form the
optic nerve, insensitive to light.
Audition
 Receptors within the ear are tuned to
detect sound waves (changes in sound
pressure level).
 Sound waves vary in terms of
 Frequency: corresponds to pitch
 Amplitude: corresponds to
loudness
 Sound loudness is measured
in decibels.
Sound Loudness (dB)
Structure of the Ear
 Auditory canal: short tunnel that runs from the pinna
to the eardrum (tympanic membrane).
 Eardrum: thin section of skin that tightly covers the
opening into the middle part of the ear, just like a
drum skin covers the opening in a drum.
 When sound waves hit the eardrum, it vibrates and
causes three tiny bones in the middle ear to vibrate.
 Hammer
 Anvil
 Stirrup
 Cochlea: snail-shaped structure of the inner ear that is
filled with fluid.
 Auditory nerve: bundle of axons from the hair cells in
the inner ear; receives neural message from the organ
of Corti.
Perception
 The perceptual processes include:
 Selection
 refers to choosing which of many stimuli that will be
processed.
 Organization
 involves collecting the information into some pattern.

 Interpretation
 involves understanding the pattern.
Perception : Selection
 Choosing where to direct your attention
 3 factors are involved in the act of paying attention to
some stimuli in our environment and not to others
Selection
 Selective attention
 Filtering out and attending only to important sensory
messages.
 Feature detectors
 Specialized cells in the brain that respond only to
certain sensory information
 Habituation
 Tendency of the brain to ignore environmental factors
that remain constant
Perceptual Organization
 Gestaltists proposed laws of organization that specify
how people perceive form
 Similarity
 The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each
other as being part of the same group.
 Proximity
 The tendency to perceive objects that are close to each
other as part of the same grouping.
 Closure
 The tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.
 Continuation and direction
 Gestalt principle stating that smooth, flowing lines are
more readily perceived than choppy, broken lines.
 Figure–ground - the tendency to perceive objects, or
figures, as existing on a background.
 Figure is perceived as distinct from the background.
 Figure is closer to the viewer than the background
 Reversible figures - visual illusions in which the figure
and ground can be reversed.
Gestalt Organizational Principles
Perceptual Constancy
 The tendency for the environment to be perceived as
remaining the same even with changes in sensory
input.
 Size constancy
 Shape constancy
 Color constancy
 Brightness constancy
Perceptual Constancy
 Size constancy
 The tendency to interpret an object as always being the
same actual size, regardless changes on the retinal
image.
 Shape constancy
 The tendency to interpret the shape of an object as
being constant, even when its shape changes on the
retina.
 Brightness constancy
 The tendency to perceive the apparent brightness of an
object as the same even when the light conditions
change.
Shape Constancy
Form Perception
 Form perception
 the experience of a shaped region in the field.
 Recognition
 the experience that the shape is familiar.
 Identification
 the function or meaning or category of the shape is
known.
 For those who have never seen the shape before, it will
be perceived but not recognized or identified.
For those who have, it will be perceived as a certain
familiar shape and also identified.
Perceptual Set
 The tendency to perceive things a certain way because
previous experiences or expectations influence those
perceptions.
Depth Perception
 Depth perception is the ability to perceive three-
dimensional space and to accurately judge distance.
Binocular Cues
 Binocular cues - cues for perceiving depth based on
both eyes.
 Convergence - the rotation of the two eyes in their
sockets to focus on a single object, resulting in greater
convergence for closer objects and lesser convergence if
objects are distant.
 Binocular disparity - the difference in images between
the two eyes, which is greater for objects that are close
and smaller for distant objects.
Monocular Cues
 Monocular cues – cues for perceiving depth based on one
eye only.
 Linear perspective – the tendency for parallel lines to appear
to converge on each other.
 Relative size - perception that occurs when objects that a
person expects to be of a certain size appear to be small and
are, therefore, assumed to be much farther away.
 Interposition (overlap) - the assumption that an object that
appears to be blocking part of another object is in front of the
second object and closer to the viewer
 Texture Gradient: When you are looking at an object that
extends into the distance, such as a grassy field, the texture
becomes less and less apparent the farther it goes into the
distance.
Pictorial depth cues
Perceiving the world in
three dimensions
Errors in Perception
 Perceptions can be in error
 Illusions are visual stimuli that are misinterpreted
 Visual illusions are usually ambiguous stimuli
Phi Phenomenon
 Lights turned on in a sequence appear to move.
Extrasensory Perception
 ESP refers to the ability to perceive stimuli that are
outside the 5 senses
 Telepathy: the ability to read minds
 Clairvoyance: the ability to perceive objects or events
beyond normal sensory contact
 Precognition: the ability to predict the future
 Psychokinesis: the ability to move objects