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Sensation & Perception

Chapter 3
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Distinguishing Definitions
• Sensation: the stimulation of sensory receptors and the
transmission of sensory information to the CNS
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• Perception: the process by which sensations are organized

into an inner representation of the world
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Absolute Thresholds
• The weakest amount of a stimulus that a person can
distinguish from no stimulus at all
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• E.g. the absolute threshold for light would be the

minimum brightness (physical energy) required to
activate the visual sensory system

• Note: *Measured under ideal conditions

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Difference Threshold
• The difference threshold is a measure of the smallest increase or
decrease in a physical stimulus that is required to produce the just
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noticeable difference
• The JND is the smallest change in sensation that we are able to detect 50% of
the time
• E.g. if you were holding a 2kg weight and 500g were added, you could not sense the
difference.

• Weber’s Law
• The JND for all senses depends on a proportion or percentage of change
rather than on a fixed amount of change
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Sensory adaptation
• An adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure
to unchanging stimuli
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• Due to the inability of the sensory nerve receptors to fire off

messages to the brain indefinitely

• If it is a strong stimuli: decrease in the sensitivity that occurs after

repeated exposure
• E.g. Loud tone over and over again would become softer
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Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye

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 Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye
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• Basic visual processes are analogous to those used on

photography (except more complicated)
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Reaching the Retina 9

• The Retina is the part of

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the eye that converts the

electromagnetic energy of
light to electrical impulses
for transmission to the
brain.
• The retina consists of a
thin layer of nerve cells at
the back of the
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• There are two kinds of light-sensitive receptor

cells found in the retina:
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1. Rods are thin, cylindrical receptor cells highly

sensitive to light
• The rods play a key role in peripheral vision (seeing objects that are
outside the main center of focus) and in night vision

2. Cones are light-sensitive receptor cells responsible

for sharp focus and colour perception, particularly
in bright light.
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Fovea & Blind Spot

• Fovea:
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• An area near the center of the retina that is dense with

cones and where vision is clearest

• Blind Spot:
• The area of the retina where axons from ganglion cells
meet to form the optic nerve
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Processing the Visual Message 9

• The optic nerve coming

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from each eye splits at

the optic chiasm
• The image to a person’s
right is sent to the left
side of the brain and
vice-versa

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 Colour Vision
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• Three dimensions combine to provide the rich world of colour we

experience:
• (1) Hue – actual colour we see
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• (2) Saturation – purity of a colour

• (3) Brightness – intensity of the light energy we perceive
 Colour Blindness
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• A person with normal vision can distinguish

between approx. 7 million different colours.
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• There are some who’s ability to distinguish

colours are more limited; the Colour-Blind
• Red-Green Colour-Blindness cannot distinguish
between red and green colours
• All red and green colours appear yellow (most
common form of colour-blindness).
• Blue-Yellow Colour-Blindness cannot distinguish
between all blue and yellow colours (Much more
rare).
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Interesting Note…

• Partial colour blindness is a sex-linked

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trait that mostly affects males.

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Hearing
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Sound
• Frequency: determined by the number of cycles (or vibrations)
completed by a sound wave in one second
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• Measured in hertz (Hz)

• Amplitude: depends on the energy (magnitude or intensity) or the

sound wave
• Measured in decibels (dB)

• Timbre: the distinct quality of a sound that distinguishes it from other

sounds of the same pitch and loudness
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Structure of the Ear

• Outer Ear (Pinna)
• Auditory Canal – hair-lined tube through which sound travels
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• Middle Ear
• Eardrum – flexible membrane that vibrates in response to sound
waves
• Ossicles – small bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup)
• Oval Window – membrane that transmits vibrations from
ossicles to cochlea
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• Inner Ear
• Semicircular Canals – fluid-filled tubular canals that sense the
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rotation of the head in different planes

• Cochlea – long, coiled tube lined with sensory receptors (hair cells)

• Auditory Nerve
• Nerve that transmits electrical impulses generated by hair cells in
the cochlea to the brain
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Hearing Loss & Deaf Culture

• More than 3.1 million Canadians have a hearing impairment and
310 000 can not hear at all.
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• Two major types of deafness:

• (1) Conductive deafness:
• From damage to structures in the middle ear – either to
the eardrum or to the bones that conduct sound waves
• Vast majority can be repaired medically or surgically, or
with hearing aids
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• (2) Sensorineural Deafness

• Usually stems from damage to the structures of the inner
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ear, most often the loss of hair cells

• Can also stem from damage to the auditory nerve, caused
by such factors as disease of exposure to very loud sounds

• Note: Cochlear implants contain microphones that sense sounds and

electronic equipment that transmits sounds past damaged hair cells to
stimulate the auditory nerve
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Smell (Olfaction)
• The human sense of smell (olfaction) permits us to detect more
than 10,000 separate smells
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• Women generally have a better sense of smell than men do

• Smell is sparked when molecules of a substance enter the nasal

passages and meet olfactory cells, the receptors in the nose (high in
each nostril)
• More than 1,000 separate types of receptors have been identifies on those
cells so far
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Mechanics of Smell
• We cannot smell a substance unless of some of its molecules vaporize
• When odor molecules vaporize, they become airborne and make their way up
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our nostrils to the olfactory epithelium

• The olfactory epithelium consists of two patches of tissue, one at the top of each nasal
cavity, that contain the receptor cells for smell

• The intensity of a small is determined by the number of olfactory neurons

firing at the same time
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Interesting Note:
• The sense of smell is somewhat unique as it is the one sense that
does NOT get routed through the thalamus before it is processed to
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the cortex
• E.g. have you ever smelled something and immediately had memories
of a past situation or person flood your mind?

• The olfactory system sends information to the limbic system, an area

in the brain that plays an important role in emotions and memories
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Pheromones
• Humans emit and respond to pheromones (chemicals
released by the body)
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• The human pheromone andosterone causes changes in

physiological functions such as heart rate and mood state
• Research has found a rise in male testosterone levels when exposed to
pheromones from ovulating females
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Other Pheromone Research

• The saliva of young men was analyzed
• These men had used an inhalant to sniff pheromones found in
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female vaginal secretions

• The men apparently recognized which of the women were most
likely to be fertile simply by the smell of pheromones
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Menstrual Synchrony
• The tendency of the menstrual cycles of women who live
together to synchronize with one another over time
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• Research shows that roommates who synchronized showed

greater olfactory sensitivity to andosterone
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Taste (Gustation)
• Most of your 10,000 taste buds are located near the edges and back
of your tongue
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• The sense of taste involves receptor cells that respond to four basic
stimulus qualities: sweet, sour, salty and bitter
• A fifth category also exists: umami
• There is controversy about whether it is a fundamental taste

• Flavour – the combined sensory experience of taste, smell and touch

• Most of the pleasure we attribute to taste is actually due to smell
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• Tastebuds – each taste bud is composed of 60 to 100 receptor cells which

resemble the petals of a flower
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• The taste buds wear out and are replaced every 10 days or so

• The sense of taste differs from person-to-person as a result of genetic

factors
• “nontasters” – 96 tastebuds per square cm
• Medium tasters – 184 tastebuds per square cm
• “supertasters” – 425 tastebuds per square cm
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The Skin Senses

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The skin senses

• All of our skin senses—touch, pressure, temperature, and
pain—play a critical role in survival
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• Tactile information is conveyed to the brain when an

object touches and depresses the skin stimulating one or
more of the receptors in the nerve endings of the skin
• Message sent up the spinal cord to the somatosensory cortex
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Gate-Control Theory
• Particular nerve receptors in the spinal cord lead to specific areas
of the brain related to pain
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• When these receptors are activated because of injury or problem with a

part of the body, a “gate” to the brain is opened, allowing us to
experience pain

• HOWEVER, another set of neural receptors can, when stimulated, close

the “gate” to the brain, thereby reducing the experience of pain
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• The gate can be shut in two ways:

1. Other impulses overwhelm the nerve pathways relating to pain (e.g.
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Rubbing skin around injury)

2. Psychological factors; depending on an individual’s current emotions,
interpretation of events, and previous experience, the brain can close a
gate by sending a message down the spinal cord to an injured area,
producing a reduction in or relief from pain
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Spatial Orientation Senses

• Kinesthetic Sense
• Provides information about:
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• (1) the position of the body parts in relation to one another

• (2) the movement in various body parts

• Vestibular Sense
• Detects movement and provides information about where we are in space
• Sense organs are located in the semicircular canals and the vestibular sacs in
the inner each
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Perception
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Gestalt Principles

• A series of principles that describe how we organize bits and

pieces of information into meaningful wholes
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• Perception of stimuli in our environment goes well beyond the

individual elements that we sense
• It represents an active, constructive process carried out within the brain
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Figure-Ground
• The most fundamental principle of perceptual organization
• As you view your world, some objects (the figure) seem to stand out from the
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background (the ground)

• Not limited to vision

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Gestalt principles
• Closure:
• We usually group elements to form enclosed or complete figures rather than
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open ones
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• Proximity:
• We perceive elements that are closer together as grouped
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together
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• Similarity:
• Elements that are similar in appearance are
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perceived as grouped together

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• Continuity
• We perceive figures or objects as belonging together if they appear to form a
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continuous pattern
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Depth Perception
• The ability to perceive the visual world in three dimensions and to
judge distance accurately
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• Binocular Depth Cues

• Convergence – when our eyes turn inward as we focus on nearby objects
• Binocular disparity – difference between two retinal images
• The further away, the less disparity
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Depth Cue Explanation

Interposition When one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive the partially blocked
object as farther away.
Linear Perspective A depth cue in which parallel lines that are known to be the same distance apart appear
to grow closer together or converge as they recede into the distance.
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Relative Size Larger objects are perceived as being closer to us, and smaller objects as being farther
away.
Texture Gradient A depth cue in which near objects appear to have a sharply defined texture, while similar
objects appear progressively smoother and fuzzier as they recede into the distance.
Atmospheric A depth cue in which objects in the distance have a bluish tint and appear more blurred
Perspective than objects close at hand.
Shadow or Shading When light falls on objects, shadows are cast. We can distinguish bulges from indentions
by the shadows they cast.
Motion Parallax When we ride in a moving vehicle and look out the side window, the objects we see
outside appear to be moving in the opposite direction. The objects also seem to be
moving at different speeds—those closest to us appear to be moving faster than objects
in the distance. Objects very far away, such as the moon and the sun, appear to move in
the same direction as we are moving.
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Processing 11

• Top-down processing
• Perception that is guided by higher-level knowledge,
experience, expectations, and motivations.
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• Bottom-up processing
• Perception that consists of the progression of
recognizing and processing information from
individual components of a stimuli and moving to the
perception of the whole.

• In our perception of the world around us, top-

down and bottom-up processing do not occur
without the other, occur simultaneously, and
interact with other. 44
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Extraordinary Perceptions
• Visual illusions are physical stimuli that consistently produce errors
in perception
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• Most explanations of visual illusions concentrate either on the

physical operation of the eye or on our misinterpretation of the
visual stimulus
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Ambiguous Figures
• These are optical illusion images which exploit graphical similarities
and other properties of visual system interpretation between two or
more distinct image forms.
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• These are famous for inducing the phenomenon of multistable

perception.
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Impossible Figures
• It consists of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and
subconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a
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projection of a three-dimensional object.

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Subliminal Perception
• Refers to the perception of messages about which we have no
awareness
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• The stimulus could be a word, a sound, or even a smell that activates the
sensory system but that is not intense enough for a person to report having
experience it
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• Does this mean that subliminal messages can actually lead

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to significant changes in attitudes or behaviour?

• Most research suggests that they can not
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Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

• ESP is a group of psychic experiences that involve perceiving or

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sending information outside normal sensory processes or channels

• This includes four general abilities:
• Telepathy
• Precognition
• Clairvoyance
• Psychokinesis
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• Telepathy: the ability to transfer one’s thoughts to

another or to read the thoughts of others
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• Precognition: the ability to foretell events

• Clairvoyance: the ability to perceive events or objects

that are out of sight

• Psychokinesis: the ability to exert mind over matter—for

example by moving objects without touching them