Sensation and

Perception
EMAAN RANGOONWALA
CLASS 6
Agenda

 Define sensory processing.

 Explain audition and vision.
 Describe attention processes.
 Explain organizational processes in perception.
 Describe recognition and identification processes.
 Cognitive Psychology
 The field dedicated to examining how and why people think the way that they do.
 Thinking and thought processes are examined via studying:
 memory,
 emotion,
 creativity,
 language,
 problem solving,
 Intellect
 and other cognitive processes, as well as their interaction with each other.
 Within this, psychologists try to determine and measure different types of intelligence, why some people are
better at problem solving than others, and how emotional intelligence affects success in the workplace, how we
organize thoughts and information gathered from the environment etc.
 Sensation
 The process of receiving, converting, and transmitting information from the external and internal
world to the brain.
 When sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor in various sense organs, sensation has
occurred.
 Sense organs
 Eyes
 Ears
 Nose
 Skin
 Taste buds
 Sensation
 Our sensory receptors are constantly collecting information from the
environment.
 Eg what are you seeing right now?
 What are you smelling?
 What physical sensation are you experiencing via your hands, feet, back etc?
 What are you tasting?
 What are you hearing?
Perception

 Perception refers to the way sensory information is selected, organized,

interpreted, and consciously experienced.
 How we interpret those sensations is influenced by our available knowledge, our
experiences, memories, and our thoughts  this is called perception
 Eg. You’re on vacation and you smell baking cinnamon rolls. The sensation is
the scent receptors detecting the odor of cinnamon, but the perception may be
“Mmm, this smells like the bread Grandma used to bake when the family
gathered for holidays.”
 I’m thinking of something red, what is it?

 Importance in policy making in the workplace

Review: Sensation & Perception

 Sensation: to do with senses (physical process)

 Perception:to do with how you interpret those senses
(psychological process)
 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
Sensory Thresholds

 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
 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)
How good is your hearing?

 Sound test – Video

 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

 Can you figure out the card trick? - Video

 Perception Processes: Selection
 Selecting or choosing where to direct your attention
 Attention plays a huge role in determining what is sensed vs what is perceived. (i.e, if you pay
attention to it, you’re more likely to perceive something, otherwise it’s just senses).
 Habituation
 Tendency of the brain to ignore environmental factors that remain constant
 Selective attention
 Filtering out and attending only to important sensory messages
 Video - basketball
 Inattentional blindness: failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of
attention.
 Harvard Video
Habituation and Sensory Adaptation
 Not all senses lead to perception.
 Habituation
 Tendency of the brain to consciously stop attending to constant, unchanging information.
 This is something you have control over.
 Sensory adaptation
 Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.
 You adapt to sensory stimuli that remain constant over time
 This is something your senses do automatically.
Perception Process: Organization

 Gestaltists proposed laws of organization that specify how people perceive form
 They say we organize sensory information based on:
 Similarity
 Proximity
 Closure
 Continuation and direction
 Figure-Ground
 Similarity
 The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the
same group.
 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
 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
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.

Gold and
white or
black and
blue?
Sensation & Perception

Our perceptions can also be affected by our beliefs,

values, prejudices, expectations, and life experiences.
Cross-cultural research on perceptions:
The ability to identify an odor, and rate its pleasantness
and its intensity, varies cross-culturally
One illusion that Westerners were more likely to
experience was the Muller-Lyer illusion
Impact of Culture on 2D and 3D images

The “devil’s tuning fork” has three prongs . . . or does it have two?
Try to reproduce the drawing on a
piece of paper
Impact of Culture on 2D and 3D images

Chances are that the task is very difficult for most of

you.
For members of African tribe with little exposure to
modern cultures, the task is simple
They have no trouble reproducing the figure.
Impact of Culture on Depth Perception
 Is the man aiming for the elephant or the antelope?
Impact of Culture on Depth Perception

We assume that the difference in size between the two

animals indicates that the elephant is farther away, and
therefore the man is aiming for the antelope.

Incontrast, members of some African tribes, not used to

depth cues in two-dimensional drawings, assume that the
man is aiming for the elephant.
Why is this important?
 We all may sense the same thing, but our perceptions may vary. Eg:
 Cold showers
 The colour pink
 Rules and regulations
 Coming in late to work
 When someone does something stupid
 arguments/miscommunication
 certain projective tests, such as Rorschach Inkblot test, Thematic Apperception
Test
Errors in Perception

 Narcissism – Video
 Phobia – Video
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

 Video