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Introduction to Sensation
Sensation and
Perception
Sensory Processes
Introduction to Perception
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Sensation and Perception > Introduction to Sensation
Introduction to Sensation
• Introduction to Sensation
• Sensory Absolute Thresholds
• Sensory Difference Thresholds
• Sensory Adaptation
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Sensation and Perception > Sensory Processes
Sensory Processes
• Vision: The Visual System, the Eye, and Color Vision
• Audition: Hearing, the Ear, and Sound Localization
• Gustation: Taste Buds and Taste
• Olfaction: The Nasal Cavity and Smell
• Somatosensation: Pressure, Temperature, and Pain
• Additional Sensory Systems
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Sensation and Perception > Introduction to Perception
Introduction to Perception
• Introducing the Perception Process
• Selection
• Organization
• Interpretation
• Perceptual Constancy
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Sensation and Perception > Advanced Topics in Perception
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Appendix
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Sensation and Perception
Key terms
• absolute threshold The lowest level at which a stimulus can be detected 50% of the time.
• afferent Leading to the brain.
• binocular Using two eyes or viewpoints; especially using two eyes or viewpoints to ascertain distance.
• cocktail party effect The phenomenon of being able to selectively focus on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of
other stimuli in the same way that a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room or notice their name being
spoken in another conversation.
• convergence The act of moving toward union.
• corpuscle A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.
• Gestalt Laws of Grouping A set of principles in psychology that explains how humans naturally perceive stimuli as organized
patterns and objects.
• gustducin A protein associated with the sensation of taste.
• interaural Describing the differences between the reception of sound (especially timing and intensity) by each ear.
• Interpretation The third and final stage of the perception process. This stage is characterized by our representation and
understanding of stimuli in our environment. In this stage, individuals most directly display their subjective views of the world
around them.
• kinesthesia Proprioception or static position sense; the perception of the position and posture of the body; also, more broadly,
including the motion of the body as well.
• kinesthesia Proprioception or static position sense; the perception of the position and posture of the body; also, more broadly,
including the motion of the body as well.
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Sensation and Perception
• luminance The amount of light that passes through or that is emitted from a particular area and that falls within a given solid
angle.
• mechanoreceptor Any receptor that provides an organism with information about mechanical changes in its environment, such
as movement, tension, and pressure.
• monocular Of or with one eye.
• motion perception The process of inferring the speed and direction of objects based on visual input.
• mucosa The membrane where olfactory receptor cells are located.
• nociception The physiological process underlying the sensation of pain.
• odorant Any substance that has a distinctive smell, especially one added to another substance (such as household gas) for
safety purposes.
• orbitofrontal Located in the frontal lobes above the eyes.
• organization The second stage of the perceptual process; the process through which we mentally arrange information into
meaningful and digestible patterns.
• percept A mental representation of a stimulus
• Perception The organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information.
• Perception The organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information
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Sensation and Perception
• Perception Process A sequence of steps that involves, sequentially: selection of stimuli in the environment, organization of that
information, and interpretation of those stimuli.
• Perceptual constancy The tendency to see familiar objects as having standard shape, size, color, or location regardless of
changes in the angle of perspective, distance, or lighting; stability in perception despite gross instability in stimulation.
• Perceptual Expectancy A predisposition to perceive things in a certain way, demonstrated by selective retention, perception,
and exposure.
• Perceptual Schema Psychological systems of categorization that we use to organize impressions of people (appearance, social
roles, interaction style, habits, etc.).
• pheromone A chemical secreted by an animal, especially an insect, that affects the development or behavior of other members
of the same species; functions often as a means of attracting a member of the opposite sex.
• photoreceptor A specialized neuron able to detect and react to light. Includes both cones (daytime and color) and rods
(nighttime).
• phototransduction The process whereby the various bodies in the retina convert light into electrical signals.
• priming The implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a subsequent stimulus.
• proprioception The sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighboring parts of the body.
• receptor Any specialized cell or structure that responds to sensory stimuli.
• retina The thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball where light is converted into neural signals sent to the brain.
• Selection Stage one of the perception process, and the process by which we attend to some stimuli in our environment and not
others.
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Sensation and Perception
• Self-concept A multi-dimensional construct that refers to an individual's perception of "self" in relation to any number of
characteristics, such as academics, gender roles and sexuality, racial identity, and many others.
• sensory receptor A sensory nerve ending that recognizes a stimulus in the internal or external environment of an organism.
• sensory threshold The point at which a stimulus causes a sensation within an individual; below the sensory threshold, there will
be no sensation.
• stereopsis In vision, the impression of depth that is perceived when a scene is viewed with both eyes.
• stimulus Anything effectively impinging on any of the sensory apparatuses of a living organism, including physical phenomena
both internal and external to the body.
• stimulus In psychology, any energy pattern (e.g., light or sound) that is registered by the senses.
• stroboscopic Studying or observing periodic movement by rendering a moving body visible only at regular intervals.
• tastant Any substance that stimulates the sense of taste.
• thermoreceptor A nerve cell that is sensitive to changes in temperature.
• umami One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses, and meats.
• vestibular Of or pertaining to a body cavity.
• vestibular system The sensory system that contributes to balance and the sense of spatial orientation.
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Sensation and Perception
Duck or Rabbit?
In this famous optical illusion, your interpretation of this image as a duck or a rabbit depends on how you organize the information that you attend to.
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Sensation and Perception
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Sensation and Perception
Taste Buds
A schematic drawing of a taste bud and its component pieces.
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Sensation and Perception
IBM logo
The IBM logo plays on the law of closure. While it is made up of just lines, we perceive the three letters.
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Sensation and Perception
The Mouth
A cross-section of the human head, which displays the location of the mouth, tongue, pharynx, epiglottis, and throat.
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Sensation and Perception
Rubin's Vase
Rubin's Vase is a popular optical illusion used to illustrate differences in perception of stimuli.
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Sensation and Perception
Olfactory Nerve
The olfactory nerve connects the olfactory system to the central nervous system to allow processing of odor information.
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Sensation and Perception
Motor Homunculus
The motor homunculus is a theoretical visualization of the locations in the cortex that correspond to motor and sensory function in the body.
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Phi phenomenon
In the phi phenomenon, it appears that the unlit section is "moving" around the circle rather than a series of bulbs going out one at a time.
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Sensation and Perception
Checker-shadow illusion
Color constancy tricks our brains into seeing squares A and B as two different colors; however, they are the exact same shade of gray.
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National Insitute of Health. "NIMH · Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing." Public domain http://nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2004/imaging-study-shows-brain-
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Sensation and Perception
Light at the end of the tunnel: the absolute threshold for vision
In a dark space, an individual's saving grace can be the minimum amount of light needed to stimulate the eye in the dark environment and alert the brain
that it is seeing light.
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Sensation and Perception
Ebbinghaus illusion
The Ebbinghaus illusion illustrates how the perception of size is altered by the relative sizes of other objects. The two center circles are the same size,
though they may be perceived to be different sizes.
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Sensation and Perception
Convergence
The train tracks look as though they come to a single point in the distance, illustrating the concept of convergence.
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The cochlea
A cross-section of the cochlea, the main sensory organ of hearing, located in the inner ear.
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8RCVcn-baYq8i-ddSFnF-8hwv6H-dtHqjw-em8t2w-ecdUyL-bh8GEV-9tQdK6-8ooLtc-dQWKhi-8hVZyc-8bvWnw-97qmRc-9df9Rb-8quFW9-8thDyL-doFVfZ-8eh2jj-
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Sensation and Perception
Shape constancy
This form of perceptual constancy allows us to perceive that the door is made of the same shapes despite different images being delivered to our
retinae.
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Attribution
• Wikipedia. "Cortical homunculus." CC BY-SA 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_homunculus%23Sensory
• Wiktionary. "vestibular." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vestibular
• Wiktionary. "kinesthesia." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kinesthesia
• Wiktionary. "receptor." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/receptor
• Wikibooks. "Human Physiology/Senses." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Human_Physiology/Senses
• Wikibooks. "Neuroscience/Neuroanatomy/The Brain/The Cerebrum." CC BY-SA 3.0
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Neuroscience/Neuroanatomy/The_Brain/The_Cerebrum
• Wikibooks. "Introduction to Psychology/Sensation and Perception." CC BY-SA 3.0
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Psychology/Sensation_and_Perception
• Wikibooks. "Introduction to Psychology/Sensation and Perception." CC BY-SA 3.0
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Psychology/Sensation_and_Perception
• Wikibooks. "Introduction to Psychology/Sensation and Perception." CC BY-SA 3.0
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Psychology/Sensation_and_Perception
• Wikipedia. "sensory threshold." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sensory%20threshold
• Wiktionary. "stimulus." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stimulus
• Wikipedia. "Sensory threshold." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_threshold
• Wikibooks. "Acoustics/Threshold of Hearing & Pain." CC BY-SA 3.0
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Acoustics/Threshold_of_Hearing_&_Pain
• Wikibooks. "Acoustics/Threshold of Hearing & Pain." CC BY-SA 3.0
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Acoustics/Threshold_of_Hearing_&_Pain
• Wikipedia. "Absolute threshold." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_threshold
• Wikipedia. "Absolute threshold." CC BY-SA 3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_threshold
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Sensation and Perception
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