Sensation and Perception

Sensation: Receiving Messages Around the World

• Sense organs- These organs enable us to see, hear, taste, smell, touch, balance, and experience
such as feeling as body stiffness, soreness, fullness, warmth, pleasure, pain and movement.

• Sensory receptor cells-receives outside forms of energy and translates them into neutral
impulses that can be transmitted to the brain for interpretation.

• Sensation- the process of receiving information from the outside world, translating it, and
transmitting it to the brain

• Perception- the process of interpreting that information and forming images of the world

• Stimulus- any aspect of the outside world that directly influences our behavior or conscious
experience.

Sense Stimulus Sensory Receptors

Sight(vision) Light waves Light-sensitive rods and cones in

the retina of the eye
Hearing(audition) Sound waves Pressure-sensitive hair cells in
the cochlea of the inner ear
Taste(gustation) Molecules dissolved in fluid on Taste cells in the taste buds of
the tongue the tongue
Smell(olfaction) Molecules dissolved in the fluid Sensitive ends of olfactory
on mucous membranes in the neurons in the mucous
nose membranes
Touch (somesthetic sense) Pressure on the skin Sensitive ends of touch neurons
in the skin

• Transduction- the process of converting stimuli into codes of electrochemical impulses that
neurons can carry and the brain understands

• Absolute threshold- smallest magnitude that can be detected

• Examples of Absolute threshold

Sense Absolute threshold

Sight(vision) A candle seen at 45 km on a dark clear night
Hearing(audition) A tick of a watch at 20 ft under quite
conditions
Taste(gustation) 1 tsp of sugar in 2 gal. of water
Smell(olfaction) 1 drop of perfume diffused into a 3 room
apartment
Touch (somesthetic sense) The wing of a fly falling on your cheek from a
distance of 0.5 in.
 • Difference threshold- The smallest difference between 2 stimuli that subjects c an detect half
the time

• Sensory adaptation- weakened magnitude of a sensation resulting from prolonged presentation

of the stimulus

The human Senses

Vision: Sense of sight

 Cornea
 Sclera
 Aqueous humor
 Pupil
 Iris
 Lens
 Ciliary muscles
 Vitreous humor
 Retina
 Fovea
 Blind spot
 Optic nerve

Properties of light

 Hue- the visual dimension seen as a particular color; determined by the length of a light wave
(wavelength)
 Brightness- the intensity of color; determined by height of a light wave (amplitude) as such that
the higher the wave, the greater the amplitude, and the brighter the color

Other important terms

 Accommodation- the bulging and flattening of the lens in order to focus an image on the retina
 Rods- receptors in the retina that are most sensitive in dim light; they do not respond to color
 Cones- receptors in the retina to color and fine detail
 Dark adaptation- visual adjustment that increases the sensitivity of the rods and cones and
allows us to see better in dim light
 Light adaptation- the visual adjustment of the rods and cones that reduces sensitivity to bright
light

Common vision problems

 Myopia- nearsightedness
 Hyperopia- farsightedness
 Presbyopia-farsightedness at old age
  Glaucoma- conditions characterized by increase pressure within the eyeball
 Cataract- a disorder in which lens becomes cloudy

Audition: Sense of Hearing

Outer ear

 Pinna
 Auditory canal
 Tympanic membrane(eardrum)

Middle ear

 Ossicles
 Oval window

Inner ear

 Cochlea
 Auditory nerve

Other important terms

 Sound waves- vibrations of the air or of another medium that vary in frequency and amplitude

 Intensity- the density of vibrating air molecules, which determines the loudness of sound

 Pitch- the highness or lowness of tones or sounds, depending on their frequency

 Timbre- a characteristic quality of a sound

 Hertz- a unit of frequency representing one cycle(vibration) per second

 Decibel- measurement of the intensity of perceived sound

Hearing problems

 Conduction deafness- temporary deafness caused by building up fluid that prevents the
eardrum and ossicles from vibrating and also by poor condition of ossicles due to old age
 Nerve deafness- hearing loss that stems from damage to the nerve cells in the cochlea or by the
simple process of aging

Somesthetic Sense: The sense of Touch or Cutaneous Sense

4 Basic Somesthetic Sensations

 Pressure- caused by anything that comes in contact with the skin

 Pain- caused by the stimulus being strong enough to cause damage to the skin
  Cold- low temperature sensed

 Warmth- high temperature sensed

Olfaction: The sense of smell

 Smell- is a chemical sense where we sample our environment’s information

 Adaptation- wearing off of olfactory sensitivity to odors which seem initially overpowering
 Anosmia- loss of smell

7 widely used classification of odors

 Floral
 Resinous
 Minty
 Putrid
 Musky
 Ethereal
 Acrid

Gustation: The sense of taste

4 basic sensations

 Sweet
 Sour
 Salty
 Bitter
Taste buds- are flask like structures containing taste cells in the papilla

Important terms

 Global sensation- sensation that results when both the sense and smell and taste are working
simultaneously
 Ageusia- loss of the sense of taste

Other Senses

Proprioception- the general term for our sense of body position

 Kinesthetic Sense (sense of movement)- receptors are located in the muscles, tendons and joints
 Vestibular Sense (sense of balance)- receptors are located in the part of the ear

Organic Sensitivity- sensation that come from inside us

 Perception: Interpreting Sensory Messages

Perception- sensations that are transmitted to the brain that have little meaning of their own

Visual Perception- is a sensing system that tells us something about the world

Important processes of perception

1. Attention
 Voluntary attention- requires effort
 Involuntary attention- aroused by the potency of the stimulus
 Habitual attention- grows out of practice

Adjustment in Attending

 Adjustment of the sense organs

 Adjustment of posture
 Muscle tension

Attention getting devices

 Intensity- is the strength of stimulus

 Size- proportion of the stimulus
 Location- strategic position of a stimulus
 Colors- certain colors attract attention easily than others
 Mobiles- moving objects attract more than stationary objects
 Novelty- unusualness and strangeness of stimulus
 Nature- visual stimuli
2. Perceptual organization
 Figure ground- in every visual stimulus, the center of our attention is the figure and
everything else is the background
 Continuity- we tend to perceive lines or patterns that follows a smooth contour as being
part of a single unit
 Proximity- things that are close together are usually perceived as belonging together
 Similarity- similar elements within perceptual field tend to be grouped together
 Closure- incomplete figures tend to be perceived as complete wholes

Perceptual Constancy- tendency of perceptions of objects to remain relatively unchanged, in

spite of changes in raw sensations

 Brightness constancy- tendency for brightness of familiar objects to be perceived as

constant even through then retinal image changes
 Color constancy- ability to perceive the color of familiar objects as constant even
through the sensation of color may change
 Size constancy- familiar objects do not change in perceived size at different distances
 Shape constancy- allows object to maintain a constant shape even though their
orientation or position might change
 Depth perception- the ability to accurately estimate the distance of perceived objects and
thereby perceive the world in 3 dimensions

 Binocular depth cues- Involves both eyes

 Monocular depth cues- Works with each eye separately

Monocular cues

 Texture gradient- the texture of objects is larger and more visible up close and smaller far away
 Linear perspective- objects cast smaller images on the retina when they are more distant
 Superposition- closer objects tend to be partially in front of, or partially cover up, more distant
objects
 Shadowing- shadows cast by objects suggest their depths
 Speed of movement- objects farther away appear to move across the field of vision
 Aerial perspective
 Relative size- smaller objects appear more distant than larger objects
 Vertical position- when objects are on the ground, the farther they appear to be below the
horizon, the closer they appear to be to us. For objects in the air, however, the farther they
appear to be above the horizon, the closer they appear to us

Binocular cues

 Convergence- when both eyes are looking at an object in the center of the visual field, they must
angle inward more sharply for a near object than for the distant object
 Retinal disparity- refers to the fact that because the eyes are slightly in different locations, a
slightly different or disparate view of an object falls on each retina

Auditory perception- concerned with the location of the source of sound

3 binaural cues- the use of 2 ears

 Time difference- present when the sound reaches 1 ear earlier than the other
 Intensity difference- present when the sound stimulates the ear closer to the sound more
strongly
 Phase difference- occurs when a sound reaches the two ears at different points

3. Interpretation- final stage of perception where the brain uses information top explain and make
judgements about the external world

Factors that influence Interpretation

 Past experiences
 Motive
 Interest
 Set
Features of perception

 Perception is knowledge based- perception matches incoming stimuli with previously learned
information
 Perception is often inferential- people don’t perceive stimuli exactly as they are, but infer what
should be there
 Perception is categorical- places sensations into categories based on common features
 Perception is relational- influenced by the relationships
 Perception is adaptive- focus on the most important aspects of the environment
 Perception is automatic- without conscious awareness

Perception of time

- Time can be perceived either as longer or shorter than what the clock tells.

Perception and emotion

- Feelings and emotions influence one’s capacity to perceive accurately

- In court trials, testimonies given by emotionally excited persons are often unreliable
- Errors in perceptions due to emotions caused their testimonies to differ

Extra Sensory Perception

 Telepathy- refers to the transfer of thoughts between individuals

 Clairvoyance- refers to the perception of objects or events that are not available to the senses
such as “seeing” the message inside a sealed envelope
 Psychokinesis/telekinesis- is the ability to influence the movement of material bodies by the
power of thought alone
 Precognition- ability to foretell future events

Parapsychology- is a science devoted to investigations of psychical phenomena

Reference:

Psychology: an Introduction, 7th ed. By Benjamin B. Lahey, 2001

Psychology,7th ed. By John W. Santrock

Psychology in Action, 5th ed. By Karen Huffman, 2000

Introduction to psychology by Bucu, et al.

 PSYCHOLOGY
TTH 7:30 – 9:00 AM

Sensation and
Perception

SUBMITTED BY:
CARINO, SAMSON JR.
CASTROMAYOR, SARAH JOY
TAN, JESSA
TORRES, LANCE CHRISTIAN
YUSAY, LYKA

SUBMITTED TO:
SIR DOMINADOR TORRES