Intro to Sensation & Perception

Briefly describe each picture.

Turn-and-Talk How can a group of people look at the same pictures and understand each differently?

Sensation Definition: when a stimulus activates a receptor of a sense organ; awareness of changing conditions Stimulus—something that causes a bodily response Ex: light—retina, sound—hair cells, pressure—skin, etc. What are the five most well-known senses? (there are many more)

Understanding Senses Articles Choose one of the articles describing the experiences of someone lacking one/two of their main senses Prompt #3: Write to Share How is their life different than most? Support with at least 3 specific examples. What is something you wonder about this experience of lacking one/two of your senses? (can be of your reading or in general) As you share, write down one experience that stood out about each of the other articles

Sensation Definition: when a stimulus activates a sense organ’s receptors; awareness of changing conditions Stimulus—something that causes a bodily response Ex: light—retina, sound—hair cells, pressure—skin, etc.

Sensory Threshold Absolute threshold—weakest amount of a stimulus required to produce a sensation Detected 50% of the time For the 5 main senses (1942 study): (do not write) Vision—candle flame 30 miles away on a clear night Hearing—watch ticking 20 feet away Taste—tasting 1 tsp of sugar dissolved in 2 gallons of water Smell—smelling 1 drop of perfume in a 3-room house Touch—feeling a bee’s wing falling a distance of 1 cm onto your cheek

Test your Threshold: http://www. noiseaddicts Sensory Threshold Difference threshold—minimum amount of difference a person can detect between two stimuli Ex: Optometrist—testing your vision Weber’s Law—the larger/stronger a stimulus, the greater the change needed to notice any difference Ex: weight in a backpack

Sensory Adaptation Definition: get used to a new level and respond only to changes away from it Ex: What happens to your vision when you are in a movie theater? What happens to your body when you go swimming in a cold lake? What happened when you walked in and smell really strong perfume?

What is the purpose of sensory adaptation?

Signal-Detection Theory Signal-Detection Theory—tendency to detect the presence of stimuli correctly (explaining thresholds) No single threshold  affected by motivation, skill, and competing stimuli Preattentive (automatic) vs. attentive (careful attention) processing

Which was more difficult? Why? The Stroop Effect Which was more difficult? Why?

Concepts Chart—separate sheet Absolute Threshold Difference Threshold Weber’s Law Sensory Adaptation Signal-Detection Theory Explain in your own words Ex: Draw an image