1. Sensation & Perception How do they work together?
Psychology 12
Ms. Carey
Myers 6th Edition Textbook Chapters 5 & 6

2. What is Sensation?
Sensation is how we detect physical energy from the environment and encode it as neural signals.
It is how we get the surrounding environmental signals and then relay it to our brains.
(p.171- Chapter 5)

4. What is Perception?
Perception is how we select, organize, and interpret our senses (neural signals) and make meaning out of them.
It is how our brains make sense of the neural messages our we pick up from our environment.
(p.209- Chapter 6)

5. So how do they work together?
In short, we transform sensations into perceptions and create meaning of the world around us.
(p.209- Chapter 6)

6. Relationship Between them…
Sensation and Perception are elements that balance and complement one another. They work together for us to be able to identify and create meaning from stimuli-related information.
Without sensation, perception will not be possible, except for people who believe in extrasensory perception or ESP. And without perception, our sensations would remain to be "unknown" to us since there is no mental processing of what we sense.

8. Differences Between Sensation & Perception…
Sensation & Perception are two completely different elements in terms of how they process information.
In sensation, the physical stimulus, together with its physical properties, is registered by sensory organs. Then, the organs decode this information, and transform them into neural impulses or signals. These signals are transmitted to the sensory cortices of the brain.
The line of difference between sensation and perception is now drawn; perception follows sensation. In the brain, the nerve impulses go through a series of organization, translation and interpretation. Once perception is finished, a person is able to "make sense" out of the sensations.
For instance, seeing the light (sensation) is different from determining its color (perception). Another example is that feeling the coldness of the environment is different from perceiving that winter is coming. Also, hearing a sound is different from perceiving the music being played.

9. So How does Perception Work? (p.209)
Perceptions come to us moment by moment, one perception vanishing as another appears. This in itself shows us that our Conscious Attention is Selective.
Selective Attention (aka: The Cocktail Party Effect) means that at any moment we focus our awareness on only a limited aspect of all that we are capable of experiencing.
(ex: hearing one voice in a crowd)

10. Perceptual Illusions (p.211-213)
Illusions reveal the ways we normally organize and interpret our sensations.

11. Perceptual Organization (p.213-225)
We must perceive objects as distinct from their surroundings, see them as having a meaningful and constant form, and discern their distance and motion. The brain’s rules for constructing perceptions explain some puzzling illusions.
In the early 20th Century, a group of German Psychologists became intrigued with how the mind organizes sensations into perceptions. Given a cluster of sensations, the human perceiver organizes them into a GESTALT – a form or whole.

12. Perceptual Organization…
There are FOUR ways which help us organize and form perceptions:
Form Perception – Figure/Ground, Grouping, Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Connectedness, Closure
Depth Perception- Visual Cliff, Binocular cues, Monocular cues like interposition, relative size, relative clarity, texture, relative height, motion, perspective, shadow and light
Motion Perception- phi Phenomenon
Perceptual Constancy- shape and size constancies

14. Culture & Depth Perception The spear points at what animal? (p.223)

15. Perceptual Interpretation (p.226-232)
To what extent do we learn to perceive? If our eyes were covered with blinders during our early years, would we enjoy normal perceptions when such were removed?
Could you adapt to life wearing the visual displacement goggles we tried?
Nature vs. Nurture debate… do we learn to perceive or are we born to do it?

16. Perceptual Organization Con’t…
Sensory Deprivation & Restored Vision - Blakemore & Cooper Kitten Vision Studies (p.227)

17. Perceptual Organization Con’t…
Perceptual Adaptation - Dr. Hubert Dolezal p.228 of Textbook

18. Perceptual Organization Con’t…