1. Sensation and Perception
Ch. 5
Sensation and Perception

2. Sensation v. Perception
Process where a stimulated receptor (like eyes or ears) creates a pattern of impulses that represent the stimulus
The basis for color, odor, sound, texture, taste
Process that assigns meaning to incoming sensory patterns
Interpretation of senses

3. How does stimulation become sensation?
Sight
Hearing
Skin Senses
Smell
Taste
Equilibrium
Pain
Kinesthetic

4. Sight
Is stimulated by light waves, its organ is the eye, its receptors are rods and cones of the retina, and its sensations include colors, patterns, and textures.

5. Sight Bill Nye Eye Diagram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7cImd-6bZ8
If Your Eyes Could Talk Worksheet
Finding your Blind spot
Afterimage Activity

6. Hearing
stimulated by sound waves, the organ is the ears, the receptors include hair cells of the basilar membrane, and the sensations include noises & tones.

7. Hearing
How we Hear
Ear Diagram

8. Skin Senses - Touch stimulated by external contact with the skin
the receptors are nerve endings in the skin
sensations include touch, warmth, and cold

9. Touch

10. Smell stimulated by substances through the nose
the receptors are hair cells that line the nose
sensations include odors such as musky, flowery, burnt, and minty

11. Smell

12. Taste stimulated through substances by the tongue
receptors are taste buds on the tongue
sensations include flavors such as bitter, sour, salty, and sweet

13. Taste

14. Equilibrium
stimulated by mechanical and gravitational forces in the inner ear
Receptors include hair cells of the canals and vestibule
sensations include spatial movement and gravitational pull

15. Pain
extreme stimulus such as temperature and chemicals that hits the many pain fibers throughout the body
Receptors include your nerve endings
sensations are acute and chronic pain

16. Kinesthetic & vestibular senses
stimulated by body position and movement through skeletal muscles, joints, and tendons.
Receptors include the neurons [in the mentioned above]
sensations are your positions of body parts in space

17. Thresholds Light—Candle flame, 30 miles, on a dark clear night.
Sound—The tick of a mechanical watch under quiet conditions at 20 feet.
Taste—One tablespoon of sugar in two gallons of water.
Smell—One drop of perfume diffused into the entire volume of a three bedroom apartment.
Touch—The wing of a bee falling on your cheek from a distance of one centimeter.

18. BBC- Human Senses – Hearing and Balance

19. After Experiment What was the most difficult about your taste test?
What sense is the most important when we eat?

20. Theories in Perception
Learning Based Inference
Observer uses prior knowledge to interpret information
Ex: Britney Spears pg. 191
We fail to see facial patterns that violate our expectations

21. Theories in Perception
Context and Expectations
Once a context is identified, you form expectations about what you think will be experienced
Ever have a hard time recognizing someone outside their usual context?
Ex: picture pg. 192 and THE CAT
Rely on context clues

22. Theories in Perception
Context and Expectations
Once a context is identified, you form expectations about what you think will be experienced
Ex: picture pg. 192 and THE CAT

23. Theories in Perception
Perceptual Set
Our readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a given context.
Example: new mother is perceptually set to hear the cries of her child

24. FOX; OWL; SNAKE; TURKEY; SWAN; D?CK

25. BOB: RAY: DAVE: BILL: TOM: D?CK

26. Perceptual set
Meaning of the words read prior to the ambiguous stimulus create a perceptual set
Example: do it yourself 193
Perceptual sets influence peoples attitudes and behaviors towards different groups

27. Gestalt Approach
View that maintains that the brain is designed to seek patterns
Brain sees the whole rather than the parts
Example: square

28. Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping
laws that show how we group things according to 1 varied factor

29. Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping
Law of Similarity
Group things together that look similar
X O X O
Columns not rows

30. Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping
Law of Proximity
We group things together that are near each other
XO XO XO XO
“you are the company you keep”

31. Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping
Law of Continuity
We see things as connected and continuous figures rather than disjoint