1. Sensation and Perception
Sensation: your window to the world
Perception: interpreting what comes in your window.

2. Sensation Sensation - the passive process of
Process of sensing our environment through
Example:

3. Perception Perception - the active process of
Perception is the way we interpret sensations and therefore make sense of everything around us
Example:

4. Bottoms-up Processing
Bottoms-up Processing (AKA - Feature analysis)
Use the features of the object itself to process the information
Examples:

5. Top Down Processing
Top Down Processing - Processing information from the senses
Using your background knowledge to fill in the gaps
Example:

6. Selective Attention
Selective Attention –
Example:

7. Selective Attention
Stoop Effect -

8. Cocktail-party phenomenon
The cocktail party effect
Form of selective attention.
Example:

9. Selective Inattention
Change Blindness/Inattentional Blindness - Falling to notice changes
Example:
Choice Blindness - failure to notice
Change deafness – failure to
Pop out – stimuli we don’t chose to attend to but they draw our eyes and demand our attention

10. Psychometrics Study of how
Psychologists use thresholds to measure these events
Example:

11. Thresholds Absolute threshold – minimum stimulation needed to
Examples:

12. Signal Detection Theory
Predicts
Assumes no absolute threshold
Detection depends partly on a person’s
Examples:

13. Subliminal Stimulation
Subliminal Stimulation – below one’s
Example
Priming – increased sensitivity to certain stimuli due to

14. Do Subliminal Messages work?
Based on studies, some people do respond to stimuli below the absolute threshold, under some circumstances.
The problem is people behave differently at different levels, so what could be subliminal (or below the threshold) for one person, may be supraliminal (above the threshold) for another person. 25 50 75
100
Low
Absolute
threshold
Medium
Intensity of stimulus
Percentage
of correct
detections
Subliminal
stimuli

15. Backmasking- More Subliminal Messaging? Listing to Songs in Reverse
There are legends about hidden messages in songs - Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven was one of the first songs to have supposed hidden, satanic messages.
Why does this seem to work?

16. Difference Threshold Difference Threshold –
AKA Just Noticeable Difference
the greater the intensity (ex., weight) of a stimulus, the greater the change needed to produce a noticeable change.
Example:

17. Weber’s Law Webers Law (Related to JND)
stimuli must differ by a constant
Proportion varies depending on the stimulus
Example:

18. Weber’s Law JND = Constant (K) X Intensity Example:
Pitch = ( if someone sings a little off key, we will be able to tell)
Loudness =
Saltiness =
Light =
Example:

19. Sensory Adaptation Sensory Adaptation - Example:
Do you feel your underwear all day?