Psychology in Everyday

Life
David Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University

Worth Publishers, © 2011

Sensation and Perception
Chapter 5
 Sensation and Perception

Basic Principles of Sensation and

Perception
 From Energy to Neural Impulse
 Thresholds
 Sensory Adaptation
 Perceptual Set
 Context Effects
 Sensation and Perception

Vision
 Light Energy: From the Environment into the
Brain
 The Eye
 Visual Information Processing
 Visual Organization
 Visual Interpretation
 Sensation and Perception

The Nonvisual Senses

 Hearing
 Touch
 Pain
 Taste
 Smell
 Body Position and Movement
 Sensation and Perception
How do construct our representations of
the world?
• Sensation: the process by which our sensory
receptors and nervous system take in stimuli
from the environment
• Perception: The process by which our brain
organizes and interprets that information and
interprets that information as meaningful objects
and events
 Sensing the World
• Senses have evolved to fit an organisms
needs in its environment
– Frogs have cells in their eyes that respond
only to small, dark moving objects
– Male silkworms’ odor receptors can detect the
sex attractant of a female a mile away
– Human ears are most sensitive to frequencies
that include human voices, especially a baby’s
cry
From Energy to Neural Impulse
The senses…
– Receive sensory stimulation
– Transform that stimulation into neural
impulses (transduction)
– Deliver the neural information to the brain

Tranduction: the process of converting one

form of energy into another; in this case, from
photons and sound waves into neural signals.
 Which stimuli do we sense?
• We are ignorant of many stimuli
– X-rays, radio waves, ultraviolet and infrared
light
– Very high and very low frequency sounds
• Other organisms use stimuli we cannot
detect
– Birds use magnetic compass
– Bats and dolphins use sonar
– Bees and ants see polarization of sunlight for
navigation
 How much stimuli does it take to
have a sensation?
• Absolute threshold: minimum stimulation
needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of
the time
– Can see a far away light in the dark, feel the slightest
touch
• Subliminal input, below the absolute threshold,
can still be detected unconsciously
– The unnoticed information can cause priming, setting
us up to perceive or remember things in certain ways
 Detecting Stimuli, Finding
Thresholds
Audiologists can find the volume level you can
detect 50% of the time for a given frequency.
 Thresholds
• Difference threshold: the minimum difference
between two stimuli required for detection 50%
of the time
– For example, parents needs to distinguish their own
child’s voice from others
• Weber’s Law: to be perceived as different, two
stimuli must differ by a constant minimum
proportion (rather than a constant amount)
 Weber’s Law
By what proportion must different types of stimuli
differ to be perceived as different?

Stimulus Constant
Light
8%
(intensity)
Weight 2%
Tone
0.3%
(frequency)
 Sensory Adaptation
• Sensory adaptation: reduced sensitivity
in response to constant stimulation
– We eventually cease to notice a room’s bad
smell after we’ve been there for a while

• Why doesn’t a visual stimulus disappear

when we stare at it?
– Because our eyes move too much to burn in
the image
 Sensory Adaptation

Experiment: keeping an
Result: the image
image moving along with
disappears in
the eye, so that sensory
fragments
adaptation happens
 Perceptual Set
• The perceptual set is a mental predisposition to
perceive one thing rather than another

Your interpretation of this object will depend on previous

notions you have about what it might be.
Loch Ness Monster or Log?
 Context Effects
• In addition to the perceptual set, the
immediate context can influence
perception
• Context can include culture, emotions, and
other perceptual information
Context Effects: Culture and Cues

Box and tree? Window and column?

Vision
 Light Energy: From the Environment Into
the Brain
 The Eye
 Visual Information Processing
 Visual Organization
 Visual Interpretation
Visible Light
What we see as
light is only a tiny
slice of a wide
spectrum of
electromagnetic
energy
 Light Energy: From the
Environment into the Brain
• Light’s wavelength determines its hue, the color
we experience.
• The amplitude, or height, determines the light’s
intensity.
 Visible Light
• Other organisms see different portions of
the light spectrum. For example, bees
cannot see red, but can see ultraviolet.
 The Eye
• The retina, on the inner surface of the eye
contains the photoreceptors (rods and cones)
plus neurons that begin the processing of visual
stimuli.
• Light is inverted by the lens, and is interpreted
by the brain as upright vision
The Eye
 Test Your Blind Spot
• There are no receptor cells where the
optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a
blind spot
The Retina:
Rods and Cones 
• Rods detect blacks, whites, and
grays, and are necessary for
peripheral and twilight vision
• Cones are clustered near the center of the retina, they
detect fine detail and allow color vision

• Light energy triggers chemical changes in the rods and

cones, which activate the bipolar cells

• These cells then activate the ganglion cells of the optic

nerve, which transmits the neural impulses from the eye to
the brain (see next slide)
Differences Between Rods and
Cones
 Visual Information Processing
• How does the brain turn light stimuli into
useful information about the world?
Visual Information Processing:
The Crossover

Information from the right visual field goes to the

left hemisphere, information from the left visual
and vice versa.
 Feature Detection
• The visual cortex contains specialized
feature detection cells, which respond to
specific features
– Such as edges, lines, and angles
– This information gets passed to other regions
of the brain for more complex processing
– Brain scans can be used to figure out whether
a person is looking at a shoe, a chair, or a
face
 Parallel Processing
• The brain uses parallel processing to assign
different teams of cells to simultaneously
process many aspects of scene or problem
• “Mrs. M” was unable to perceive motion after a
stroke – objects jumped from place to place
Visual Information Processing
 Visual Organization
• How do we organize and
interprets the shapes and
colors into meaningful
perceptions?
• People have the tendency
to organize pieces of
information into an
organized whole, or
gestalt.
 Gestalt Principles
• Our brain does more than just register
information about the world. We filter incoming
information and we construct perceptions.
• Over the years, Gestalt psychologists have
identified principles we use to organize our
sensations into perception.
– Form perception
– Depth perception
– Perceptual constancy
 Form Perception
• How do we know where one object begins
and another ends?
– Figure-ground: organization of visual field
into objects that stand out from their
surroundings
– Grouping: the perceptual tendency to
organize stimuli into meaningful groups
 Figure and Ground
• When seeing or hearing a scene, we identify
figures, objects and events that stick out and
hold our attention against the background.
Example: following one conversation at a party.

• To the right: a scene

with two options for
seeing figures.
Arrows? People?
Grouping: Seeing Gestalts/Wholes
• Our minds use these grouping strategies
to see patterns and objects
 Depth Perception
• Although the images that strike the retina
are two dimensional, depth perception
allows us to create mental images of
objects in 3-D, and to judge distance
• This ability is present, at least in part, at
birth in humans and other animals
 The Visual Cliff
Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk (1960)

• Test of early 3-D perception

• Most infants refuse to crawl across the
visual cliff. Depth cue: Pattern on floor
 Seeing Depth: Binocular Cues
• Binocular cues: Our two eyes help us
perceive depth
• Retinal disparity: By comparing images
from the two eyeballs, the brain can
calculate the distance – the greater the
disparity, the close the object
– Used by 3-D film makers
 Monocular Cues
• Retinal disparity can differentiate between
1 and 10 feet away, but not between 10
and 100 feet
• As such, we must rely on monocular
cues, depth cues available to either eye
alone
 Monocular Cues

Relative Size Interposition

 Monocular Cues

Relative Motion Light and Shadow

Linear Perspective

Linear perspective makes the

higher dog look bigger
 Perceptual Constancy
• Things look different depending on the
angle, distances, and lighting. How do we
generate perceptual constancy,
perceiving objects as unchanging?
• Color constancy: we perceive familiar objects
as having consistent color, even if changing
illumination alters the reflected wavelengths
• Below is the same process, opposite effect: The
color with the same wavelength is perceived as
brighter in the shadows.
 Shape and Size Constancy
• We perceive the • We perceive the size
shape of objects as of an object as
constant while our constant from
retinas receive different distances
changing images • However, context
matters: consider the
Moon illusion
 Visual Interpretation
• Is our perceptual knowledge inborn?

• Or do we learn to perceive the world

through our experiences?
 Visual Interpretation
• Is our perceptual knowledge inborn?
YES, to some extent. We come equipped
to process sensory information
• Or do we learn to perceive the world
through our experiences?
YES, to some extent. E.g., we learn to
associate distance with size.
 Experience and Visual Perception
• What does research reveal about the
effects of experience on perception?
 Sensory Deprivation and
Restored Vision
• Some adults were born blind (clouded lenses
from cataracts) then had surgery to remove
cataracts
– Patients could detect figure-ground and sense colors
– However, they could not visually recognize objects
– Animal studies: infant kittens and monkeys wore
translucent goggles, later unable to detect shape
• Retinas still sent signals to brain, but visual
cortex had not developed normal connections
 Perceptual Adaptation
• We can adapt to an artificially
displaced or inverted visual field
• George Stratton (1896) wore
goggles that flipped images upside
down and backwards
– He adapted to this view by the 8th day
The Nonvisual Senses
 Hearing (or audition)
 Touch
 Pain
 Taste
 Smell
 Body Position and Movement
 Hearing

The Stimulus Input: Sound Waves

Sound waves are compressing and expanding air
molecules.
 Sound Characteristics
• As with light waves, amplitude (height)
determines intensity (loudness)
• Compression frequency: Low frequency =
long wavelength = low pitch
• Sound is measured in decibels (dB)
– 0 dB is the absolute threshold (not the
absence of sound, just less than we can hear)
– 60 dB is normal conversation
– 85+ dB: prolonger exposure can cause
hearing loss
 Decoding Sound Waves
1. Sound waves strike the ear drum, causing it to
vibrate
2. Tiny bones in the middle ear pick up the
vibrations and transmit them to the cochlea, a
coiled, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear
3. Ripples in the fluid of the cochlea bend the hair
cells lining the surface, which trigger impulses
in nerve cells
4. Axons from these nerve cells transmit a signal
to the auditory cortex
Decoding: Transforming Sound
Energy into Neural Messages
 The Ear is Sensitive!
• A neural response is triggered when the
tiny bundles of cilia on top of even one of
the 16,000 hair cells on the cochlea are
moved even the width of an atom!
 How Do We Locate Sounds?
The placement of our two
ears helps us in two
ways. Sounds to the
closer ear…
1. Are more intense
2. Arrive sooner
That’s why it’s hard to tell
if a sound is directly
behind or in front of you
 Touch
Our “sense of touch” is actually a mix of
four distinct skin senses:
– Pressure
– Warmth
– Cold
– Pain
• Other skin sensations are variations of
these four
– Cold dry metal feels wet, if it stimulates
adjacent cold and pressure sensors
 Pain
• Pain is your body’s way of saying
“something has gone wrong”
• No one type of stimulus produces pain. At
low intensities, the same stimulus that
produces pain can cause other
sensations, such as warmth or coolness,
roughness or smoothness.
 The Rubber Hand Illusion
• Pain is also a product of our
expectations, attention, and culture.

• Touch perception is
affected by
expectations and
attention, not just a
bottom-up product
of our senses.
 Controlling Pain
• Pain is where body meets mind
• Built-in controls: endorphins + distraction
• Virtual reality distraction helps a burn victim feel
less pain (below)
• Pain is a combination of body and mind
 Hypnosis and Pain Relief
• Hypnosis: a social interaction
in which one person suggests
to another that certain
thoughts, feelings, perceptions,
or behaviors will spontaneously
occur
– Useful for relieving pain, though
unclear whether this is through
dissociation or social influence
 Taste
Traditionally, taste sensations consisted of sweet,
salty, sour, and bitter tastes. Receptors have also
been found for a fifth taste called umami.
Tastes Exist for a Purpose

[Insert table 5.2]

 Taste Is A Chemical Sense
• Inside each little bump on the top and
sides of the tongue are 200+ taste buds
• Each bud contains a pore with 50-100
taste receptors, each of which react to
different types of food molecules and send
messages to the brain
 Taste is Psychological
• Perceptual bias can influence taste
– People thought a $10 bottle of wine tasted better
when told it cost $90
• Sensory interaction: one sense may influence
another
Smell + texture + taste = flavor
 Other Examples of Sensory
Interaction
• A person with hearing loss
can “hear” a video when
subtitles are include
• People are more likely to
rate someone as “warm”
and treat them more
Seeing a face forming words
generously after holding a helps someone hard of hearing
warm vs. a cold drink to understand spoken words
 Smell
• Like taste, smell is a chemical sense
– Smell occurs when molecules in the air reach
the cluster of 5 million olfactory receptor cells
at the top of each nasal cavity
• There are hundreds of different receptors
– Different combinations of receptors identify
different smells
• Odors can evoke strong memories
Taste, Smell, and Memory
 Body Position and Movement
• Kinesthesis: The system for sensing the
position and movement of individual body parts
– Interacts with vision
• Vestibular sense: the sense of body movement
and position, including the sense of balance
Where Sensory
Information Goes

• Nerve impulses carry

information to these
areas of the brain.

• The brain processes

this information to form
perceptions.