Sensation

and
Perception
Sensation is input about the
physical world obtained by our
sensory receptors, and perception is
the process by which the brain
selects, organizes, and interprets
these sensations
01
SENSATIO
N Sensation is the process that allows our
brains to take in information via our five
senses, which can then be experienced and
interpreted by the brain
SENSES

01 Vision 04 Gustation (taste)

02 Audition (hearing) 05 Skin senses;

include
which

o Pressure
03 Olfaction (smell) o Temperature,
o Pain
THRESHOLDS
Absolute Threshold:
 This is the smallest amount of a stimulus that you can detect.
Imagine you are in a completely dark room, and someone starts
turning on a light, little by little. The moment you first notice the
light is your absolute threshold for vision. It’s like the "bare
minimum" amount of a sensation needed for you to notice it.
Example:
o Hearing a soft whisper in a quiet room.
o Tasting a tiny bit of sugar in a cup of water.

Difference Threshold (Just Noticeable Difference, or

JND):
 This is the smallest difference between two stimuli that you
can notice. For example, if someone is slowly increasing the
volume of a song, the difference threshold is the point at which
you can first tell that the sound has gotten louder.
Example:
o Noticing that your friend has added one more spoon of sugar to
your tea.
o Realizing that the light in a room has become a bit dimmer or
Continued…
Sensory Adaptation
 Sensory adaptation happens when your senses get
used to a constant stimulus and stop noticing it after
a while. It's your brain's way of not being
overwhelmed by information that doesn't change.
Example:
o Smell: When you first walk into a bakery, you notice
the strong smell of freshly baked bread. But after a
few minutes, you stop noticing the smell, even
though it’s still there. That’s sensory adaptation—
your nose stops paying attention to it.
o Touch: When you put on a watch or a ring, you might
feel it at first. But after wearing it for a while, you
forget it's even there because your body has adapted
to the sensation.
 02
PERCEPTION
Perception refers to the way sensory
information is organized, interpreted, and
consciously experienced.
Gestalt Laws of Perception
The Gestalt laws of perception are principles that
describe how our brains organize and interpret visual
information to make sense of the world.
Gestalt Laws of Perception
1. Law of Similarity: The law of similarity
states that similar things tend to appear grouped
together
In the image at the top of this page, for example,
you probably see two separate groupings of
colored circles as rows rather than just a collection
of dots.

2. Law of Simplicity: This law holds that when

you're presented with a set of ambiguous or
complex objects, your brain will make them appear
as simple as possible.

3. Law of Proximity: According to the law of

proximity, things that are close together seem
more related than things that are spaced farther
apart. The circles on the left, appear to be part of
one groupings while those on the right appear to
be part of another
Continued..
4. Law of continuity: The law of continuity holds that
points that are connected by straight or curving lines are
seen in a way that follows the smoothest path. In other
words, elements in a line or curve seem more related to one
another than those positioned randomly.

5. Law of Closure: People often group elements to

create a sense of closure, or completeness. Thus, you may
“complete” figures that actually have gaps in them.

6. Figure and ground effect explains how we

organize visual information. It describes how we
automatically separate an image into two parts: the figure
(the object we focus on) and the ground (the background
that surrounds it).
Perceiving Forms, Patterns, and objects

● Reversible figure: A drawing that

is compatible with two different
interpretations that can shift back and
forth. What do you see? A rabbit or a
duck? It all depends on how you look
at the drawing.
● The key point is simply this: The same
visual input can result in radically
different perceptions. This is a principal
reason that people’s experience of the
world is subjective.
Continued..
● Perceptual Set: This is the idea that your expectations or
motivations can influence what you see. —a readiness to
perceive a stimulus in a particular way.
● In the study by Balcetis and Dunning (2006), participants were
shown an image that could be interpreted as either the letter B
or the number 13. Before seeing the image, they were told that
the computer would flash either a letter or a number to decide
whether they'd get a pleasant task (drinking orange juice) or an
unpleasant task (drinking a nasty health drink).
• Those who wanted to see a letter (hoping for the pleasant task)
were more likely to interpret the ambiguous image as a B.
• Those hoping for a number (also hoping for the pleasant task)
were more likely to see the image as the number 13.
● This shows that what people want or expect to see can affect
their perception.
Continued..
● Inattentional Blindness occurs when you fail to notice
something that is clearly visible because your attention is focused on
something else. It shows that just because something is in your field of
view doesn’t mean you’ll always see it, especially if you’re concentrating
on a different task.
● A famous experiment by Simons and Chabris (1999) involved
participants watching a video of people passing a basketball. They were
asked to focus on counting how many times the team in white shirts
passed the ball. In the middle of the video, a person in a gorilla suit
walks through the scene for about 9 seconds.
● You’d think everyone would notice something so strange, but about 50%
of the participants didn’t even see the gorilla! Why? Their attention was
focused on counting the basketball passes, so their brain "ignored" other
details in the scene, even something as obvious as a gorilla.
Perceiving Depth or Distance
Depth perception involves interpretation of visual
cues that indicate how near or far away objects are. To
make judgments of distance, people rely on quite a
variety of clues, which can be classified into two types:
binocular cues and monocular cues
Because they are set apart, the eyes each have a
slightly different view of the world. Binocular depth
cues are clues about distance based on the differing
views of the two eyes
Monocular depth cues are clues about distance
based on the image in either eye alone.
BINOCULAR CUES

Retinal Disparity: The slight Convergence: When you

difference in the images each eye focus on something close,
sees. The closer an object, the your eyes turn inward
bigger the difference between (converge). The brain uses the
what each eye sees. amount of convergence to
Example: Hold your finger close to estimate distance.
your face and look at it with just Example: When you hold a
your left eye, then switch to just pencil close to your nose, your
your right eye. You'll notice the eyes "cross" a little to focus
finger seems to shift positions. on it. The more your eyes
Your brain uses this "shift" to converge, the closer the
calculate how close the finger is. object is.
MONOCULAR CUES
Relative Size: This monocular cue gives you the ability to
measure how far away something is. If two objects are similar in
size, the one that appears smaller is farther away.

Interposition (Overlap): If one object is blocking part of

another, the one being blocked is perceived as farther away.
Example: If you see a tree covering part of a house, you know the
tree is closer than the house.

Linear Perspective: Parallel lines seem to converge as they

get further away.
Example: Think of railroad tracks. As they stretch into the distance,
the tracks seem to come closer together.
Continued…
Texture Gradient: Objects closer to you
appear more detailed, while objects farther away
look blurrier and less detailed.
Example: When looking at a field of flowers, the
ones near you have clear petals, while those in the
distance look like a blur of colors.
 PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCY
When a person approaches you from the distance, his or
her image on your retinas gradually changes in size.
Do you perceive that person as growing right before
your eyes? Of course not. Instead, your brain adjusts
and understands that the person is just coming
closer, not changing size. A perceptual constancy
is a tendency to experience a stable perception
in the face of continually changing sensory
input.
 The Power of Misleading
Cues: VISUAL ILLUSIONS
Sometimes, however, perceptions are based on
inappropriate assumptions, and visual
illusions can result. A visual illusion involves
an apparently inexplicable discrepancy
between the appearance of a visual stimulus
and its physical reality.
 Müller-Lyer
Illusion
One famous visual illusion is the Müller-Lyer
illusion, shown in Figure 4.24. The two
vertical lines in this figure are equally
long, but they certainly don’t look that
way. Why not?
The figure on the left looks like the outside of
a building, thrust toward the viewer, while
the one on the right looks like an inside
corner, thrust away (see Figure 4.25). The
vertical line in the left figure therefore
seems closer. If two lines cast equally long
retinal images but one seems closer, the
closer one is assumed to be shorter. Thus,
the Müller-Lyer illusion may be due largely
to a combination of size constancy
processes and misperception of depth.
Extra-Sensory
Perception
Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP) refers to
the ability to receive information
without using the known five senses
(sight, hearing, touch, taste, and
smell). ESP is often called the "sixth
sense" and involves gaining
knowledge in ways that go beyond
normal sensory experience.
Hallucinations
 Hallucinations are false sensory
experiences where a person perceives
something that isn’t actually there.
These experiences can involve any of
the five senses (sight, sound, touch,
taste, smell).
 Hallucinations can be caused by a
variety of factors, such as mental
health disorders (like schizophrenia),
drug use, or neurological conditions.
Example: Seeing people who aren’t
actually there, hearing voices that no
one else can hear, or feeling like
something is crawling on your skin when
nothing is present.