What

is sensation?

The process by which our sensory receptors and

nervous system receive stimulus from the environment.

 There are actually 12.

Basically idea is to draw diagonals rectangles, now as

sides of the squares are parallel (either horizontal or

vertical) so diagonals should also be parallel, as the
outer most rectangle is nothing but square we should
take this as a reference.

We all experience (sensation)

the same thing but we all

perceive (perception) something
dierent.
Let me try something on you J

I'm thinking of two simple

geometric shapes, one inside the

other. Try to draw what I'm
thinking of. Draw it on your mind
map in the space I left you. Do
not show me.

 Bottom-up processing: we start with the sensory

receptors sand work up to higher levels of processing.

Bottom-up processing: we start with the sensory

receptors sand work up to higher levels of
processing.

The human fovea can only focus on a very small area at one time
We xate on one location for a moment and then move on to the next xation. We
take in little at each xation and its through a pattern of saccades that we take in
our visual environment.

 Top-Down Processing The top-down process is

driven by prior knowledge and expectations as well as

our specic goals of the moment.
Suppose though, I asked you to nd all the occurrences of the letter P in the
image? Now as you scan the image the letter P should start to stand out a bit
more and its possible that even the highly visible red letters start to fade into the
background. At the very least you likely arent noticing the words they spell out.

You see more of what youre looking for and less of what you
arent.

 Three blind mice, three blind mice,

See how they run, see how they run,

They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut o their tails with a carving
knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life,
As three blind mice?

Comics and cartoons provide many examples of top-down processing.

Simple cues are used to suggest complex feelings and emotions.
Cartoonists have a set of conventions for conveying information about
mental and physical states. Tiny popping bubbles, for example, show
drunkenness. Movement is shown by lines and little pus of dust trailing
after shoes. Spoken language is shown inside a bubble made out of a
continuous line. A silent thought is shown inside a broken line. A sudden
idea may be shown as a lightbulb lighting up over a character's head. Beads
of sweat ying o a character show anxiety or physical exertion. After one
gains some experience reading comics, these cues are processed
automatically; one is hardly aware of them.

In many situations, however, your

knowledge or expectations will
inuence perception. This is called
schema-driven or top-down
processing. A schema is a pattern
formed earlier in your experience.

 In the gure Bottom-up processing enables our

sensory systems to detect the lines, angles and colors

that form the horses, rider and surroundings.
Using Top-down Processing we consider the

paintings title, notice the apprehensive expressions

and then direct our attention to aspects of the
painting that will give those observations meaning.;

Senses are natures gift that suit an organisms

needs.

A frog feeds on ying insects; a male silkworm
moth is sensitive to female sex-a?ractant odor; and
we as human beings are sensitive to sound
frequencies that represent the range of human
voice.

A study of the relationship between physical

characteristics of stimuli and our psychological
experience with them.

Physical World

Psychological
World

Light

Brightness

Sound

Volume

Pressure

Weight

Sugar

Sweet

A relative increase in
mental intensity,
[Fechner] realized,
might be measured in
terms of the relative
increase in physical
energy required to bring
it about
(Wozniak, 1999).

Gustav Fechner
(1801-1887)

Absolute Threshold

minimum stimulation
needed to detect a
particular stimulus 50% of
the time

Dierence Threshold
minimum dierence
between two stimuli
required for
detection 50% of the
time
Or also called the
JND just noticeable
dierence (JND)

Absolute Thresholds for Humans

SENSE

STIMULUS

RECEPTORS

THRESHOLD
A candle flame
viewed from a
distance of about 30
miles on a dark night

Vision

Electromagnetic
Energy

Rods & Cones in the

retina

Hearing

Sound Waves

Hair cells of the inner The ticking of a

ear
watch from about 20
feet away in a quiet
room

Smell

Chemical substances
in the air

Receptor cells in the

nose

About one drop of

perfume diffused
throughout a small
house

Taste

Chemical substances
in saliva

Taste buds on the

tongue

About 1 teaspoon of
sugar dissolved in 2
gallons of water

Touch

Pressure on the skin

Nerve endings in the

skin

The wing of a fly

falling on a cheek
from a distance of
about 0.4 inches

 The idea that, to perceive a dierence

between two stimuli, they must dier by a

constant percentage; not a constant amount.

Subliminal Threshold: When

stimuli are below ones
absolute threshold for
conscious awareness.

Kurt Scholz/ Superstock

Backmasking is the
process of recording
hidden messages in music
which can only be revealed
when a song is played
backward. This technique
was rst used by the British
Broadcasting Corporation
in the 1920s, in an attempt
to change people's
negative attitude toward
radio broadcasting

http://jemilner.com/backmasking/index.html

The focusing of conscious awareness on

a particular stimulus.

Explained: Aristotles Illusion explained: When

something from the outside world causes nerves to re,
its called "sensation. Light causes sensation in your
eyes, sound in your ears, and pressure or temperature
changes cause sensation in your ngertips. The message
travels from the nerve endings to your brain at 80 miles
per hour. When the brain gets the message, it interprets
it. That is called "perception, and it is caused by a
variety of factors including sensation; but it also involves
your past experience. Since you have always perceived
messages from your ngertips with your ngers
uncrossed, sensations from crossed ngers are
misinterpreted as two noses.

Cocktail Party Eect: ability to listen to one

voice among manyto pay attention despite
distractions.
http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-do-you-notice-about-these-photos.html

 Inattentional Blindness: Failing to see visible

objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXFsH__PIRA

Change Blindness: Failing to notice changes in the

environment
http://taylorappsychology.weebly.com/unit-4-
sensation-and-perception.html

Change blindness is a form of ina?entional

blindness in which two-thirds of individuals giving
directions failed to notice a change in the
individual asking for directions.

1998 Psychonomic Society Inc. Image provided courtesy of Daniel J. Simmons.

Dateline: Did you see that? July 16, 2010

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38154937/ns/dateline_nbc-the_hansen_les_with_chris_hansen/

28

Predicts how and when we detect the presence

of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background
noise (other stimulation). SDT assumes that
there is no single absolute threshold and
detection depends on:
Carol Lee/ Tony Stone Images

Persons experience
Expectations
Motivation
Level of fatigue

 Transduction
is the process of one form of energy into another

that your brain can use is called Transduction.

Remember Ethan in
Sky High. He changes
his body to slime.
Solid form to liquid
form. Change from
one form of energy to
another. Click the
picture to watch power
placement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el0BSM0WRlU

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of

constant stimulation.

Put a band aid on your arm and after awhile

you dont sense it.

Kittens raised without

exposure to horizontal
lines later had diculty
perceiving horizontal
bars.