AP Psych Prep.

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Overview:
Our senses gather information and tell us about

our world and body.

Sensory organs receive stimuli Stimuli transformed into neural impulses To Thalamus in the Brain

To specific sensory brain areas

General Sense and Perception Concepts:

Sensory Adaptation senses respond less strongly

because of constant stimulation (e.g. Smell)

Sensory Habituation reduced perception of

sensory signals because of changed attention to them. (e.g. touch clothing, socks)

General Sense and Perception Concepts:

Our attention is closely connected to our

perception of sensory information. We get much more sensory information coming into our brains than we can pay attention to at one time.
Cocktail party phenomenon the phenomenon

where our brains monitor sensory information outside our conscious awareness and brings things to our attention if they are important. (e.g. your name in loud classroom)

General Sense and Perception Concepts: Sensation Vs. Perception

Differences debated, but we can go by: Sensation activation of our sensory organs,

conversion into neural signals, transmission of signals to the brain

Perception process of decoding and

understanding those signals in our brains

Sensation - Types of Senses:

Energy Senses vision, hearing, touch (detecting

light, sound waves, pressure energy)

Chemical Senses taste, smell (chemical detection) Vestibular and Kinesthetic Senses body senses

(body placement, orientation)

Vision:
Light from some source enters our eyes, or bounces

off objects in our world and then into our eyes.

If there is no

light, there can be no vision.

Process of Vision:
Light passes through cornea, a protective cover that

also helps to focus light (lasik/lasek surgery)

Then through pupil, the hole surrounded by the

colour of your eye (iris) . This hole can dilate (get bigger) to let more light in, or smaller to let less light in.

Finally, it passes through the lens which is the main

focusing piece. Muscles can change the shape of lens to focus the image clearly on the back of the eye. (switch distance focus)

Process of Vision:

Process of Vision:
Light is focused on the back of the eye on the retina.

Retina is made of important light-detecting cells.

These cells are activated when they are hit by light,

and this causes them to send neural signals. Different kinds of cells: Cones detect colour (5-6% of retina) Rods simply react to light; detecting shape, etc.

Process of Vision:

More cones in the back center of eye.

Especially in fovea, the central focus point that is

slightly indented, and has high concentration of cone cells. We see colour best here (coloured pencil test).
Peripheral (edge) vision is mostly rods, so mostly

black and white vision (and higher ability to detect light)

Process of Vision:
Light Sensitive Cells Bipolar Cells Ganglion Cells Brain (Thalamus) Occipital Lobe (Visual Cortex)

Ganglion cells axons = optic nerve bundle of wires

(axons) that takes sight information to the brain. Blind Spot where the optic nerve leaves the eye. Because of cord, no cones or rods in this spot, so no vision here. (But we have two eyes...) Blind Spot Test

Blind Spot: Human vs. Octopus

Source of Light

Process of Vision:

Process of Vision:
The image that is projected onto the retina of our eyes

is flipped and upside-down. Our brains flip the image back after they get the signals.

Process of Vision:
Our retina is divided into two. Left side of each retina

goes to the right side of the brain, and vice versa. (Remember Focus split brain patients) Point
Optic Chiasm

where the two optic nerves cross

Influences on Vision:
Amount of light = how bright things seem

Wavelength of light = the colour we see

We can only see part of the electromagnetic spectrum -

visible light
Objects appear

to be the colour of the wavelength of light they reflect, because thats the light that hits our eye

Influences on Vision:

Long Wavelength light Short Wavelength

light

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

Theories of Colour Vision:

Trichromatic theory older theory three types of

cones that detect blue, red and green light. These three in different amounts give us all the colours we can see.
However this doesnt explain after

images or colorblindness (red-green or blue-yellow colorblindness).

After Image Trial:

Stare at the dot without blinking for about 30 seconds,

then look at a blank white space (paper)

Theories of Colour Vision:

Opponent Process Theory cells for red / green and

blue / yellow are tied together in pairs. Chemical process going one way = red, the other way = green. When you stare at the red picture, the red process is overused. So after that, the process reverses, showing the green colour.
When signaling red, cant signal green.

Theories of Colour Vision:

Opponent-Process Theory Also helps explain red-green or blue-yellow

colorblindness.
Many researchers think both explanations can be

useful to explain colour sight. Exact truth is not completely clear yet.

Process of Vision:
The signals travel from our eyes, along the optic

nerve, through the thalamus (lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)), and to the occipital lobe at the back of the brain.
There, we have specialized cells that react to certain

stimuli. E.g. movement, horizontal or vertical lines, etc.

Process of Vision:
These are called feature detectors. They detect certain

features of our environment from the visual info provided by our eyes.
Feature detectors explored by David Hubel and

Torsten Wiesel.
All the detected features are combined in higher level

processing areas, and thats where our perception of vision comes from.

Auditory Sense / Hearing:

Also detects waves, but sound waves, instead of light

waves. Sound waves come from vibration, travel through the air to our ears.

Auditory:
Sound waves have amplitude and frequency Amplitude

height of waves; loudness

Frequency

length of waves (Megahertz); pitch of sound

Auditory Sense:

Sound waves collected by pinna (outer ear), and then

they travel down ear canal / auditory canal.

They then hit the ear drum (tympanic membrane) and

vibrate it. This vibration passes to ossicles (inner ear bones).

Hammer (malleus)

Anvil (incus)

Stirrup (stapes)

Oval Window

Cochlea

Auditory Sense:
Cochlea coiled shell-shaped organ, filled with fluid. Inside are hair cells that are moved by the fluid when

vibrations pass through. Neurons connected to the hair cells fire when they move, sending signals to the auditory cortex of the brain.
Hair cells and neurons = organ of Corti

Two Theories of Sound Detection:

How do we detect different types of sound? Place Theory idea that diff. parts of the cochlea

respond to different frequencies of sound. This seems to be true for high tones.
Frequency Theory idea that cells fire signals at

different speeds in response to diff. frequencies of sound. Seems to be true for low tones.

Auditory Sense - Deafness:

Understanding how hearing works helps us see how

hearing problems can occur.

Problems conducting vibrations to the cochlea =

conduction deafness; relatively easy to treat.

Problems in cochlea or sound detection cells = nerve

or sensorinerual deafness; we dont know how to get hair cells to re-grow. Hair cells can be damaged permanently by loud noises. Permanent hearing loss is possible.

Touch:
We have different types of nerve ending sensors in our

skin that detect heat, cold, pressure, and pain. These feed information to our brains.
Different areas of our body

have different amount of receptors. Hands, fingertips, feet, face, lips high number Back, elbow, etc. - low

Sensory Input

Many more sensors in some areas of our body

Touch:
Gate Control Theory of Pain- some pain messages

have a higher priority than others. If no high priority message, low gate is open and that pain gets through. But if high priority message comes, the low gate closes, stopping the low priority message, and the high priority message gate opens to let it through. (Gates are just a metaphor, not real structures) E.g. sore leg from exercise yesterday vs. cut hand.

Touch:
Pain is a very useful sense. It acts as a warning to help

us avoid damaging our bodies.

Our brains can also

influence our experience of pain, including through natural pain-killing chemicals. (endorphins)

Taste / Gustation:
A Chemical Sense. Taste involves detecting chemicals

from food we eat. Papillae are bumps in our mouths (mainly on our tongues) that include taste buds that detect chemicals. We detect 5 types of tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savory (meaty; also called umami).
Different taste buds will be more specialized to detect

certain tastes.

Taste / Gustation:

Taste / Gustation:

Our sense of taste actually combines taste and smell.

If youre sick and cant detect smell well, your sense of

taste for food will be very dull.

Smell (Olfaction):
Another Chemical Sense. Involves detecting chemicals

from the air. We have many types of olfactory receptor cells (probably around 100) in mucous membrane deep inside our noses. These detect chemicals, and send it to the olfactory bulb, and then to the amygdala and hippocampus. (not to the thalamus like other senses) This may be why smell can be so strongly connected to memory.

Smell (Olfaction):

Body Position Senses:

Vestibular Sense tells us about our bodys

orientation. Three canals in the inner ear with fluid tell us how our head is oriented in terms of gravity. Fluid in these semi-circular canals moves when our heads move, giving us orientation info.
Dizziness and nausea can

be caused by too much movement.

Body Position Senses:

Kinesthetic Sense - gives us specific information

about where parts of our bodies are. Sensors in our joints and muscles give information about how our arms, legs, etc. are positioned.

Perception:
How we interpret and understand sensations. Psychophysics study of the interaction of sensations

and our perceptions of them.

Thresholds:
Absolute Threshold the smallest amount of stimulus

we can detect 50% of the time.

Stimuli below this level are called subliminal. Some

small subliminal messages can influence our behaviour (e.g. picking a word from a list), but theres no evidence that complicated messages can alter peoples behaviour in major ways (e.g. advertising)

Thresholds:

Absolute threshold

for light is a single candle 48 kilometers away on a perfectly dark night.

Thresholds:
Difference / Just-Noticeable Difference Threshold

the smallest amount of change in stimulus before we will detect the change.
Webers Law or Weber-Fenchner Law change must

be a certain proportion of the original before we notice the change.

Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner, 1800s

Thresholds:
So a very strong stimulus will need to change more

before you notice the change. A weak stimulus can change just a bit before you notice. *In both cases, the same proportion. Consider a drink with sugar in it.
Just-Noticeable Difference for Vision 8% For Hearing is 5%

Perception
Perception in the real world is influenced by things

like attention, competing stimuli, etc. (response criteria)

Signal Detection Theory explores these influences

and how they might influence our rates of correct or false detection of stimuli.

Perception
Signal Detection Theory: False Positive, False Negative, Hit, Correct Rej.

Top-Down Processing:
When our previous background knowledge and

expectations cause us to see something. We perceive in that way because of our experience.
Schemata mental constructions of how we think the

world is. Perceptual Set because of expectations and schemata, we are more likely to see the world in a certain way.

What Do You See Here?

Top-Down Processing

What Do You See Here:

Bottom-Down Processing:
Also called feature analysis When we use the features of the object itself to build

our perception. We dont use our previous experience to guide our perception.
We constantly use both top-down and bottom-up

processing. Top-down is faster, but can be less accurate.

Principles of Visual Perception:

How we perceive visual stimuli is pretty well

understood. Has been studied a lot. Here are some principles of visual perception.
Figure-ground

relationship same stimuli, our minds can switch our perception of it.

Gestalt Rules:
Gestalt Psychologists looked at how our perception

of objects are guided by more than just the individual objects separately.
Similarity, Proximity, Continuity (seen as one continuous thing), Closure like top-down proc. Even if there are gaps,

things considered to be one objects are perceived that way.

Gestalt Rules:

Constancy:
Even though we receive slightly different signals

based on how close the object is to us, the angle from which we view it, and the light that bounces off the object (outside in bright sunlight vs. inside in a dim place).
Based off our background knowledge of the object.

Objects we know well.

Size Constancy, Shape Constancy, Brightness Con.

Perceived Motion:
Our brains do math to detect the motion of objects.

Often very accurate.

Occasionally, our brain can be tricked to perceive

motion when in fact there is no real motion.

Stroboscopic effect still images with differences

presented fast enough will seem to be moving. E.g. Movies.

Perceived Motion:
Phi Phenomenon when a series of light bulbs turned

on and off at a fast rate will look like one moving light bulb.
Autokinetic Effect

in a dark place, with one point of light, if you stare at it, the light will seem to move

Depth Cues:
Very important part of our visual perception.

Tell us 3D information about our world, which things

are farther and closer to us, relative position, etc.

Depth perception develops early, near the time we can

crawl as infants.
Animals commonly get this earlier than humans.

Depth Cues:
Eleanor Gibson Visual Cliff Experiments

Depth Cues: Monocular Vs. Binocular

Monocular Cues require only one eye. Often used in

art to show depth.

1. Linear perspective parallel lines come together in

the distance.
2. Texture Gradient Cue

textures closer to us are more detailed

Depth Cues: Monocular Vs. Binocular

Monocular Cues

3. Interposition Cue if something comes between us

and another object, it must be closer

4. Relative Size Cue

objects that are the same size get smaller into the distance

Depth Cues: Monocular Vs. Binocular

Monocular Cues 5. Shadow can

show us depth, and also relative position of objects

Depth Cues: Monocular Vs. Binocular

Binocular Cues come

from the fact that we have two eyes

Binocular Disparity /

Retinal Disparity the image of objects in each eye will get more and more different as the object gets closer to our eyes.

Depth Cues: Monocular Vs. Binocular

Binocular Cues Convergence

closer objects require us to move our eyes inward more, so our brain uses eye position to determine how close something is to us.
(IPD = InterPupillary Distance)

Cultural Difference in Perception

Which of these lines is longer?

Cultural Differences
Cultures with a lot of right angles in architecture tend

to be perceptually fooled by this Muller-Lyer illusion

While cultures that dont have a lot of right angles in

architecture dont have this trouble.

Perceptual Illusions
There are also other times

when our perception is mislead by perceptual cues.

But in normal situations

our brain is well designed to perceive the world in ways that are accurate.