SENSATION AND

PERCEPTION
(continued)
Sensation and perception
Sensation
 Receiving signals from the environment

 The raw data

Perception
 how we interpret those signals that we are receiving

Both processes work together

 Sensory systems
Sense Sensory organs Energy detected Receptors

Visual Eyes Light waves Rods and cones in the

retina
Auditory Ears Sound waves Hair cells lining the
(vibrations) cochlea in the inner
ear

Olfactory Nose Odor molecules Hair cells lining in the

upper nose
Gustatory Tongue Taste molecules Taste buds along the
tongue
Tactile Skin Touch, pressure, Nerve endings in the
temperature and pain skin
Perception
Perception
 Discrimination

 Recognition

 Understanding

 Sorting out

 Interpretation

 Analysis

 Integration of stimuli carried out by the sense

organs and the brain
Duck or a rabbit?
Do you see it moving or vibrating?
Scary face or figures?
What do you see?
Perceptual constancy

Perceiving the environment to stay the same even with

changes in sensory input.
Errors in perception

 Illusion

 Hallucination
Illusion
Same length
Hallucination
 Perceiving stimulus when it is not present

 The person may see an object, person, etc. or he

may listen to some voice though there are no objects
and sounds in reality.

 Usually people with an unsound mind, emotionally

disturbed, alcoholics and those who are in confused
states may experience hallucinations.
Bottom up and top down processing
 Bottom up processing
 Top down processing
 Selective attention
Selective attention

 Intentional blindness

 Change blindness

 Cocktail party effect

Color blind and color weakness

A person who is color blind cannot perceive colors.

In color weakness, a partial color blindness, a

person cant see certain colors.
Color weakness
Color blindness
Are you color blind?
Gustav Fechner
 A psychologist in the 19th century.
 Called the study of how external stimuli affect us
“psychophysics”
Thresholds

 Absolute threshold – minimum stimulation to detect a

particular stimulus 50 % of the time

 Subliminal – below our absolute threshold for

conscious awareness

 Priming
Difference thresholds
 Difference thresholds (JND)
 Weber’s law
 Sensory adaptation – an adjustment in sensory
capacity after prolonged exposure to unchanging
stimuli.