Sensation &

Perception
Detecting , Processing & Interpreting
experiences, Professor L. Peoples
How we sense & Perceive the
World
Detecting, Processing and Interpreting
Experiences
Sensation: The direct effect of stimulation of receptor cells by a
stimulus

Perception: Our organization and interpretation of sensory experience

Bottom-Up Processing: directed from external information

Top-Down Processing: directed from internal information

Sensory Receptors and the Brain

Noise: is the term employed by psychologists to describe any kind of
distracting and irrelevant stimuli.

Subliminal Perception

Thresholds
Weber’s Law: In 1834 a German scientist, E. H. Weber (the W is
pronounced as a V), conducted a classic experiment that revealed one of
the first major principles of sensation. He discovered that the difference
threshold for various stimulus intensities tends to be a constant fraction
of the original stimulus intensity. Thus, as the strength of the original
stimulus increases, the magnitude of the change must also increase in
order for a jnd to be perceived. This relationship is known as Weber’s
law.

In mathematical form, Weber’s law is expressed as the following

equation:

∆I = kI
where ∆I is the change in stimulus intensity necessary for a jnd, I is the
Psychophysics: Psychophysics is the part of psychology that
focuses on the relationship between physical aspects of external stimuli and
our perceptions of them.

Absolute Threshold: An absolute threshold is defined as the minimum physical

Thresholds
intensity of a stimulus that can be perceived by an observer 50 percent of the
time.

Subliminal Perception:

Difference Threshold: is the minimum increase in the intensity of a stimulus

necessary to just notice a change 50 percent of the time. This increase in
intensity is also referred to as a just noticeable difference or jnd.
 Noise
analogous to the background static you hear on
the radio while cruising down the freeway and
trying to tune in your favorite station. The
stronger the static, the harder it is to detect the
music. This example refers to external noise, or
distracting factors in the outside environment.
Our signal detection performance may also be
influenced by internal noise in our sensory
systems caused by an ongoing, variable,
random firing of neurons (the nervous system is
never completely inactive). Thus, sensory
inputs occur against a variable background of
Absolute Threshold for the Five
Senses
Signal Detection Theory
Perceiving Sensory Stimuli
Selective Attention
Perceptual Set
Sensory Adaption
 The Visual System

The Visual Stimulus and the Eye

Light
The Structure of the Eye
● Retina
– Rods
– Cones
Characteristics of Rods and Cones
 Visual Processing in the Brain

The Visual Cortex

Feature Detection
Parallel Processing
Binding
Visual Processing in the Brain
Color Vision
Trichromatic Theory
Opponent-Processes Theory
Trichromatic and Opponent-
Process Theories
Gestalt Psychology
Depth Perception
● Binocular Cues
● Monocular Cues
Motion Perception
Apparent Movement Perceptual Constancy
● Shape Constancy
● Size Constancy
Actually, psychologists do not all agree about why the Müller-Lyer
illusion fools us. According to one interpretation that enjoyed
popularity for a period of time, the illusion is created by the fact that
the outward-turned angles draw the viewer’s eyes farther out into
space; the inward-turning angles draw the eyes back toward the
center.

One study cast serious doubt on this interpretation, however. In this

experiment an apparatus was designed to hold a subject’s eyes and
head very still while the lines of the Müller-Lyer illusion were flashed
into one eye and the arrowheads into the other. When these
sensations were combined in the subject’s brain, the same illusion
resulted (Gillam, 1980). This finding indicates that the illusion is
created by something more than the movement of the eyes.
 An Illusion of Perspective

The two horizontal lines are equal in length

although we perceive the “distant” line as
longer. The Ponzo illusion is an illusion of
perspective. The converging lines at the top of
the figure are associated with distance, falsely
suggesting that the top horizontal line is farther
away. An object that is farther away and yet
occupies the same visual angle as an object
that is closer to us must then be longer.
 The Auditory System

The Nature of Sound and How We Experience It

Characteristics of Sound
Structures and Functions of the Ear
Outer Ear
Middle Ear
Inner Ear
Sound Waves and Qualities of
Sound
 The Auditory System

Theories of Hearing
Place Theory
Frequency Theory
Auditory Processing in the Brain
Localizing Sound
Noise Pollution
The Sound Shadow
 Other Senses

The Skin Senses

Touch
Temperature
Pain
● Gate-Control Theory
● Pain Control and Treatment
The Chemical Senses
Taste
● Papillae
Smell
● Olfactory Epithelium
The Sense of Taste

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Second level
● Third level

● Fourth level

● Fifth level
The Olfactory Sense
 In Summary
Sensations are basic, immediate experiences that a stimulus elicits in
a sense organ. Perception refers to the process of interpreting,
organizing, and elaborating on the raw materials of sensation.
The process by which sensory organs transform mechanical,
chemical, or light energy into neural firing is called transduction.
The ability to distinguish sensations does not depend on differences
between the sense organs, but rather on what part of the brain is
activated by the sensory messages.
Many of the physical events surrounding us go unheeded. The most
important variables determining whether or not we perceive things
happening around us are sensory thresholds, attention, and
adaptation.
 In Summary
Our perception of various sensory inputs can occur only
when the strength of a stimulus reaches a minimal or
threshold level of intensity sufficient to activate a sensory
process. Weber’s law describes the relationship between
stimulus intensity and our perception of stimulus change.
Attention refers to the control of our behavior by specific
stimuli or stimulus situations.
Adaptation refers to the decrease in the response of
sensory receptors when they are exposed to continual,
unchanging stimulation.
Signal detection theory maintains that our ability to detect
a sensory stimulus (signal) depends not only on the
intensity of the signal but also on other variables such as
distracting factors like noise, expectations, motivation, and
 In Summary
Our visual systems consist of three major parts:
the eyes, which capture and respond to light
energy; the neural circuits that transmit signals
from the eye to the brain; and visual centers
within the brain that interpret these messages.
Visible light, the stimulus for vision, has three
particularly important properties: brightness, or
the intensity of light; hue, or the color we
perceive; and saturation, which is the
proportion of colored light to noncolored light.
Two key components of the eye are the image-
 In Summary
Two major theories of color vision have been
proposed: the trichromatic theory and the
opponent-process theory. Most vision experts
believe that color vision may result from an
interplay between a trichromatic system
operating at the level of photoreceptor cells and
an opponent-process mechanism working at
later stages.
Most of the sounds we hear consist of physical
energy in the form of rhythmic pressure
changes in the air.
 In Summary
The best available evidence suggests that our perception of
pitch is determined by both the place of maximal excitation on
the basilar membrane and the frequency with which auditory
nerve fibers fire.

Auditory localization is the result of differences in both the

loudness and the time of arrival of sounds reaching each of
our ears.

Hearing loss may result from either damage to the neural

structures that transmit auditory messages to the brain
(sensory neural hearing loss) or inability of the outer and
middle ear to conduct sound energy to the receptors in the
inner ear (conduction hearing loss).
 In Summary
Our taste receptors, located on little bumps on
the tongue called papillae, can distinguish only
four different sensations: sweetness, saltiness,
sourness, and bitterness.
The receptors for odors lie in the mucous
membrane that lines the nasal cavity.
The sense of touch is a composite of three
different senses: pressure, temperature, and
pain.
The sensation of pressure occurs when a
mechanical force causes a displacement of the
 In Summary
The process by which we structure elementary sensations into
the objects we perceive is called perceptual organization.
Three important principles that influence how people organize
sensations into whole patterns, called gestalts, are figure and
ground, perceptual grouping, and closure.
Figure and ground refers to our tendency to differentiate
between the part of an image we focus on (figure) and the
background against which the figure stands (ground).
According to the principle of perceptual grouping, we tend to
group patterns of stimuli into larger units in three major ways:
by proximity, similarity, and good continuation.
 In Summary
Another organizing principle is our inclination to perceive
incomplete figures as complete, a process known as closure.
Selective attention refers to the process of focusing on one or
a few stimuli of particular significance while ignoring others.
Characteristics of stimuli that tend to capture attention almost
automatically include sudden change, contrast and novelty,
intensity, repetition, and stimulus difficulty.
Key stimuli capture attention by activating motivational
systems.
Binocular cues for perceiving distance include retinal disparity
and convergence.
 In Summary
According to Gibson’s theory of direct perception, all of the
information necessary for spatial representation is available to
us from the environment in the form of environmental
invariances. Other theories of perception argue that spacial
representation requires complex cognitive processing of
available stimuli.
Research has revealed that depth perception is clearly an
innate ability in many species of animals, and that in humans
it is either innate or is learned very early in life.
Perceptual constancy allows us to adjust for varying conditions
and changing patterns as we perceive the world. When we
look at objects at different distances and angles and under
different levels of illumination, we are able to make the
necessary adjustments to maintain a degree of constancy in
our perception of size, shape, brightness, and color.
 In Summary
A perceptual illusion is a false perception in that
it differs from the actual physical state of the
perceived object.
A tendency to perceive what we expect or are
inclined to see, a phenomenon known as
perceptual set, may have a strong impact on
how we perceive our environments.
 Conclusion
Familiarize yourselves with the terms, concepts
and theories of sensation & perception.
LP