Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Presentations for
Seventh Edition
Philip G. Zimbardo
Robert L. Johnson
Vivian McCann
Prepared by
Beth M. Schwartz
Randolph College
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2006
Chapter 3
This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display,
including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or part, of any images; any
rental, lease, or lending of the program.
Copyright 2012 Pearson
Copyright
Education,
Allyn
Inc. All
andRights
BaconReserved
2006
Sensation and Perception
Sensation
A process by which a simulated receptor
create a pattern of neural messages that
represent the stimulus in the brain
Perception
A process that makes sensory patterns
meaningful
Sensory Pathway
Bundles of neurons that carry information
from the sense organs to the brain
Webers Law
The size of the JND is proportional to the
intensity of the stimulus.
The JND is always large when the stimulus
intensity is high, and small when the
stimulus intensity is low.
Neural activity
Comparison with
personal standard
Intensity
Wavelength
(amplitude)
Color Brightness
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Entire range of electromagnetic energy;
includes radio waves, X-rays, microwaves,
and visible light
Visible Spectrum
Tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum
that is visible to our eyes
Trichromatic Theory
Based on three different cone receptors
Explains initial stages of color sensation
Opponent-Process Theory
Based on bipolar cells
Colors in complementary pairs
Explains afterimages
Afterimages
Sensations that linger after the stimulus is
removed
Color Blindness
Vision disorder that prevents an individual
from discriminating certain colors
Cochlea
Vestibular Sense
Sense of body orientation with respect to
gravity
receptors in semicircular canals
Kinesthetic Sense
Sense of body position and movement of
body parts relative to each other
receptors in joints, muscles, and tendons
Analgesic Drugs
Aspirin: interferes with chemical signal
Morphine: suppresses pain messages
Psychological Techniques
Placebo: mock drug
Placebo effect: change caused by the belief
that one is taking a real drug
Percept
Meaningful product of a perception
Feature Detectors
Cells in the cortex that specialize in
detection of specific stimulus features
Binding Problem
Unsolved mystery concerning the processes
used by the brain to combine many aspects
of sensation into a single percept
Bottom-Up Processing
Analysis that emphasizes characteristics of
the stimulus
Top-Down Processing
Emphasizes the perceivers expectations,
memories, and other cognitive factors
Perceptual Constancy
Ability to recognize the same object under
different conditions, such as changes in
illumination, distance, or location
color constancy
size constancy
shape constancy
Proximity
Continuity
Common fate
Prgnanz
Subjective Contours
Boundaries that are perceived but do not
appear in the stimulus pattern
Closure
Tendency to fill in gaps in figures and see
incomplete figures as complete
Learning-Based Inference
View that perception is primarily shaped by
prior learning and experience
Perceptual Set
Readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a
given context
Nature or Nurture?
Visual Cliff Experiment
Illustrates the developmental age at which
depth is perceived
Binocular Cues
Depend on information taken in by both eyes
Monocular Cues
Depend on information taken in by only one
eye
Copyright 2012 Pearson
Copyright
Education,
Allyn
Inc. All
andRights
BaconReserved
2006