Sensation vs Perception

What
Whats the difference?

Psychology 101
Sensation

Sensation vs Perception
Sensation
What comes into our body through our
sensory organs

How do we construct our

environment?
We construct it
Our systems can be tricked!

Perception
What our brain does with that information

MullerMuller-Lyer

Titchener
Titcheners circles

Red spirals

Look at the greys

Kanisza
Kaniszas triangle

An introduction to the Gestalt principles

How can we study our senses?

What can we do to understand how visual
information is processed?
Sounds?
Smells?

How could we study this in psychology?

Psychophysics

Psychophysics: The point

The main idea

We notice some incoming information and

To learn about our senses by pushing

don
dont process others
Absolute thresholds

Example: the auditory system

Minimum threshold to detect something 50%

of the time

Signal Detection Theory

them to the limits

Play a sound very quietly
Eventually it
itll be so quiet, you may not be
able to hear it
Absolute threshold: the loudness that people
say they can hear the sound 50% of the time

Other things: Subliminal

Stimulation
Stimulating our
consciousness

Priming studies
Changing opinions by
showing something
subliminally
Ch_ _ _

Just Noticeable Difference

Just Noticeable Difference

Weber
Webers law
Difference thresholds are
not constant, but
proportional
Start with a 1lb book
May notice a .1 lb change
Now start with a 1000 lb
desk
Will you notice a .1 lb
change?

Sensory adaptation

What about vision?

Do you feel your clothes if they are still?

How about hearing a sound that hums in

What about a line that is in one place in

the background consistently?

Two ways to processing the world

BottomBottom-up processing:
Our sensory systems experience the world
and send the information upwards to the
brain
Eg.
Eg. watching a movie

your field of vision?

Why is this different?
Eyes are constantly moving
Saccades

Vision: The beginning

What do we see?
Light is waves

TopTop-down processing
How our minds interpret what our senses
detect (ie
(ie.. seeing, hearing)
Eg.
Eg. Don
Dont look behind the door

The visual spectrum

Vision

We can only see a small portion of the

The Eyeball
Light shines through

waves of visual light

the cornea

Becomes inverted on
the retina

Parts of the eyeball

The Retina: The most important

part

Cornea: outermost part

Contains rods and cones

Rods: nighttime use

Protects the eye

Pupil and Iris

Allow light to enter

Lens
Focus light on retina

Retina
Back of eyeball where light is processed

Rods and Cones

insensitive to color
located in retinal periphery
When you step into a movie theatre, it takes a while
to see because your rods are kicking in.

Cones: 3 types of light sensitivity (red, green,

blue)

essential for color perception

daytime use
primarily in center of retina
better acuity

What do rods and cones do?

They are sensitive to different

wavelengths

Transduction
Turns light into something our nervous
system can use
Electrical signal
Rods and Cones do this specifically for their
type (color) of light

What about problems seeing?

How the visual system works

Nearsightedness: image focused too soon

Farsightedness: image focused too far

Stages to visual processing

Color vision

Visual perception occurs in stages

One are may process color
Another may process depth or form

YoungYoung-Helmholtz theory
Trichromacy
Found in the retina

Opponent process theory

RedRed-green, blueblue-yellow, and blackblack-white
Input from one color inhibits the other color

YoungYoung-Helmholtz Theory

Opponent Process Theory

Hearing
Sounds are waves
Amplitude / Height = loudness
Frequency = pitch

The Ear

Typical Sounds

Outer ear
Ends at ear drum

Middle ear
Composed of bones

Inner ear
Cochlea
Fluid filled
Hairs
Transduction

How we hear

Getting to the Brain

Sound waves get to

Different parts of the auditory cortex

the cochlea
Ripples in fluid
Hair cells sway with
the ripples
Different frequencies
of sound move the
hair cells that are in
different parts of the
cochlea

process the different frequencies of sound

Higher frequencies
processed in the
yellow region
Lower frequencies
processed in the blue
region

Sound Location Processing

Touch processing

How can we tell where a sound is coming

Multiple somatosensory

from?
Difference in loudness between the two ears
Interaural Intensity Difference
Difference in time of arrival for the sound
waves between the two ears
Interaural Time Difference

subsystems
Touch

Pressure, vibration
Temperature
Pain
Joint position
Muscle stretch

Organization in the Brain

Taste

Taste buds: sensory receptors

Taste Sensations

sweet
sour
salty
bitter

Sensory Interaction

the principle that one sense may influence another

as when the smell of food influences its taste

The Tongue