SENSORY PROCESS

Dr. Farjana Ahmed

Professor
 Sensory Process
To represent the world, we must detect physical energy (a stimulus)
from the environment and convert it in to neural signals. This is a
process called sensation.

Sensation is the process by which the sense organs, such as the eyes and
ears, gather information about the environment.

Sensation and perception are important in psychology because-

• They are our only link with the outside world.
• What we know of reality depends on the information we gather
through our senses.
• This information has a profound effect on our psychological
functioning.
 General Characteristics of Sensation
Stimulus is any form of energy (a light wave, heat, or an odor) that is
capable of exciting the nervous system

Transduction, the name is given to the process whereby receptor cells

transform stimuli in to neural impulses.

There are two fundamental questions that psychologists studying

sensation strive to answer.
1. Exactly how does transduction take place in each of the sensory
systems?
2. How do the sensory systems and the brain distinguish between the
different types of stimuli in the environment?
 General Characteristics…Cont…

Psychophysics:
A Study of relationship between physical characteristics of stimuli and
our psychological experience with them.

Physical World Psychological World

Light Brightness
Sound Volume
Pressure Weight
Sugar Sweet
 General Characteristics…Cont…

Absolute Threshold:
The absolute threshold refers to the quantity of stimulation necessary for
an organism to sense a stimulus.
• The minimum amount of
stimulation is necessary to produce
a sensation.
• The absolute threshold is not a
constant value but changes from
person to person and from situation
to situation.
 General Characteristics…Cont…

Signal Detection:
According to the signal detection theory, the probability of detecting a
stimulus at any given time depends on the intensity of the stimulus and
on the observer’s response bias- his or her decision to respond in a
certain way.

The response bias is influenced by the situation’s potential rewards and

costs. Detection depends on:

 Person’s experience  Motivation

 Expectations  Level of Fatigue
 General Characteristics…Cont…

Difference Threshold:
The difference threshold is the minimum
amount of stimulus needed for two
stimuli to be perceived as different.

Sensory Adaptation:
Sensory adaptation diminished sensitivity
as a consequence of constant stimulation.
It is an adjustment in sensory capacity
after prolonged exposure to unchanging
stimuli.
 Our Five Senses

Our five senses are the sense of-

1. Sight/ Vision
2. Hearing
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Touch
1. Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye

Light:
• Vision starts with light, the physical energy that stimulates the eye.
• Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation waves that are measured
in wavelengths.
• The sizes of wavelengths correspond to different types of energy.

Visual Spectrum:
• Visual spectrum is the range of wavelengths that the human eye can
detect. The Colors of a rainbow from the shortest wavelength of
violet blue to the longest wavelength of red.
1. Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye…Cont…

Parts of the Eye:

a. Cornea: Transparent tissues where light
enters the eye.
b. Iris: Muscle that expands and contracts to
change the size of the opening (pupil) for
light.
c. Lens: Focuses the light rays on the retina.
d. Retina: Contains sensory receptors that
process visual information and sends it to
the brain.
1. Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye…Cont…

The Lens:
Lens: Transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus
image on the retina.
Accommodation: The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to help
focus near or far objects on the retina.
Nearsightedness: A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly
than distant objects.
Farsightedness: A condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly
than distant objects.

Optic Nerve:
Optic Nerve: A bundle of ganglion axons that carry visual information to the
brain.
1. Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye…Cont…

Color Vision and Color Blindness:

• A person with normal color vision is capable of distinguishing no less

than 7 million different colors.

• In case of color blindness, most

common form is all red and green
objects are seen as yellow.
2. Hearing

• A The location of the outer ears on different sides of the head helps
with sound localization, the process by which we identify the
direction from which a sound is coming.
• The eardrum is the part of the ear that vibrates when sound waves hit
it. The more intense the sound, the more the eardrum vibrates.
• The vibration then transferred into the middle ear, a tiny chamber
containing three bones that transmit vibrations to the oval window, a
thin membrane leading to the inner ear.
• The inner ear is the portion of the ear that changes the sound
vibrations into a form in which they can be transmitted to the brain.
3. Smell

• The human sense of smell permits us to

detect more than 10,000 separate smells.
• The sense of smell is sparked when the
molecules of a substance enter the nasal
passages and meet olfactory cells, the
receptor neurons of the nose.
• More than 1,000 separate types of
receptors have been identified on those
cells.
3. Smell…Cont…

• Each of these receptors is so specialized that it responds only to a

small band of different odors.
• The responses of the separate olfactory cells are then transmitted to
the brain, where they are combined into recognition of a particular
smell.
• Women generally have a better sense of smell than men do.
4. Taste

• The sense of taste involves receptor cells that respond to four basic
stimulus qualities: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

• The receptor cells for taste

are located in roughly 10,000
taste buds, which are
distributed across the tongue
and other parts of the mouth
and throat.

• The taste buds were out and are replaced every 10 days or so.
5. Skin Senses: Touch, Pressure, Temperature, & Pain

• All our skin senses – touch, pressure, temperature, and pain- play a
critical role in survival, making us aware of potential danger to our
bodies.

• The Most of these senses operate

through nerve receptor cells located
at various depths throughout the
skin, distributed unevenly
throughout the body.

• Pain helps us better appreciate pleasurable experiences. It also may

lead us to affiliate more closely with others, by arousing their
empathy.
THANK YOU