Chapter 8:

Sensation and
Perception
Chapter 8: Sensation and Perception
Topics Covered Today - Tuesday December 5

*** Hand Out Chapter 8 Note Packages ***

- Sensation - Helen Keller (Video)

- What is Sensation and Perception?
- Threshold
- Weber’s Law (Video)
- Sensory Adaptation
- Signal-Detection Theory (Video)
- The Stroop Effect - Example
Sensation - Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)
● She had been BLIND and DEAF since she was 2
years old.
● She was described as “wild and unruly”
● At age 6, she began to learn relationships of things
through a teacher fingerspelling into Helens hand.
● “Helen had entered a world of sensations after
she began organizing the stimuli in her world.”

Page 207 of your text package

 What is Sensation and Perception?

● The Goal of Psychophysics is to understand how stimuli from the

world affects the sensory experience.
● Both sensation and perception are necessary to gather and interpret
information in our surroundings.
● A stimulus is defined as any factor that causes change in a sensation.

○ Example: The flip of a switch (stimuli) is causing a change in the sensation of sight. (Your senses
detect the physical change.)

● A Sensation is what occurs when a stimulus activates a receptor.

● Perception is the organization of sensory information into meaningful experiences.

Page 208 of your text package

The Absolute Threshold

● The weakest amount of a stimulus required to produce a response.

● At what point can a person detect this change.
● NOTE: Everyone has a different threshold.

Examples:
Vision: seeing a candle flame 30 miles Taste: tasting 1 teaspoon of sugar
away on a clear night. dissolved in 2 gallons of water.

Hear: hearing a watch ticking 20 feet away. Smell: smelling 1 drop of perfume in a
3-room house.

Feel: feeling a bees wing fall 1cm onto your

cheek.

Page 208-209 of your text package

Weber’s Law

Weber’s law states that the LARGER the stimulus,

the larger the change required for a person to

notice that anything has happened.

● The principle that for any change in a stimulus

to be detected, a constant proportion of that
stimulus must be added or subtracted.

Page 211 of your text package

Sensory Adaptation

Senses are tuned to change!

Senses are most responsive to increases and decreases, and to new events
rather than to ongoing/unchanging stimulation.

Example:
● What happens when you leave a dark movie theatre during the day?
● When its still bright day light outsides, your eyes are sensitive as they are
adjusted to the dark of the movie theatre, so you will be squinting/shielding
your eyes.
Page 211 of your text package
Signal-Detection Theory
● The study of - people’s tendencies to make correct judgments in detecting the
presence of stimuli.

● The Signal-Detection Theory proposes that:

○ A stimulus, or signal, must be detected in the presence of competing stimuli.
○ A signal may be difficult to detect due to competing stimuli.
○ Sensory adaptation allows us to notice differences in sensations and react to changing stimuli.

***Listening for your name to be called in a coffee shop - Video Example Next Slide

Page 212 of your text package

The Stroop Effect
● Preattentive Process - a method for extracting information automatically when
presented with stimuli.
● Attentive Process - a procedure that considers only one part of the stimuli
presented at a time.

We notice some things automatically DESPITE distracting information, and it

requires more careful attention to notice less distinct items.

Volunteer for the next slide - Say the COLOR you see.
Page 213 of your text package
That was easy!

- You extracted the information easily when presented with stimuli.

Preattentive Process

Volunteer for the next slide - Say the COLOR, not the word!

- Now you must consider only one part of the stimuli presented at a time.
Attentive Process
Chapter 8: Sensation and Perception Continued…
Topics Covered Today - Wednesday December 6

- The Senses
- The Body Senses
- Vision (Light, color deficiency, binocular fusion, near/farsightedness)
- Hearing (The pathway of sound, deafness)
- Smell and Taste (Olfactory nerve)
- The Skin Senses (Perceptions of pain)
The Body Senses

The sense of movement and body position is kinesthesis.

● The sensation of kinesthesis comes from receptors in and near the

MUSCLES, TENDONS, and JOINTS, and helps to maintain posture and
balance.

Without kinesthesis sensations, your movements would be jerky and

uncoordinated.

Example: Walking in a dark room

Page 222 of your text package
Turn and Talk in your table groups
● What are the 5 senses?

● What do you know about the senses?

● If you had to get rid of one sense which would it be and why?
Vision
Vision is the MOST studied of all the senses.

How does vision occur?

● Light enters through the PUPIL and reaches the LENS (which is a flexible
structure) that focuses light on the RETINA.
○ The retina contains 2 types of photoreceptors calls the RODS and CONES.
● The RODS and CONES then turn the light into neural impulses which travel to
the OPTIC NERVE to the brain.

Page 215-217 of your text package

Vision - Color Deficiency

● When some/or all of a person’s CONES do not function properly.

● Most color deficient people DO see SOME colors.
● One common color-deficiency issues is for those who have trouble
distinguishing between red and green.
● Color deficiency affects about 8% of men and less than 1% of
women.
● It is a hereditary condition.

Page 216 of your text package

 Vision - Binocular Fusion
The visual stream of our two eyes (located about 2.5 inches apart) receives two
images… but we do not see double - we see one single image.

● The combination of the two images into one is called BINOCULAR FUSION

Nearsightedness and Farsightedness

Some of us are born with perfect shaped eyeballs - they have almost perfect vision.

- Long eyeballs = nearsighted (far objects appear blurry)

- Short eyeballs = farsighted (near objects appear blurry)

Page 216 of your text package

Vision - Blind Spot (Page 216) Let’s Try!
● Hold the diagram about 3-4 inches away from your eyes.

● Shut your RIGHT eye and look directly at the with your LEFT eye.
● Bringing the diagram slowly toward your face, the will disappear and then
reappear.
Hearing
● Hearing depends on vibrations of the air, called SOUND WAVES.
● These sound waves pass through various bones until they reach
the inner ear.
● The hair cells in the ear change sound vibrations into neural
signals that travel through the AUDITORY NERVE to the brain.
● LOUDNESS - determined by the amplitude/height of sound waves.
● Sound is measured in DECIBELS
○ Humans hear from 0-140 decibels
○ Anything over 85 decibels is harmful and WILL damage hearing.

Page 218 of your text package

 Hearing - The Pathway of Sounds
The ear is designed to capture sound waves.

● The outer ear receives the sound waves.

● The earflap directs the sounds down a short tube called the auditory canal.
● The middle ear is an air filled cavity with 3 tiny bones.
● These bones are linked to the eardrum and cochlea - vibrate with sound waves.
● The cochlea makes up the inner ear which contains fluids and neurons.
● The hair inside the cochlea pick up motion -> the sensory cells turn the sound
to neural impulses -> the auditory nerve carries these to the brain -> and this
input goes to the hearing area of the cerebral cortex.

Page 219 of your text package

 Hearing - Deafness
There are 2 types of deafness: Conduction deafness and Sensorineural deafness.

● Conduction Deafness - occurs when anything hinders physical motion through

the outer or middle ear (Cannot carry sound waves).
○ Often can be helped with a hearing aid.

● Sensorineural Deafness - occurs from damage to the cochlea, the hair cells, or
auditory neurons.
○ May be able to be helped with a cochlear implant.
Smell and Taste

Smell and Taste are known as the chemical senses because their receptors are
sensitive to chemical molecules rather than to light energy or sound waves.

● Smell receptors send messages about smells through the OLFACTORY

NERVE to the brain.
● Taste receptors in your taste buds is relayed to the brain along with data
about texture and temperature.

Page 220 of your text package

Taste - Four Primary Sensory Experiences

● Sour, Salty, Bitter, and Sweet.

● Research suggests that a person can detect flavors anywhere
on the tongue using their taste buds.
● What people taste is greatly affected by their sense of smell.
● Taste is affected by the sensations of warmth, cold, and
pressure.
○ Ex. a cold glass of water tastes different than hot water.
 The Skin Senses
● Receptors in the skin provide the brain with information regarding:
○ Pressure, warmth, cold, and pain.
● Sensitivity varies depending on the placement on the skin.
○ Example: Your fingertips are populated with receptors therefore it will be highly sensitive.
■ Other spots on your skin like the back of your calf contain few receptors.
● Many kinds of stimuli like scratches, punctures, pressure, heat, and cold can
produce pain.

Skin - Perceptions of Pain

There are two types of pain sensation:
● Sharp/localized pain - you may feel this immediately after injury
● Dull/generalized pain - you may feel after.
Page 221 of your text package
While Watching the Video - Exit Slip
● What are some ways people RESPOND or DISTRACT to pain? (2 marks)

● What is PAIN? (1 mark)

Chapter 8: Sensation and Perception Continued…
Topics Covered Today - Thursday December 7

- Perception (Video)
- Principles of Perceptual Organization
- Gestalt Patterns
- Figure-Ground Perception
- Perceptual Inference
- Learning to Perceive (Subliminal Messages Video)
- Depth Perception
- Constancy
Perception
Perception allows us to confront changes in our environment.

● We do not just have sensory experiences - we perceive objects.

● Our brains receive information from the 5 senses, and ORGANIZES and
INTERPRETS it into meaningful experiences (unconsciously).

Page 223 of your text package

Principles of Perceptual Organization
The brain makes sense of the world by creating whole structures out of bits and
pieces of information in the environment.
V

V
V
V V We see a star
instead of 5 V’s

Page 224 of your text package

Gestalt Principles

The experience that comes from organizing bits and pieces of information into
meaningful wholes.

● Gestalt - Meaning “pattern” or “configuration”

Gestalt principles helps us explain how we group our sensations and fill in gaps
to make sense of our world.

● Example - In music, you tend to group notes based on their closeness to each
other in time - so you hear melodies, not single notes.

Page 224 of your text package

Figure-Ground Perception

Figure-Ground Perception is the ability to

distinguish properly between a figure

and its background.

● When you distinguish an airplane from the sky in which it’s flying, you

are using FIGURE-GROUND perception.

Page 225 of your text package

 Perceptual Inference

When our brains “fill in the gaps” on what is missing from sensory stimuli.

● Example: You hear a dog barking, and you can infer that it is a dog and not a
cat.

This often depends on experience.

● Automatic and unconscious.

Because we have encountered this

stimuli and objects in the past before.

Page 225 of your text package

 Learning to Perceive
Perception is influenced by our collection of:

- BELIEFS, EXPECTATIONS,and NEEDS.

Perceiving is something we LEARN to do.

● Example - babies learning to smile

○ Under 1 month - smile at a nodding object the size of a human face
○ At 20 weeks - smile at a drawing of a face or a mask
○ 28 weeks + - More likely to smile at a human face VS. a male face
○ By 30 weeks - smile at familiar faces
○ Note: It takes infants about 7-8 months to recognize different people

Page 226 of your text package

Start at 2:00 Minutes
Subliminal Perception

Subliminal Messages - Brief auditory or visual messages presented BELOW the

absolute threshold so there is less than a 50% chance that they will be perceived.

● In 1974 - the FCC (Federal Communication Commision) banned subliminal

advertising.

Page 226-227 of your text package

What are your thoughts on Subliminal Messages?

Do we think this happens?

What messages did you notice the host put in the video?
Depth Perception
The ability to recognize distances and three dimensionality.

● This develops during infancy.

The visual cliff.

Constancy

The tendency to perceive certain objects in the same way regardless of

changing angle, distance, or lighting.

● Size constancy - perceiving an object as the same size weather it is far or

near.
○ Example: As your friend walks towards you down the hallway, they do not seem to change in
size.
● Their appearance will stay the same size because even though the size of
your visual image is increasing - distance is decreasing.

Page 229 of your text package

Shape Constancy - refers to the ability to perceive objects as having a
constant shape despite receiving different sensory images.

This helps us see the door as a rectangle as it opens - because of this, we may
think the red outlines are also rectangle.
Chapter 8: Sensation and Perception Continued…
Topics Covered Today - Friday December 8

- Illusions

- Rubrics and Project Guidelines/Instructions

- Lottery Style Draw for Final Projects (Work Periods and Prentation days next
week)
 Page 229-230 of your text package

Illusions
● Illusions are INCORRECT perceptions.
● They are created when perceptual cues are distorted so that our brains can
not correctly interpret space, size, and depth cues.
Final Project Time!!!

PROS CONS

Group project - less work for you Present in front of the class

Lots of in class work periods (at least 3)

You can (basically) pick your topic

Overall Instructions
● Decide which project you would prefer to do together in your table groups
Either Ch. 6. 7. Or 8
● I will do a lottery style system to pick which group will decide their topic first.

● Create a shared Google Slides document (Or Canva, etc).

● In your groups, assign jobs/parts to each person.
● Follow the guidelines on your instruction/rubric paper.