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Presentations for

Seventh Edition

Philip G. Zimbardo
Robert L. Johnson
Vivian McCann
Prepared by
Beth M. Schwartz
Randolph College
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 Chapter 3

Sensation & Perception

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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

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How Does Stimulation
Become Sensation?

The brain senses the world

indirectly because the sense
organs convert stimulation
into the language of the
nervous system: neural
messages.

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Transduction
Transduction
Converts a form of physical energy into the
form of neural messages
Sensory Receptors
Specialized neurons that are activated by
stimulation and transduce (convert) the
incoming stimulus into electrochemical
signals

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Stimulation Becomes Perception
Figure 3.1 Stimulation Becomes Perception
For visual stimulation to become meaningful perception, it must undergo several transformations. First, physical
stimulation (light waves from the butterfly) is transduced by the eye, where information about the wavelength
and intensity of the light is coded into neural signals. Second, the neural messages travel to the sensory cortex of
the brain, where they become sensations of color, brightness, form, and movement. Finally, the process of
perception interprets these sensations by making connections with memories, expectations, emotions, and
motives in other parts of the brain. Similar processes operate on the information taken in by the other senses.

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Transduction

Sensory Pathway
Bundles of neurons that carry information
from the sense organs to the brain

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Thresholds
Absolute Threshold
Amount of stimulation necessary for a
stimulus to be detected
Difference Threshold
Smallest amount by which a stimulus can
be changed and the difference be detected
(also called just noticeable difference: JND)

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Approximate Sensory Thresholds of
Five Senses

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Thresholds

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.

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Signal Detection Theory
Sensation depends on the characteristics of
the stimulus, the background information,
and the detector.
Stimulus event

Neural activity

Comparison with
personal standard

Action (or no action)

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How Are the Senses Alike?
How Are They Different?

The senses all operate in

much the same way, but each
extracts different information
and sends it to its own
specialized processing
region in the brain.

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Fundamental Features of the Human
Senses

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Fundamental Features of the Human
Senses

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The Anatomy of Visual
Sensation

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Transduction of Light in the Retina

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How Visual Stimulation Goes from the
Eyes to the Brain

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How the Visual System Creates
Color and Brightness

Intensity
Wavelength
(amplitude)

Color Brightness

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How the Visual System Creates Color

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

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The Light Stimulus

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How the Visual System Creates Color

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

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Afterimages

Afterimages
Sensations that linger after the stimulus is
removed

In the following slide, fix your eyes on the

dot in the center of the flag.

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How the Visual System Creates Color

Color Blindness
Vision disorder that prevents an individual
from discriminating certain colors

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Ishihara Color Blindness Test

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Sound Waves

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How We Hear Sound Waves

Cochlea

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Auditory Stimulation Becomes
Sensation

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Psychological Qualities of Sounds
Pitch
Sensory characteristic of sound produced
by the frequency of the sound wave
Loudness
Sensory characteristic of sound produced
by the amplitude (intensity) of the sound
wave
Timbre
Quality of a sound wave that derives from
the waves complexity
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 el Levels
ferent
ds

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Position and Movement

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

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Smell
Olfaction
Sense of smell
Olfactory Bulbs
Brain sites of olfactory processing
Pheromones
Chemical signals released by organisms to
communicate with other members of the
species

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Receptors for Smell

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Receptors for Taste

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The Skin Senses

The skin protects against surface injury,

holds in bodily fluid, and helps regulate
body temperature.
Touch
Warmth
Cold
Texture
Pain

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Pain
Arises from intense stimulations
Nociceptors (nerve cells) sense
painful/unpleasant stimuli.
affected by mood and expectation
Phantom Limb
An amputee feels sensations coming from
missing the body part due to the brain
generating sensation.
Gate Control Theory
Explains pain control
Involves special interneurons that open or close
the pain pathway running up the spinal cord
toward the brain
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Dealing with Pain

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

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What is the Relationship
Between Perception
and Sensation?

Perception brings meaning

to sensation; therefore
perception produces an
interpretation of the external
world, not a perfect
representation of it.

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 What is the Relationship
Between Perception
and Sensation?

Percept
Meaningful product of a perception

Pathways in the Brain

What pathway: temporal lobe
Where pathway: parietal lobe

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The Machinery of Perceptual Processing

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

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Two Complementary Processes

Bottom-Up Processing
Analysis that emphasizes characteristics of
the stimulus
Top-Down Processing
Emphasizes the perceivers expectations,
memories, and other cognitive factors

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Perceptual Constancies

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

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Shape Constancy

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Perceptual Ambiguity and Distortion
Illusions
Demonstrably incorrect experience of a
stimulus pattern; shared by others in the
same perceptual environment
Ambiguous Figures
Images that allow for more than one
interpretation

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What Is Depicted Here?

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Perceptual Illusions

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Perceptual Illusions

The Herman Grid

Do you see small gray squares between the black squares?

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Six Illusions to Tease Your Brain

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Theoretical Explanations
for Perception
Gestalt Psychology
States that much of perception is shaped by
innate factors built into the brain
Figure
Part of a pattern that commands attention
Ground
Part of a pattern that does not command
attention; the background

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The Gestalt Laws of
Perceptual Grouping
Similarity

Proximity

Continuity

Common fate

Prgnanz

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 Gestalt Laws of
Perceptual Grouping

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Law of Prgnanz

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The Gestalt Approach

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

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Subjective Contours & Closure

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Theoretical Explanations for Perception

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

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Cultural Influences on Perception

Which box is bigger, A or B?

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Depth Perception

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
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