Chapter 4 notes

HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
PPSYCHOLOGYSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
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Chapter 4
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Section 1: Sensation and Perception: The Basics
Section 2: Vision
Section 3: Hearing
Section 4: Other Senses
Section 5: Perception

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Section 1:
Sensation and Perception: The Basics

Section #1 Vocab Terms
 Sensation
 Perception
 Absolute threshold
 Difference threshold
 Signal-detection theory
 Sensory adaptation
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Question: Do sensation and perception
contribute to an understanding of our
environment?
Answer:
YES, SENSATION AND
PERCEPTION CONTRIBUTE
IN MANY WAYS TO AN
UNDERSTANDING OF OUR
ENVIRONMENT.

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 Sensation provides information to the
central nervous system about the
physical environment
 Perception is the process through which
people interpret sensory stimulation

The Basics Sensation
• Process by which our senses gather information and
send it to the brain

Sensation…
• A large amount of information is being sensed at any
one time such as room temperature, brightness of
the lights, someone talking, a distant train, or the
smell of perfume.
• With all this information coming into our senses, the
majority of our world never gets recognized.
• We don't notice radio waves, x-rays, or the
microscopic parasites crawling on our skin.
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PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICEThe Basics Perception
• Interpretation of what we take in
through our senses
• The way we perceive our environment is
what makes us different from other
animals and different from each other.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCV2Ba5wrcs

Sensation & Perception WORK TOGETHER:
1) Sensation occurs:
 a) sensory organs absorb energy from a
physical stimulus in the environment.
 b) sensory receptors convert this energy
into neural impulses and send them to the
brain.
2) Perception follows:
 a) the brain organizes the information and
translates it into something meaningful.

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Absolute Threshold
• The absolute threshold is the point where
something becomes noticeable to our
senses.
• It is the softest sound we can hear or the
slightest touch we can feel.
• Anything less than this goes unnoticed.

Difference Threshold
 The difference threshold is the amount of change
needed for us to recognize that a change has
occurred.
 A just-noticeable difference
EXAMPLE: When we notice the sound of the radio
in the other room, how do we notice when it
becomes louder. It's possible that someone could
be turning it up so slightly that the difference is

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Signal Detection Theory
When we attempt detect what we want to
focus on and ignore or minimize
everything else.
 We focus on what is important to us!
 Examples:
 Miss Bolinsky can hear someone cursing at the other end
of the crowded hallway.
 Mr. Straubel can smell coffee brewing three rooms down
from his.

Sensory Adaptation
 Refers to stimuli which
has become redundant
or remains unchanged
for an extended period
of time.
 Example: Over time
Bolinsky got used to the
loud sound of the
heating and cooling
system. She swore she
couldn’t even hear it
anymore.

Section #2 Vision
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A Journey Through the Human Eye: How We See
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=gvozcv8pS3c
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Question: How does the eye enable vision?
THE EYE AND VISION
 Light enters the eye and then is projected onto a
surface
 The amount of light that enters the eye is determined
by the size of the pupil which adjusts automatically
to the amount of light entering the eye
 Once light enters the eye, it encounters the lens which
adjusts to the distance of objects by changing its
thickness
Section 2: Vision

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Question: How does the eye enable vision?
 These changes project a clear image of the object
onto the retina, which consists of neurons that are
sensitive to the light called photoreceptors
 Once the light hits the photoreceptors, a nerve
carries the visual input into the brain where the
information is relayed to the visual area of the
occipital lobe
Section 2: Vision
THE EYE AND VISION (continued)

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Section 3: Hearing
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http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?
v=2WNrx2jq184

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How the human ear works
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCyz8-
eAs1I
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-c5GpoD8wI

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Question: How does the ear perceive sound?
HOW THE EAR PERCEIVES SOUND
 Sound enters the outer ear and is funneled to the
eardrum
 Inside the middle ear, the hammer, anvil, and stirrup
vibrate, transmitting the sound to the inner ear
 Within the brain, auditory input is projected onto the
hearing areas of the cerebral cortex
Section 3: Hearing

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Five Types of Sensation
Senses
Vision Hearing Smell Touch Taste
Body
Senses

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CHEMICAL, SKIN, AND BODY SENSES
 Smell – allows a person to taste
 Taste – sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness,
and umami (meaty or savory)
 Skin senses of pressure, temperature, and pain
 Vestibular and kinesthetic body senses

The vestibular sense is more commonly known as a
“sense of balance”
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Vestibular body senses
 The vestibular senses (the sensations of body
rotation and of gravitation and movement)
arise in the inner ear; the sense organs are the
hair cells that send out signals over the
auditory nerve.
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Hair cells within the inner ear

Kinesthesis (Kinesthetic Sense)
 Imagine this...you drive into a parking lot,
get out of the car, and start to walk toward
your destination. You decide to cut through
a bunch of parked cars and notice that
some of them are close together, so when
you get to them, you have to turn and
adjust your body in order to get through
the tight spaces.
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Kinesthetic Sense
 The ability to sense body position and the
movement of muscles, tendons, and joints.
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PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICEOptical Illusions
 LAWS OF SENSORY PERCEPTION
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Question: What are the laws of sensory perception?
LAWS OF SENSORY PERCEPTION
 Closure – the tendency to perceive a complete or
whole figure even when there are gaps in what
your senses tell you
 Figure-ground perception – the perception of a
figure against a background
 Proximity – the tendency to group together visual
and auditory events that are near each other

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Laws of Sensory Perception Closure
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Question: What are the laws of sensory perception?
 Similarity – thinking of similar objects as
belonging together
 Continuity – the tendency to group stimuli into
continuous patterns
LAWS OF SENSORY PERCEPTION (continued)

Laws of Sensory Perception Figure-ground Perception
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Laws of Sensory Perception Proximity
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•Are the center circles the same size?

Optical Illusions
 http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?
v=URLRdcnU6Hk
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Test Today!
Sections #1, #2, & #3
You need a pencil
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TED talk
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5otGNbkuc
 Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but
they also spotlight what you can't normally see:
how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look
at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how
evolution tints your perception of what's really
out there.
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Chapter 4 notes

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