€ Dsychology / |» Chapter Two: Sensation and Perception Reshare vy [eo |*) & Document Style Chapter Two: Sensation and Perception @ Upload Tag + Learning Outcomes * Meaning of sensation and perception © Difference and similarities of sensation and perception * Factors affecting sensation and perception * Principles of sensation and perception, and * reasons for sensory and perceptual differences amount individuals * The meanings of sensation and perception * Sensationis > the process whereby stimulation of receptor cells in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and surface of the skin sends nerve impulses to the brain. * Examples: Color, brightness, the pitch of tone or a bitter taste * Sensations the process that detects > the stimulus from one's body or from the environment * The starting of point of sensations is a stimulus ¢ How different is sensation from perception? * Perception is the process that organizes sensations into > meaningful patterns * It is the process whereby the brain interprets sensations, giving them order and meaning* Thus, hearing sounds and seeing colors is largely a sensory process, but forming a melody and detecting patterns and shapes is largely a perceptual process * Prosopagnosia is > the inability to recognize human faces * The sensory laws: Sensory thresholds and sensory adaptation « Sensory threshold © Sensory threshold is the minimum point of intensity a sound can be detected * There are two laws of sensory threshold -> The law of absolute threshold and the law of difference threshold » 1. The absolute threshold * Itis > the minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect © Or limen (a threshold below which a stimulus is not detected or is not distinguished from another) « It's the minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time if the stimulation is presented over and over again * Researchers assume that the detection of a stimulus depends on both its intensity v and the physical v and psychological state of the individual * One of the most important psychological factors is the response bias-how ready the person is to report the presence of a particular stimulus © List of Human Absolute ThresholdsP absolute thresholds Vision A single candle flame from 30 miles /48 km on a clear night Hearing The tick of a watch from 20 feet/6 meter in total quiet Smell One drop of perfume in a 6-room apartment Touch The wing of a bee on the cheek, dropped from 1 cm Taste One teaspoon of sugar in 2 gallons /7.7 liters of water » 2. The difference threshold * Itisdefined as > the minimum amount of change that can be detected * This difference in threshold is called ~> the just noticeable difference (jnd) * The amount of change in intensity of stimulation needed to produce a jnd is a constant fraction of the original stimulus. This became known as Weber's law ¢ Sensory adaptation * Itisdefined as > the tendency of our sensory receptors to have decreasing responsiveness to unchanging stimulus * Perception * It refers to the way sensory information is organized, interpreted ~ , and consciously ¥ experienced * Selectivity of Perception: AttentionAttention is > therefore the term given to the perceptual process that selects certain inputs for inclusion in your conscious experience, or awareness, at any given time, ignoring others The selectivity of perception implies, among other things, that our field of experience is divided into what is known as “Focus ¥ ” and “Margin ¥ Events or stimuli that you perceive clearly are the focus of your experience * Events or stimuli that you perceive dimly or vaguely are in the margin of your attention Attention shifts constantly Paying attention is a function of two factors: factors external to the perceiver and factors internal to the perceiver External Factors Refer to factors that are generally found in the objects or stimuli to be perceived Some of external factors are > size , intensity, repetition, novelty( newness ) and movement External factors detail: * Size and Intensity > bigger and brighter stimuli are more likely to capture your attention than smaller and dimmer objects * Repetition > You are more likely to attend to stimuli that repeatedly or frequently occur in your perceptual field * Novelty > the extent to which a stimulus creates a contrast with the rest objects in the environment * Movement > Moving objects tend to get your attention more than non-moving or stagnant objects * Internal Factors * Refers to - Set or expectancy and motives or needs. * Internal factors detail* Set or expectancy + refers to the idea that you may be “ready” and "Primed for" certain kinds of sensory input * Motives orneeds -> People who are hungry, thirst, or sexually aroused are likely to pay attention to events in the environment, which will satisfy these needs ¢ Form Perception * The meaningful shapes or patterns or ideas that are made perhaps out of > meaningless and discrete or pieces and bites of sensations refer to form perception. * Figure-Ground Perception * To perceive forms (meaningful shapes or patterns), you need to distinguish a > figure (an object) from its ground (or its surrounding) © Pictures (figure v ) hang on a wall (ground), words (figure) are seen on a page (ground v ), and melody (figure v ) stands out from the repetitive chords in the musical background (ground), the pictures, words, and the melody are perceived as the figure, while the wall, the page, and the chords are the ground * The ability to distinguish an object from its general background is basic to all form perception * Gestalt psychologist believes, “There can be a shift in your perception of figure and ground such that the figure may become the ground and vice versa" * How can we separate Figure from the Ground © Their are 2 methods » 1. Contours in Form Perception * Contours are formed whenever > a marked difference occurs in the brightness or color of the background * In general, contours give shape to the objects in our visual world because > they mark one object off from another or they mark an object off from the general ground* When contours are disrupted visually, as in camouflage, objects are difficult to distinguish from the background » 2. Organization in Form Perception * When several objects are presented in the visual field, we tend to > perceive them as organized into patterns or groupings (Gestalt psychologists) © This simply means that what is perceived has its own + new properties, properties that emerge from the organization, which takes place * E.g. Circle made by small dot connected together ¢ Laws of perceptual organization ~ 1. Proximity or Nearness > Things close to one another are grouped together * The laws of proximity says that items which are close together in space or time tend to be perceived as. belonging > together or forming an organized group © 2. Similarity -> Things that are alike are perceived together * Good Figure or Symmetry: This law states that, "There is a tendency to organize things to make balanced or symmetrical figure that includes all parts" ~ 3. Continuation > The tendency to perceive a line that starts in one way as continuing in the same way * Seeing continuity in lines that could be interpreted as either continuous or abruptly shifting in direction 4. Closure > The brain tends to fill in gaps to perceive complete forms ¢ Depth Perception * It is expressed as the ability to judge the distance of objects * For accurate depth perception, we generally need to have binocular( Two-Eyed ) vision * Astimulation caused by Long Distance is called Distal Stimulus * A Pattern of Stimulation on our retinas is called Proximal Stimulus* Our Mind Trusts what we perceive things are( Distal Stimulus ~ ) rather than for what they truly are ( Proximal Stimulus ¥ ) * There are 2 kinds of Binocular cues: Retinal Disparity » and Convergence v * Retinal Disparity -> The degree of difference between the image of an object that are focused on the two retinas * The closer the object, the greater is the retina disparity * Convergence > The degree to which the eyes turn inward to focus on an object * The closer the object, The greater the convergence of the eyes © There are 4 kinds of monocular cues > Accommodation, Motion Parallax, Pictorial cues, Texture Gradient * Accommodation > Change in the shape of the lens that let's you focus on the image of an object on the retina * The greater the Accommodation, the closer the object * Prolonged Accommodation can alter your depth perception * Motion Parallax -> The tendency to perceive ourselves as passing objects faster when they are close to us than far * Pictorial Cues > indicates that parallel objects seem to get closer as they are far apart and vice versa © Texture Gradient + the nearer an object, the more details we can make out and the farther an object, the fewer details we can make out. * The tendency to see familiar objects as having standard shape or size regardless of changes in angle of perspective * This can be divided into 3kinds -> Size, Shape and Brightness ~ 1. SizeConstancy > Says An object image can change based on angle but the object size is always same * Alcohol might affect the Constancy2. Shape Constancy > Says An object image can change based on angle but the object size is always same 3. Brightness Constancy - Even though the brightness on the object may vary, we perceive the object as having constant brightness ¢ Perceptual Illusion * Misapplication of visual cues can produce visual illusion * In general, Perception is the act of knowing through sensation