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Chapter 5 Introduction to Sensation. Sensation: your window to the world Perception: interpreting what comes in your window. Sensation. The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment. Perception.
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Chapter 5 Introduction to Sensation Sensation: your window to the world Perception: interpreting what comes in your window.
Sensation • The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment.
Perception • The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
Bottom-Up processing v. Top-down Processing • Our sensory and perceptual processes work together to help us sort out complex processes
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What if we could sense everything? Life would hurt. So we can only take in a window of what is out there. This is the study of psychophysics: relationship between physical stimuli and our psychological experiences to them.
Absolute Threshold • The minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
Signal Detection Theory • Predicts how we detect a stimulus amid other stimuli. • Assumes that we do not have an absolute threshold. • We detect stuff based on our experiences, motivations and fatigue level. Signal Detection Theory
Subliminal Stimulation • Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness. Does this work? • Yes and No • Slide studies showed some emotional reactivity (called priming a response). • The effects are subtle and fleeting.
Difference Threshold • The minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli. • Also known as Just Noticeable Difference
Weber’s Law • The idea that, to perceive a difference between two stimuli, they must differ by a constant percentage; not a constant amount.
Sensory Adaptation • Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation. Because our sensory neurons fire less frequently
How is this important when studying sensation? Transduction Stimulus energies to neural impulses. For example: Light energy to vision. Chemical energy to smell and taste. Sound waves to sound. Conversion of one form of energy to another.