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SENSATION

SENSATION. Jayme Shadowens. Senses = filters Process incoming information Physical stimulation into neural impulses that give us sensations

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SENSATION

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  1. SENSATION Jayme Shadowens

  2. Senses = filters • Process incoming information • Physical stimulation into neural impulses that give us sensations • Sensation: the process by which stimulation of a sensory receptor produces neural impulses that the brain interprets as a sound, a visual image, an odor, a taste, a pain, or other sensory image • Perception: a mental process that elaborates and assigns meaning to the incoming sensory patterns • Perception creates an interpretation of sensation

  3. Purpose of sensation • Aid survival • Directing towards stimuli (food, mates, shelter, friends) • Find pleasure in music, art, athletics, food, sex • Sensory receptors convert stimuli from outside world into neural signals that we can comprehend

  4. TRANSDUCTION • Transduction: transformation of one form of energy into another—especially the transformation of stimulus information into nerve signals by the sense organs • Step One: detection by sensory neuron of the physical stimulus • Step Two: when the appropriate stimulus reaches a sense organ, it activates specialized neurons called receptors • Step Three: receptors convert their excitation into a nerve signal • Step Four: neural signal follows sensory pathway by the way of the thalamus to brain • Step Five: brain extracts information about the basic qualities of the stimulus

  5. SENSORY ADAPTATION • Sensory adaptation: loss of responsiveness in receptor cells after stimulation has remained unchanged for a while • Unless it is intense or painful, stimulation that persists without changing in intensity for some other quality usually shifts into the background of our awareness A swimmer becomes adapted to the temperature of water You don’t continually notice the feel of the shoes on your feet

  6. THRESHOLDS • Absolute threshold: the amount of stimulation necessary for a stimulus to be detected. • Presence or absence of a stimulus is detected ½ the time over many trials • Difference threshold: the smallest amount by which a stimulus can be changed • Difference can be detected ½ the time • Just noticeable difference (JND)

  7. Size of JND proportional to the intensity of the stimulus • Weber’s Law

  8. Fechner’s Law • Relationship between perceived magnitude and actual magnitude of stimulus • S = k log R (s = sensation, R = stimulus, k = a constant that differs for each sensory modality) • An increase in the physical magnitude progressively produces smaller increases in perceived magnitude

  9. Steven’s power law • More accurate than Fechner’s law • Covers wider variety of stimuli

  10. SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY • Classical theory of thresholds ignored the effects of the perceiver’s physical condition, judgments or biases • Signal Detection Theory • Explains how we detect signals • Sensation depends on the characteristics of the stimulus, the background stimulation, and the detector • Sensation is a judgment the sensory system makes about incoming stimulation The judgment a person makes about a sound they hear in the middle of the night all depends on their keenness of their hearing and what they expect to hear (mental state).

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