1. SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Unit 4
Modules 16 & 17 Notes

2. WHAT ARE SENSATION & PERCEPTION?
Definition: Information that we take in through our senses *Comes to us in the form of energy from the environment *encoded as neural signals *known as transduction->
Definition: How we organize, interpret and select

3. BOTTOM UP vs TOP-DOWN PROCESSING
-Driven from data
TOP-DOWN:
-Schema driven (from a previous experience)

4. PROCESSING BOTTOM UP: Based on info from the visual field
TOP DOWN: Based on SET OR EXPECTANCY

5. THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SENSATION
1. ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD Varies by species = what is needed to survive ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD= MINIMUM STIMULATION necessary for awareness 50% of the time. Varies by individual and circumstances Subliminal->
Studies show SUBLIMINAL messages are really NOT out there. We just buy in because we think it is there. 2. DIFFERENCE THRESHOLD (just noticeable different) Our ability to distinguish between two stimuli 50% of the time 3. SENSORY ADAPTATION

6. DEFINITION: HOW WE ORGANIZE, INTERPRET AND SELECT INFORMATION
PERCEPTION
DEFINITION: HOW WE ORGANIZE, INTERPRET AND SELECT INFORMATION

7. CHAPTER SIX: PERCEPTION
Definition: The selection, organization, and interpretation of sensations!

8. SELECTIVE ATTENTION
Selective Attention: the focus of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

9. SELECTIVE ATTENTION CONTINUED…
The most famous example to illustrate selective attention is known as the “cocktail party effect.”

10. COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT …..
You’re at a crowded holiday cocktail party and engaged in conversation about politics. Oh, first a little backstory: For the last week you’ve been thinking of buying the new IPhone. Back at the party, you suddenly realize that the people behind you are talking about IPhones. Involuntarily, your attention shifts to that conversation.

11. SELECTIVE INATTENTION
Inattentional blindness:
Change blindness:

12. INFLUENCES ON PERCEPTION
Perceptual Set: a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. Can affect what we see, hear, taste, etc.
Through experience we form schemas, or concepts, that organize and allow us to interpret unfamiliar information. What you see in the middle is influenced by if you looked at bottom or the top
Schemas : look at info based on memories/experiences

13. INFLUENCES ON PERCEPTION
Context Effects:
Which yellow line is longer?
How did we figure out the
paragraph we read aloud?

14. Is There Extrasensory Perception?
Extrasensory Perception: claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.
Astrological predictions, psychic healing, communication with the dead
Telepathy-
Clairvoyance- perceiving remote events
Precognition-
Psychokinesis- mind over matter
Example- light as a feather stiff as a board
Is it real? Where were psychics on 9/10?