SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

DEFINITIONS  Sensation: the process in which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment  Perception: the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

THRESHOLDS  Absolute threshold: the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time  Subliminal: below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness  Difference threshold: the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time  Webster’s Law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)  Sensory adaption: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

VISION  Our eyes receive light energy and transduce it into neural messages that our brain then processes into what we consciously see.  Two physical characteristics of light are the wavelength – the distance from one wave peak to the next and the intensity or brightness/energy of the light waves

THE EYE

VISUAL PROCESSING

HEARING  Our audition or hearing is very adaptive  The physical characteristics of sounds are its frequency of waves and the pitch of the sound

THE EAR

AUDIO PROCESSING

TOUCH  Skin sensations vary into four groups – pressure, warmth, cold, and pain  Kinesthesis: the system for sensing the positions and movement of our individual body parts  Vestibular sense: the sense of body movement and position, including balance 

TASTE  Basic tastes are: sweet, salty, sour, bitter  Sensory interaction includes smell plus texture equals flavor

TASTE ZONES

SMELL

HOW SENSES GO WITH PERCEPTION 

VIDEOS  t=PLBAA093DAADDF09A6&feature=results_main t=PLBAA093DAADDF09A6&feature=results_main  Your senses concluding assumption   Perception explained