1. Essentials of Understanding Psychology
9th Edition
By Robert Feldman
PowerPoints by Kimberly Foreman
Revised for 9th Ed by Cathleen Hunt
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2. Chapter 3: Sensation and Perception
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3. MODULE 8: Sensing the World Around Us
What is sensation, and how do psychologists study it?
What is the relationship between a physical stimulus and the kinds of sensory responses that result from it?
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4. MODULE 8: Sensing the World Around Us
Sensation
Activation of the sense organs by a source of physical energy
Perception
Sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimuli carried out by the sense organs and brain
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5. MODULE 8: Sensing the World Around Us
Stimulus
Any passing source of physical energy that produces a response in a sense organ
Psychophysics
Study of the relationship between the physical aspects of stimuli and our psychological experience of them
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6. Absolute Thresholds: Detecting What’s Out There
Smallest intensity of a stimulus that must be present for it to be detected
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7. Difference Thresholds: Noticing Distinctions Between Stimuli
Smallest level of added (or reduced) stimulation required to sense that a change in stimulation has occurred
Just noticeable difference
Weber’s law
Just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the intensity of an initial stimulus
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8. Sensory Adaptation: Turning Down Our Responses
An adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to unchanging stimuli
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9. MODULE 9: Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye
What basic processes underlie the sense of vision?
How do we see colors?
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10. Basic Cells of the Eye
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11. Illuminating the Structure of the Eye
Cornea
Protects eye and refracts light
Pupil
Opening depends on amount of light in environment
Iris
Colored part of eye
Lens
Accommodation
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12. Illuminating the Structure of the Eye
Reaching the Retina
Light is converted to electrical impulses for transmission to the brain
Rods
Receptor cells sensitive to light
Cones
Cone-shaped; responsible for sharp focus and color perception
Concentrated in the fovea
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13. Illuminating the Structure of the Eye
Sending the Message from the Eye to the Brain
Optic nerve
Ganglion cells
Blind spot
Optic chiasm
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14. Illuminating the Structure of the Eye
Processing the Visual Message
Takes place in the visual cortex of the brain
Feature detection
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15. Color Vision and Color Blindness: The Seven-Million-Color Spectrum
Explaining Color Vision
Trichromatic theory of color vision
Suggests that there are three kinds of cones in the retina
Blue-violet colors
Green colors
Yellow-red colors
Not successful at explaining afterimages
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16. Color Vision and Color Blindness: The Seven-Million-Color Spectrum
Opponent-process theory of color vision
Receptor cells are linked in pairs, working in opposition to each other
Blue-yellow
Red-green
Black-white
Explains afterimages
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17. MODULE 10: Hearing and the Other Senses
What role does the ear play in the senses of sound, motion, and balance?
How do smell and taste function?
What are the skin senses, and how do they relate to the experience of pain?
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The Ear
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Sensing Sound
Sound
Movement of air molecules brought about by a source of vibration
Eardrum
Vibrates when sound waves hit it
Middle ear
Hammer, anvil, stirrup
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Sensing Sound
Inner Ear
Changes sound vibrations into a form in which they can be transmitted to the brain
Cochlea
Filled with fluid and vibrates in response to sound
Basilar membrane
Dividing cochlea into an upper chamber and lower chamber
Covered with hair cells
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Sensing Sound
The Physical Aspects of Sound
Frequency
Number of wave cycles that occur in a second
Pitch
Amplitude
Spread between the up-and-down peaks and valleys of air pressure in a sound wave as it travels through the air
Decibels
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Sensing Sound
Sorting Out Theories of Sound
Place Theory of Hearing
States that different areas of the basilar membrane respond to different frequencies
Frequency Theory of Hearing
Suggests that the entire basilar membrane acts like a microphone, vibrating as a whole in response to a sound
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23. Sensing Sound Balance: The Ups and Downs of Life
Vestibular System
Semicircular canals
Main structure of vestibular system
Three tubes containing fluid that sloshes through them when the head moves, signaling rotational or angular movement to the brain
Otoliths
Sense forward, backward, or up-and-down motion, as well as the pull of gravity
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Smell
Olfaction
Sense of smell is sparked when the molecules of a substance enter the nasal passages
Olfactory cells
Pheromones
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Taste
Gustation
Taste qualities
Sweet
Sour
Salty
Bitter
“Umami”
Taste Buds
Supertasters
Nontasters
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26. The Skin Senses: Touch, Pressure, Temperature, and Pain
Substance P
Gate-control Theory of Pain
Particular nerve receptors in the spinal cord lead to specific areas of the brain related to pain
Acupuncture
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Managing Pain
Medication
Nerve and brain stimulation
Light therapy
Hypnosis
Biofeedback and relaxation techniques
Surgery
Cognitive restructuring
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28. How Our Senses Interact
Synesthesia
Multimodal perception
Brain collects the information from the individual sensory systems and integrates and coordinates it
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29. MODULE 11: Perceptual Organization: Constructing Our View of the World
What principles underlie our organization of the visual world and allow us to make sense of our environment?
How are we able to perceive the world in three dimensions when our retinas are capable of sensing only two-dimensional images?
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30. MODULE 11: Perceptual Organization: Constructing Our View of the World
What clues do visual illusions give us about our understanding of general perceptual mechanisms?
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32. The Gestalt Laws of Organization
Series of principles that focus on the ways we organize bits and pieces of information into meaningful wholes
gestalts
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33. Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processing
Top-Down Processing
Perception is guided by higher-level knowledge, experience, expectations, and motivations
Bottom-Up Processing
Consists of the progression of recognizing and processing information from individual components of a stimulus and moving to the perception of the whole
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Top-Down Processing
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Depth Perception
Ability to view the world in three dimensions and to perceive distance
Largely due to the fact that we have two eyes
Binocular disparity
Monocular cues
Motion parallax
Relative size
Texture gradient
Linear perspective
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Perceptual Constancy
Phenomenon in which physical objects are perceived as unvarying and consistent despite changes in their appearance or in the physical environment
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37. Motion Perception: As the World Turns
Cues about perception of motion
The movement of an object across the retina is typically perceived relative to some stable, unmoving background
Movement of images across the retina
We factor in information about our own head and eye movements, along with information about changes in the retinal image
Apparent movement
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38. Perceptual Illusions: The Deceptions of Perceptions
Visual Illusions
Physical stimuli that consistently produce errors in perception
Muller-Lyer illusion
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39. Culture and Perception
Cultural differences are reflected in depth perception
Zulu vs. Westerner perspectives
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40. Subliminal Perception
Perception of messages about which we have no awareness
Called priming
Written word
Sound
Smell
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41. Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
Perception that does not involve our known senses
Most psychologists reject the existence of ESP, asserting that there is no sound documentation of the phenomenon
Psychological Bulletin
“Anomalous process of information transfer” or psi
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