1. Unit 4: Sensation, Perception and States of Consciousness
JHS AP Psychology
Unit 4: Sensation, Perception and States of Consciousness
Essential Task 4-6: Discuss how experience, context and culture can influence perceptual processes with specific attention to perceptual set, illusions, change blindness, and selective attention.
Logo Green is R=8 G=138 B= Blue is R= 0 G=110 B=184
Border Grey is R=74 G=69 B=64

2. Perceptual Constancies
Sensation
Vision
The Eye
Theories
Hearing
The Ear
Other Senses
Smell
Taste
Pain
Gestalt Principles
Perceptual Constancies
Perception
Basic Principles
Visual Illusions
Depth Perception
We are here

3. States of Consciousness
Altered States of Consciousness
Waking Consciousness
Daydreaming and Fantasy
Sleep
Circadian Rhythm
Stages/REM
Dreams
Disorders
Drug-Altered Consciousness
Depressants
Hallucinogens
Stimulants
Hypnosis
Hidden Observer
Actor
Meditation
Substance Abuse

4. Essential Task 4-: Influences on perception Subliminal messages?
Outline
Influences on perception
Subliminal messages?
perceptual set
illusions
Inattention blindness
change blindness

5. What do we perceive then?
Subliminal Threshold
Outline
Subliminal Threshold: When energy of the stimulus is below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
What do we perceive then?

6. Subliminal Perception Sensation without perception?
Outline
Subliminal = stimuli that sensory system responds to, but due to short duration or subtle form, don’t reach threshold of cognition
Quick Survey
Do you think you are influenced by subliminal messages in advertising?
Do you think you are influenced by everyday advertisements that you perceive consciously (e.g. laundry detergent, beverages)?

7. Could 1/30th of a second really influence impressions of Al Gore?
…You Decide
Could 1/30th of a second really influence impressions of Al Gore?
Outline

8. Could 1/30th of a second really influence impressions of Al Gore?
…You Decide
Could 1/30th of a second really influence impressions of Al Gore?
Outline

9. We are not obedient to Subliminal Messages
Outline
Research shows that the effect only occurs in controlled laboratory studies for a short time. When flashed words to elicit these moods we see slightly:
More competitive participants
More critical participants
More supportive
Research outside the laboratory shows no significant effect of subliminal information
We don’t blindly obey!
Placebo Effect with subliminal self help tapes

10. Outline

11. Vicary’s Study New Jersey, 1957:
Over 6 weeks, 45,699 people see subliminal ads
“Eat Popcorn” – sales up 57.5%
“Drink Coke” – sales up18.1%
“Minds have been broken and entered”
Outline

12. Except . . . . The Vicary “Eat Popcorn/Drink Coke” Study well. . . .
Outline
The Vicary “Eat Popcorn/Drink Coke” Study well
In a 1962 interview, Vicary admitted that he had made the whole thing up!

13. Alleged types of subliminal presentation
Outline
Flashing it on the screen so quickly you can not perceive it but you still see it. Below the sensory perception threshold.
Playing it backwards
Embedding it into another image.
Playing it at a low-volume masked over by other music or sounds.

14. Maybe Backmasking works?
Outline
A recording studio technique where backward messages are deliberately superimposed on the soundtrack
The fear “Human brains are capable of receiving, scanning, deciphering, storing and later reacting to subliminal or subconscious messages”

15. Another One Bites the Dust
Outline
Forward
Reverse
"It's fun to smoke marijuana"

16. Stairway to Heaven Forward Reverse
Outline
Forward
Reverse
""Glory glory to my sweet Satan, there was a little child born, it makes me sad, whose power is Satan"

17. The most famous backmasking ever?
Outline
Forward
Reverse
Message - "Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him, MISS HIM" The Beatles have vehemently denied this. Still fans of every generation have listened to this message and heard the same words.

18. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Outline
Forward
Reverse
"I wish there were no Allah."

19. Pokemon Rap Forward Reverse
Outline
Forward
Reverse
"I love satan, love satan. I love satan, love satan."

20. Maybe Subliminal Embeds?
Outline
In the 1970s, Wilson Bryan Key wrote such books as Subliminal Seduction and Media Sexploitation in which he claimed subliminal sexual symbols or objects are often used to entice consumers to buy and use various products and services. One of Key’s most famous claims is that the word sex was often embedded in products and advertisements.

21. Subliminal Embeds -

22. Not the last of it… Sexual imagery in ads?
Outline
Sexual imagery in ads?
Wilson Bryan Key: “sex” in ice cubes, nude figures in images from butter to icing in cake mix ads.
Even if images aren’t consciously perceived, they put us in good mood and pay more attention to ad

23. Outline

29. Outline

30. Outline

31. Outline

35. Why? Perceptual Set!!!
Outline
Perceptual set is a bias or readiness to perceive certain aspects of available sensory data and to ignore others.
Listeners “hear” diabolical messages in rock music because they are prepared to “discover” certain messages, and therefore they do. Vokey and Read 1985

36. This is not to say that sex isn’t used in ads.
Outline
It is used harmfully and ubiquitously.
We swim in a toxic media environment that perpetuates some of the worst messages of our society.

37. Cintia Dicker – 1986 25 year old swimsuit model with breast implants
In February 2006, American Eagle launched the aerie intimates sub-brand, targeting the American15–21 year old female demographic segment.

38. Product Placement = Not subliminal!
Outline

39. Product Placement
Outline

40. Product Placement
Outline

41. Perceptual Set Activity

42. Group A
Outline
You are going to look briefly at a picture and then answer some questions about it. The picture is a rough sketch of a poster for a costume ball. Do not dwell on the picture. Look at it only long enough to “take it all in” once. After this, you will answer YES or NO to a series of questions.

43. Group B
Outline
You are going to look briefly at a picture and then answer some questions about it. The picture is a rough sketch of a poster for a trained seal act. Do not dwell on the picture. Look at it only long enough to “take it all in” once. After this, you will answer YES or NO to a series of questions.

44. Picture
Outline

45. In the picture was there . .
Outline
A car?
A man?
A woman?
A child?
An animal?
A whip?
A sword?
A man’s hat?
A ball?
A fish?

46. Conclusion
Outline
Top Down processing – you go beyond the sensory information to try to make meaning out of ambiguity in your world
What you expect (your experiences and your perceptual set) drives this process
Today we will see what expectations we all have in common.

47. The first step in Perception is Attention
Outline
We sense 11,000,000 bits of information per second.
We consciously only process about 40 bits (Wilson 2002).
The process by which we attend to these bits is called selective attention
Selective Attention can miss things!
(Click here)

48. Inattentional Blindness
Outline
Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris (1999)
Participants told to count how many times the black jersey team passes the ball
50+% of the participants completely missed the gorrilla

49. Change Blindness
Outline
We are blind to changes in our environment.

50. Extrasensory Perception
Refers to extraordinary perception such as
Clairvoyance – awareness of an unknown object or event
Telepathy – knowledge of someone else’s thoughts or feelings
Precognition – foreknowledge of future events
Research has been unable to conclusively demonstrate the existence of ESP

51. Ganzfeld Procedure Bem & Honorton, 1994
All sensory information reduced
“receiver” in reclining chair in sound proof chamber with ping-pong balls, red light, earphones, white noise
In Separate room, “sender” concentrates on visual stimuli
32% hit rate better than chance
Has not been replicated
Experimentation has not yet given
scientific support