INTRODUCTION
TO PSYCHOLOGY
SPRING 2025
Hajrah Rahman
WEEK 5: Sensation and Perception
Remember
…
Sensation
• Activation of the sense organs by a stimulus
Perception
• Interpretation and integration of the stimulus by
our brain and organs
What is a stimulus?
Anything that produces a reaction in our sensory
organs
• i.e. stimulates us
Perceptual Processes
What do you
see?
A rabbit?
A duck?
Reversible Figures
• Images that can have two or more different
interpretations
• These interpretations can shift back and forth
• e.g. the Jastrow rabbit-duck illusion
Perceptual set – your readiness to perceive a stimulus in a
certain way
From individual elements to the whole From the whole to the elements
Driven by only the sensory data Driven by our expectations and
schemas
The McGurk Effect
• [Link]
• Does it sound different if your eyes are closed?
Gestalt Principles
Looking at the whole picture, not its parts
Figure and ground
What do you see?
What is the main
figure? What is the
(back)ground?
Closure
PERCEPTUAL Similarity
ORGANISATION
Proximity
Simplicity
Continuity
The Visual System
The
Eye
What is visible?
The
Eye
The pupil expands to let in The pupil contracts to block
more light out light
e.g. in a dark room e.g. to protect against
strong light
Light passing through the pupil enters the
lens
Accommodation – the process by which
the lens changes its curvature/thickness
to help us focus on certain things
The Eye
How will you see the
candle?
• Light rays reflected from the candle will pass
through the cornea, pupil and lens
• The image is reflected upside down on the retina
• The lens adjusts the focus of the image
• The retina sends the information to the brain
Visual
Acuity
How is your peripheral vision?
Visual acuity is best at
the fovea
• A small spot in the
retina with only cones
Dark adaptation
Becoming sensitive to light when
there is little of it
• e.g. in a dark room
Less light needed to see as time goes
on
Takes about 30 minutes
Light adaptation
Becoming less sensitive to light when
there is a lot
• e.g. heading outside on a bright day
What are the numbers?
How do we see colour?
Colour Vision
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic theory
• Came about in the mid 1800s
• The retina has three types of colour receptors (cones)
sensitive to the colours red, blue and green
• If we see something blue, that cone will be activated and
other cones will show less activity
• Thus, colourblindness = lack of functioning cone
Opponent-process theory
• Proposed by Ewald Hering
• Opposing retinal processes enable us to see colour
Afterimages
Look at the dot in the middle for about a minute and
then look at a white surface
Depth Perception
Our understanding of how near/far objects are
The greater the retinal disparity, the closer the object
Try
It!
Monocular cues
Constancy
Can be for colours, brightness, shapes, sizes etc
Colour constancy
Focus on A and B
What colour are they?
Now what colour are they?
They were always the same colour
Due to relative luminance, B can be perceived as lighter
Visual Illusions
A discrepancy between our perception of the
stimulus and the reality
Which line is longer? Which figure is bigger?
The Ames Room
What does this
say?
Context
Effects
What is above the woman’s head?
What is the family sitting under?
Visual Agnosia
Impaired ability to recognize objects visually
From Oliver Sacks’ account of a client, Dr. P:
• ‘He also appeared to have decided that the examination was
over and started to look around for his hat. He reached out
his hand and took hold of his wife’s head, tried to lift it off,
to put it on. He had apparently mistaken his wife for a hat!
His wife looked as if she was used to such things.’
Prosopagnosia
• An inability to perceive and recognise faces
• ‘Face blindness’
• O.S.: ‘What is this?’
• Dr. P: ‘May I examine it?’
• Dr. P: ‘A continuous surface infolded on itself. It appears to
have…five outpouchings, if this is the word.’
• O.S.: ‘Yes. You have given me a description. Now tell me what
it is.’
• Dr. P: ‘A container of some sort?’
• O.S.: ‘Yes, and what would it contain?’
• Dr. P: ‘It would contain its contents! There are many
possibilities. It could be a change purse, for example, for coins
of five sizes. It could ...’
• O.S.: ‘Does it not look familiar? Do you think it might contain,
might fit, a part of your body?’
No light of recognition dawned on his face
(Paraphrased from Oliver Sacks’ ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’)
The
Object?
Sacks’ gloves
The Auditory System
What is Sound?
The movement of air
molecules by a source of
vibration
How do you measure
sound?
• In decibels
Auditio
n
The
Ear
The Basilar Membrane
• In the inner ear
• Holds auditory receptors (hair cells) which are
stimulated by waves in ear fluid
• Sound waves are converted to neural impulses
• Sent to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe
Theories of Pitch
Place theory
• Perception of pitch depends on the area of the
basilar membrane
• Different areas respond to different frequencies
• Used to explain high-pitched sounds
Frequency theory
• Perception of pitch is from the frequency of the
entire membrane vibrating
• Used to explain low-pitched sounds
The Gustatory System
• Tiny bumps
called papillae
have taste buds
• Taste signals
are sent to the
insular cortex in
the frontal lobe
via the
thalamus
Your
Tastebuds
• Tastes can be
influenced by
other factors like
expectations
• e.g. being told that
something is going
to be spicy or is
expensive
• Genetic makeup
and experience
could also play a
role
• (e.g. eating spicy
food since
childhood)
How sensitive is your
taste?
Depends on the density of your taste buds
• Can be genetic
Are you a:
• Nontaster?
• Medium taster?
• Supertaster?
Who might be most likely to eat sweet and spicy food?
The Olfactory
System
Are we more sensitive to
certain scents?
Remember that odours have
the power to evoke
memories and feelings
Sensory interaction – one
sense can influence another
i.e. tastes influenced by smell
Touc
h
Tactile sensations on the
skin can be:
• Pressure
• Warmth
• Cold
• Pain
Unexpected stimulation has
more somatosensory cortex
activation
• e.g. someone else tickling you
Can you have perception
without sensation?
Extrasensory perception (ESP)
Perception of stimuli without using our known
senses
No scientific evidence
Believers divide it into three areas:
• Telepathy i.e. mind reading
• Clairvoyance i.e. seeing remote events
• Precognition i.e. seeing the future
Bibliography
• Feldman, R. S. (2015). Understanding Psychology. McGraw-Hill.
• Myers, D. G. (1992). Psychology. 3rd Edition. Worth Publishers, Inc.
• Myers, D. G. (2014). Myers’ Psychology for AP® (2nd Edition). Worth Publishers.
• Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Fredrickson, B. L., Loftus, G. R., & Wagenaar, W. A.
(2009). Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology. Cengage Learning
EMEA.
• Sacks, O. (1970). The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat And Other Clinical
Tales.
• Weiten, W. (2022). Psychology : Themes and Variations (11th ed.). Cengage.
• Image from:
[Link]
-kordovan
