Chapter 4

Sensation and Perception

(S&P)

Dr. Kina
3 Very Broad Learning Objectives

Understand and distinguish between sensation

and perception

Understand the five senses in terms of

sensation and perception

Understand perception
Outline

1. Sensation and Perception

2. Auditory System

3. Gustatory System

4. Olfactory System

5. Tactile System

6. Vision System

7. Perception
Sensation and Perception
The dress
Sensation?
Perception?
• Sensation:
• Detection of stimuli (physical),
goes to brain

• Perception:
• Interpretation of sensory input
 Bottom-up Processing
•Basically, start with the individual elements
that make up an object, put them together,
and interpret as whole
 Top-down Processing
• Interpret sensory information with existing
knowledge, expectations, experience
 Sensory Processes
• Transduction
• Process whereby the
sensory info is
converted to neural
signals for the brain to
interpret
Sensory Processes
 Detection
• Stimulus:
• Any detectable input from the
environment

Sensory thresholds like….

• Absolute Threshold:
• The minimum amount of stimulation that
can be detected, 50% of the time

• Difference threshold:
• The minimum amount of change
required to detect a difference
between two stimuli

• Weber's Law
 Sensory Adaptation
• Sensory Adaption:
• A decline in sensitivity due to constant stimulation
The Auditory System
Sense of Hearing
 Sound as a Stimulus

• Sound waves are vibrations of molecules that

travel through a medium, such as air
 Amplitude
• Sounds can be described in amplitude
•Measured in decibels (dB)
 Frequency
• Sounds can be described in terms of their
frequency, which is measured in cycles per second
or hertz (Hz)
• Pitch depends on frequency
• 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz
Spectrograms

Frequency

Time Time
20Hz to 20kHz (Human Audio Spectrum)
Transduction
Vestibular system
• Sensory system that helps with balance
Encoding pitch
• Temporal Coding: Encodes frequency based on the timing of
neural firing, suitable for lower frequencies

• Place Coding: Encodes frequency based on the location of

maximal vibration on the basilar membrane, suitable for a
broader range
•Function: bypass damaged hair
cells to directly stimulate the
auditory nerve, providing sound
perception but eliminating
residual hearing in the
implanted ear

•Cultural Concerns: some view

implants as a threat to deaf
culture and identity, reflecting
audist (audism) attitudes,
though perspectives are
evolving
The loneliest whale in the world
 Animals and
hearing
• What do animals use sound
for?

• Signal – message from

signaler to receiver
• Signaler – one who sends a
message
• Receiver – one who receives a
message
• Cue – unintended message,
eavesdropping

• What about echolocation?

Here's What Bat Echolocation Sounds Like,
Slowed Down
How do dolphins use echolocation to
navigate the deep seas?
• What are the primary auditory receptors?
The Gustatory System
Sense of Taste
 The Gustatory System
• The gustatory system: sensory system for taste
• Gustatory receptors are clusters of taste cells found in
the taste buds
• Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami
 • 100,000 taste buds (up to 700,000!)
Catfish • Located in mouth, lips…all over
body

• Used for finding prey, mates,

navigating
The Olfactory System
Sense of Smell
 The Olfactory System

• Stimuli are chemical

substances
• Receptors are olfactory cilia
(hair) to olfactory bulb to
other parts of the brain
• Unique patterns of
stimulation = unique
perception
Snakes

•No taste or smell

receptors

•Jacobson’s organ
(Vomeronasal)
Flehmen response
Flehmen response
Flehmen response
More animal smell
• What is smell used for?

• Finding predators, food,

finding each other and more
• Like petrel chicks

• Insects and pheromones

• Mammals besides
us…hamsters and pandas and
voles
 • Birds can smell things!
• Many ground nesting water birds like terns
and sandpipers
• Domestic fowl
More animal smell
• And dogs, some of the best sniffers
• Dogs with jobs
Giant Rats Are Sniffing Out Landmines and
Tuberculosis
The Tactile System
Sense of Touch
The Tactile System

• Haptic sense

• Temperature, pressure, pain

• Higher order processes matter

• Signals to thalamus – parietal lobe

(primary somatosensory cortex)
Pain Receptors
•Pain receptors all over the body; serve as a
warning system

•Sensation of pain is generated by the brain

•Phantom Limb Pain

•Types of Pain Fibers:

•Fast Fibers: Myelinated; sharp, immediate pain

•Slow Fibers: Non-myelinated; chronic, dull pain

•Function: Avoid danger, alert to internal issues

Stomping Red Squirrel
 Vibrating Spiders
• Most have poor eyesight

• Use web vibrations for

• Status of web
• Health
• Yummy food
• Courtship
• Territory defense
Spider web
The Visual System
Sense of Sight
 The Visual System
• The visual system: sensory system for sight
• The stimulus is light
• Measured in nanometers (one billionth of a metre)
 The Eye
• Light enters through the cornea ->
• Behind the pupil is the elastic lens ->
• Retina – multilayered tissue at rear ->
• Optic nerve to brain
 Visual Receptors
• Rods: receptor with key role in night vision and
peripheral vision
• Cones: receptor with key role in daylight vision and
colour vision
More about transduction
More about transduction
More about transduction
Colour, perception, transduction
• Trichromatic theory – color vision is based on the activity of three
types of cone cells in the retina
http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/types-of-colour-
blindness/
Colour, perception, transduction
• Opponent-process theory - color perception is controlled by three
opposing pairs of colors: red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white
Colour, perception, transduction
• Opponent-process theory - color perception is controlled by three
opposing pairs of colors: red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7c0W5
FZw64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM4fXB
23pCQ&ab_channel=BRAINYDOSE
• Are afterimages best explained by trichromatic theory or opponent-
process theory? How so?
Field of view
Field of view
Field of view
Mantis Shrimp
More animal eyes!
Polarity

• Polarity – movement of light

• Electromagnetic radiation going horizontally, vertically, or
in between
Pigeons
 Fill in the blanks

Sense Stimuli Receptors Pathway

Vision Light waves Light sensitive Optic nerve to…

rods and cones in
the retina
What color is Tuesday?
Perception
 Gestalt psychology

• Humans have basic tendencies to

actively organize what they see

• For human perception, the whole is

greater than the sum of its parts
 Gestalt psychology
• Ambiguous figure-ground relationships
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology
 Gestalt Laws of Organization
• Law of similarity
• Law of proximity
• Law of closure
• Law of continuity
Perceptual Constancies
Face Perception

• Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness)

• Inability to recognize faces despite normal object
recognition
• Can identify a face as a face, but not whose face or
its orientation
• May be congenital (genetic component) or result
from brain damage

• COVID has many impacts on face perception

• Facial recognition and emotion perception
• Increased cognitive load
• Impact on social development
The Thatcher effect
 More perception (Depth)
•Two Types of Depth Cues:
•Binocular Depth Cues - From both eyes together,
present only in the 3D world
•Monocular Depth Cues - From each eye alone,
provide depth inference in 2D images

•Binocular Depth Cues:

•Binocular Disparity (Retinal Disparity): Each eye sees a
slightly different view; the brain uses the difference to
compute distances (stereoscopic vision)

•Convergence: Eye muscles turn inward to focus on close

objects; the brain uses the degree of convergence to
determine distance
 More perception (Depth)
•Two Types of Depth Cues:
•Binocular Depth Cues - From both eyes together, present only in the
3D world
•Monocular Depth Cues - From each eye alone, provide depth
inference in 2D images

•Monocular Depth Cues:

•Relative size – far-off objects project a smaller retinal image than
close objects do, if the far-off objects and close objects are the same
physical size
•Texture gradient – as a uniformly textured surface recedes, its texture
continuously becomes denser
•Occlusion – a near object occludes an object that is farther away
•Linear perspective – seemingly parallel lines appear to converge in the
distance

•Motion parallax – objects that are closer appear to move faster than
the objects that are farther away
Auditory
Auditory 2