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Sensation N

The document discusses the processes of sensation and perception, highlighting how sensory receptors and the nervous system work together to interpret stimuli. It covers basic principles of psychophysics, thresholds for detecting stimuli, and the mechanisms of vision and audition, including the structure of the eye and ear. Additionally, it addresses other senses such as touch, taste, and smell, as well as concepts like sensory interaction and body position awareness.

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5 views33 pages

Sensation N

The document discusses the processes of sensation and perception, highlighting how sensory receptors and the nervous system work together to interpret stimuli. It covers basic principles of psychophysics, thresholds for detecting stimuli, and the mechanisms of vision and audition, including the structure of the eye and ear. Additionally, it addresses other senses such as touch, taste, and smell, as well as concepts like sensory interaction and body position awareness.

Uploaded by

josejoseph003
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sensation

Sensation
 Sensation
 a process by which our sensory
receptors and nervous system
receive and represent stimulus
energy
 Perception
 a process of organizing and
interpreting sensory information,
enabling us to recognize
meaningful objects and events
Sensation
 Our
sensory
and
perceptual
processes
work
together
to help us
sort out
complex
processes
Sensation- Basic Principles
 Psychophysics
 study of the relationship between
physical characteristics of stimuli
and our psychological experience
of them
 Light- brightness
 Sound- volume
 Pressure- weight
 Taste- sweetness
Sensation- Thresholds

 Absolute Threshold
 minimum stimulation needed to detect
a particular stimulus 50% of the time
 Difference Threshold
 minimum difference between two
stimuli required for detection 50% of the
time
 just noticeable difference (JND)
Sensation- Thresholds
 Signal Detection Theory
 predicts how and when we detect the
presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid
background stimulation (noise)
 assumes that there is no single absolute
threshold
 detection depends partly on person’s
 experience
 expectations
 motivation
 level of fatigue
Sensation- Thresholds
 Weber’s Law- to perceive as
different, two stimuli must differ
by a constant minimum percentage
 light intensity- 8%
 weight- 2%
 tone frequency- 0.3%
 Sensory adaptation- diminished
sensitivity as a consequence of
constant stimulation
Vision
 Wave Amplitude
 Characteristics of wave forms that
indicates intensity
 Our psychological experience of
intensity is what we call
brightness
 Wavelength
 the distance from the peak of one
wave to the peak of the next
Vision
 Hue
 dimension of color determined by
wavelength of light
Wave Purity
 Saturation
The physical characteristic of light
waves influence our psychological
experience of light
The spectrum
of
electromagnet
ic energy
Vision
 Pupil- adjustable opening in the
center of the eye
 Iris- a ring of muscle that forms
the colored portion of the eye
around the pupil and controls the
size of the pupil opening
 Lens- transparent structure
behind pupil that changes shape
to focus images on the retina
Vision
Vision
 Accommodation- the process by
which the eye’s lens changes shape
to help focus near or far objects on
the retina

 Retina- the light-sensitive inner


surface of the eye, containing
receptor rods and cones plus layers
of neurons that begin the processing
Vision
 Acuity- the sharpness of vision
 Nearsightedness- condition in which
nearby objects are seen more clearly
than distant objects because distant
objects in front of retina
 Farsightedness- condition in which
faraway objects are seen more clearly
than near objects because the image
of near objects is focused behind
retina
Vision

 Normal Nearsighted Farsighted


Vision Vision
Vision
Retina’s Reaction to
Light- Receptors
 Rods
 Photosensitive cells of retina that are
most active in low levels of
illumination and do not respond
differentially to different wave lengths
of light
 Cones
 Photosensitive cells of retina that
operates best at high levels of
illumination and are responsible for
colour vision
Retina’s Reaction to
Light
 Optic nerve- nerve that carries neural
impulses from the eye to the brain
 Blind Spot- point at which the optic
nerve leaves the eye, creating a
“blind spot” because there are no
receptor cells located there
 Fovea- central point in the retina,
around which the eye’s cones cluster
Pathways from the Eyes
to the Visual Cortex
Visual Information
Processing
 Trichromatic (three color) Theory
 Young and Helmholtz
 three different retinal color receptors
 red
 green
 blue
Color-Deficient Vision

 People who
suffer red-green
blindness have
trouble
perceiving the
number within
the design
Visual Information
Processing
Opponent-Process Theory- opposing retinal
processes enable color vision
“ON” “OFF”
red green
green red
blue yellow
yellow blue
black white
white black
Opponent Process-
Afterimage Effect
Visual Information
Processing

 Color Constancy
 Perceiving familiar objects as
having consistent color, even if
changing illumination alters the
wavelengths reflected by the
object
Audition
 Loudness
The Psychological experience correlated with the intensity of a sound
wave
 Wave Amplitude
The amplitude of the sound wave depicts the intensity – the force which
air strikes our ear drum. The physical intensity of a sound determines
the psychological experience of loudness
Decibel Scale: a scale of experience of loudness in which 0 represents the
absolute threshold and 140 is sensed as pain
 Wave Frequency
Pitch: the psychological experience that corresponds to sound wave
frequency and give rise to high or low sound bass
 Hertz: the standard measure of sound wave frequency that is the
number of wave cycles per second
 Wave Purity
A pure sound would one which all of the waves from the sound source
were vibrating at exactly the same frequency. The psychological quality
of sound reflecting its degree of purity is called timbre
The Intensity of Some
Common Sounds
Audition- The Ear
 Middle Ear
 chamber between eardrum and cochlea
containing three tiny bones (hammer,
anvil, stirrup) that concentrate the
vibrations of the eardrum on the
cochlea’s oval window
 Inner Ear
 innermost part of the ear, contining the
cochlea, semicurcular canals, and
vestibular sacs
 Cochlea
 coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner
Audition
 Conduction Hearing Loss
 hearing loss caused by damage to the
mechanical system that conducts
sound waves to the cochlea
 Nerve Hearing Loss
 hearing loss caused by damage to the
cochlea’s receptor cells or to the
auditory nerve
Touch
 Skin Sensations
 pressure
 only skin
sensation with
identifiable
receptors
 warmth
 cold
 pain
Pain
 Gate-Control Theory
 theory that the spinal cord contains a
neurological “gate” that blocks pain
signals or allows them to pass on to
the brain
 “gate” opened by the activity of pain
signals traveling up small nerve fibers
 “gate” closed by activity in larger
fibers or by information coming from
the brain
Taste
 Taste Sensations
 sweet
 sour
 salty
 bitter
 Sensory Interaction
 the principle that one sense may
influence another
 as when the smell of food influences its
taste
Smell
Olfactory
nerve
Olfactory
bulb

Nasal Receptor cells in


passage olfactory membrane
Body Position and
Movement
 Kinesthesis
 the system for sensing the position
and movement of individual body
parts
 Vestibular Sense
 the sense of body movement and
position
 including the sense of balance

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