Sensation,

Perception and
Attention

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Sensation
the process that occurs when special receptors in the sense organs are activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain.

• The sensory receptors are specialized forms of neurons, the cells that make up the nervous system.
Instead of receiving neurotransmitters from other cells, these receptor cells are stimulated by different
kinds of energy—for example, the receptors in the eyes are stimulated by light, whereas the
receptors in the ears are activated by vibrations. Touch receptors are stimulated by pressure or
temperature, and the receptors for taste and smell are triggered by chemical substances.
• Transduction the process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural signals.
• These signals are then transmitted to the sensory cortical areas in the brain.
• The signals that are received by the brain are then interpreted, which then becomes what we
have just sensed——‘Sensation’
• When sensations are organised and interpreted to fit into our inner subjective world
experience, it gives rise to our Perception of those things that we have sensed.

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 Sensory Thresholds

Ernst Weber (1795–1878) did studies trying to determine

the smallest difference between two weights that could be
detected. His research led to the formulation known as
Weber’s law of just noticeable differences (j-n-d, or the
difference threshold).

• This difference must be detectable at least 50% of the time we are

trying to assess ( so on an average, it should happen half the time
that we try and sense things around us ).

• Is de ned as ‘ the minimal difference in intensity required

between two sources of energy so that they will be perceived as
being different’.

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 Absolute Threshold

Gustav Fechner (1801–1887) expanded on Weber’s

work by studying something he called the absolute
threshold.
• An absolute threshold is the lowest level of
stimulation that a person can consciously detect 50
percent of the time the stimulation is present.
(Remember, the jnd is detecting a difference between
two stimuli.)

• Is de ned as ‘ the minimal amount of energy that

can produce a sensation’.
•

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 Subliminal Stimulation
Sensory stimulation that is below a persons absolute threshold for ‘conscious’ perception

• Visual stimuli can be ashed too brie y

just enough to enable us to process
them.

• Auditory stimuli can be played at a

volume too low to consciously hear or
can be played backward to elicit a
particular kind of stimulation.

• Although its di cult to consciously

process these, they have shown to
in uence or a ect our behaviour either
ways.

• This concept lacks validity due to

di culty in proving them scienti cally
in psychology however, is a favourite in
marketing/sales elds due to its ability
to in uence consumer behaviour when
it comes to product preference.

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Signal Detection Theory
Is a view that the perception of sensory stimuli involves the interaction of physical, biological and psychological factors

• The relationship between these factors are fully ‘mechanical’ or stand alone-
ish.

• People’s ability to detect signals depend on not only the intensity of the
signal, but also their training (learning), motivation ( desire to perceive signals),
and psychological states such as alertness or mental fatigue.

• In other words, perception is also an ‘Active System’ that spans across

multiple domains of our being.

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Feature Detectors
Are specialised neurone that re (gets stimulated) in response to speci c features of sensory information such as lines or edges
of objects

• Was discovered by Nobel Prize winners David Hubel

and Torsten Weisel (1979).

• Many cells in our brain re in response to lines

presented at various angles- vertical & horizontal.

• Others respond to speci c colours.

• Because they respond to di erent aspects or features
of a ‘scene’, they are termed as ‘feature detectors’.

• Visual detectors respond to edges, depth, contours,

textures, shadows, speed and kinds of motion (up,
down, left, right)

• Auditory feature detectors respond to pitch, loudness

etc.

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Sensory Adaptation
Where people become more sensitive to stimuli that are low in magnitude and less sensitive to stimuli that are constant or
ongoing in magnitiude

• If two people are having a serious discussion,

then the sound of their voices takes precedence
and attention over background noises such as
that of a fan or a vehicle passing by.

• The process of becoming more sensitive to

stimulation is referred to as sensitization ( eyes
getting adjusted to di erent intensities of
brightness)

• The process of becoming less sensitive to

stimulation is referred to as de-sensitisation
( smokers getting used to the smell of the
cigarette smoke over time)
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Perceptual Organization
Gestalt Rules/ Laws

• Gestalt psychologists noted certain

consistencies in the way we integrate
bits and pieces of sensory
stimulation into meaningful ‘wholes’.

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Depth Perception

• Refers to our ability to

perceive or interpret our
surroundings/ environment in
3-dimensions

• Height
• Distance
• Depth
• Two types- monocular and
binocular
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 Objects that are closer appear bigger than
objects that are farther away. This way, we can
perceive distance b/w us and the objects that
appear in our eld of vision.

Another way to interpret this would be that, the

objects that are nearer to us occupy larger
space in our eld of vision compared to far
away objects

Relative size

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 Texture Gradient
Nearer objects tend to appear with more detail compared to far away
objects

The cobblestones in the

picture that are close to
you are very distinctly
textured, but as you look
farther off into the
distance, their texture
becomes smaller and
ner.
Texture gradient is
another trick used by
artists to give the illusion
of depth in a painting.

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 Interposition

If one object (A)

seems to be
blocking another
object (B),
people assume
that (A) is closer
than (B) in terms
of distance. This
cue is also
known as
Overlap.

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 When looking down the railway tracks, the lines
appear to merge together in the distance. This
tendency for lines that are actually parallel seem
to converge on each other is called linear
perspective. People assume that in the picture,
as in real life, the converging lines indicate that
the “ends” of the lines are a great distance away
from where the people are as they view them.

Linear Perspective

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 Height In Plane

Distant objects tend to appear

higher in our visual eld compared
to closer objects.

This way we can interpret the

bridge/ bridge tower is farther
away compared to the buildings
and the cars that are parked on
the street.

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 Light and Shadow

Regular 2-d ‘circle’ gives us no indication of depth.

Here, any object that casts a shadow can

tell us a lot about their 3 dimensional
shape. From the information we get from
these shadows, tells us about its ‘depth’
or “volume”
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Binocular Cues

• Binocular Disparity: is a
scienti c way of saying that
because the eyes are a few
inches apart, they don’t see
exactly the same image. The
brain interprets the images on
the retina to determine distance
from the eyes. If the two images
are very di erent, the object
must be pretty close. If they are
almost identical, the object is
far enough away to make the
retinal disparity very small.
•

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• Binocular
convergence: refers to
the rotation of the two
eyes in their sockets to
focus on a single
object. If the object is
close, the convergence
is pretty great (almost
as great as crossing
the eyes). If the object
is far, the convergence
is much less.
• We can also feel a
distinct ‘strain’ on our
eyes whenever the
convergence takes
place due to the
muscles in the eye
contracting.
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Errors in Perception
Illusion and Hallucination

• Illusions are perceptions that do not correspond to

reality or are distortions of visual stimuli.
• Another way to de ne illusion would be “false”
perceptions.
• Although most illusions are visual in nature, we can
also perceive auditory illusions as well and sometimes
both interplaying with one another.

•Check out the below link to explore different auditory

illusions:
• [Link]

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 Two di ering opinions…

• Sometimes • Typically, illusions are

illusions are based not thought to be
in uenced by
on early sensory higher visual or
processes, cognitive processes
subsequent (Harris et al., 2011).
processing, or In fact, illusions are
higher level still perceived even
when we know all
assumptions made about them. There is
by the brain’s a general consensus
visual system that illusions occur at
(Eagleman, 2001; a basic, low level of
Macknik et al., visual processing
(for earlier literature
2008). see also: Fisher,
1969; Robinson,
1972).

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The vertical–horizontal
illusion is the tendency
for observers to
overestimate the length
of a vertical line relative
to a horizontal line of the
same length.

This involves a ‘dividing’

factor that causes the
dividing line (vertical) to
appear longer than the
line that is divided
(horizontal)

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 •

Muller- Lyer Illusion

The distortion happens when

the viewer tries to determine if
the two lines are exactly the
same length. They are identical,
but one line looks longer than
the other (It’s always the line
with the angles on the end
facing outward).

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 • Illusion of movement-
Stroboscopic motion

Seen in motion pictures

(movies??), in which a rapid
series of still pictures will seem
to be in motion. Many a student
has discovered that drawing little
gures on the edges of a
notebook and then ipping the
pages quickly will also produce
this same illusion of movement.

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 • Auto kinetic e ect-
Sometimes people
•

perceive an object as Check out these Youtube videos

for a better demonstration of
moving when it is illusion of motion

actually still. In this

e ect, a small, stationary
light in a darkened room
will appear to move or
drift because there are
no surrounding cues to
indicate that the light is
not moving.

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Conformity and autokinesis
Conformity is best described as the power of suggestion in way. It
is a social influence that makes a person change their belief or
behaviour to align with those around them. Turkish American
social psychologist Muzafer Sherif actually used autokinesis
to demonstrate how a person can be influenced by another
person's opinion. Using a small light projected on a dark screen
in a controlled environment, the participants were asked to guess
how far the light moved (such as from 20-80cm). They then put
subjects in three groups to be tested again. He purposely put 2
people in a group who guessed a similar figure and then one
person whose guess was considerably different. Each person in
the group had to state out aloud how far they thought the light had
moved. Over several trials, each member of the group came up
with a similar figure meaning in each case, the person whose
guess was initially vastly different to the rest of the group changed
their mind. He concluded that in group situations, people are
more likely to conform than make an individual judgment.
When in an ambiguous situation, a person unknowingly looks
to their peers to help them to make a judgment.

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 Dr. Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s
“Rotating Snakes”

Eye movements play a

signi cant role in the perception
of the illusion (Kuriki et al.,
2008).

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 PERCEPTUAL SETS AND EXPECTANCIES

People often misunderstand what is said

to them because they were expecting to
hear something else. People’s tendency
to perceive things a certain way because
their previous experiences or
expectations in uence them is called
perceptual set or perceptual
expectancy

• Bottom- Up Processing: the

analysis of the smaller
features to build up to a com-
plete perception.
If the person solving the jigsaw
• Top- down processing: the use of puzzle loses the nal picture and
preexisting knowledge to organize
is unfamiliar on how to go about
individual features into a uni ed
it, then he will have to solve it
whole. Eg: Before solving a jigsaw
slowly from a smaller section
puzzle, we might look at the nished/
and then keep building up until
nal picture rst to get a hang of it and
the nal image begins to
then proceed to complete the puzzle
materialise.
keeping the image in mind.
•
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Hallucinations
False sensory perceptions of stimuli that does not exist. Some hallucinations are normal, such as those caused by falling asleep or waking up. But others
may be a sign of a more serious condition like schizophrenia or dementia. Chemical reactions and/or abnormalities in your brain cause hallucinations.

• Visual
• Auditory
• Tactile
• Olfactory
• Gustatory

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There are many possible causes of deteriorate to see hallucinations.
hallucinations, including: This condition only causes visual
• Temporary causes- Falling asleep, hallucinations.
waking up, drugs, high fever, trauma • Terminal illnesses, including liver
etc. failure, kidney failure, stage 3 HIV/
• Certain mental health conditions- AIDS and brain cancer can all cause
schizophrenia etc. hallucinations.
• Certain neurological conditions-
delirium, dementia, epilepsy
• Charles Bonnet syndrome causes a
person whose vision has started to
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What’s the difference between a
hallucination and an illusion?
Hallucinations are a perception not based
on sensory input, whereas illusions are
misinterpretations of sensory inputs. In
other words, hallucinations involve
experiencing something that doesn’t exist.
Illusions happen when you misinterpret Oh is it?
something real in your environment.
For example, you might mistake a black
bag sitting on a window sill for a black cat.
Upon further examination, you realize that
it’s a bag and not a cat. This is an illusion.

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 Attention
the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli.

• a state in which cognitive resources are focused on certain aspects of the environment rather
than on others and the central nervous system is in a state of readiness to respond to
stimuli.

• Because it has been presumed that human beings do not have an in nite capacity to attend
to everything—focusing on certain items at the expense of others—much of the research in
this eld has been devoted to discerning which factors in uence attention and to
understanding the neural mechanisms that are involved in the selective processing of
information.

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For example, past experience affects perceptual
experience (we notice things that have meaning
for us), and some activities (e.g., reading) require
conscious participation (i.e., voluntary attention).
However, attention can also be captured (i.e.,
directed involuntarily) by qualities of stimuli in the
environment, such as intensity, movement,
repetition, contrast, and novelty

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• Voluntary: attention that is deliberately applied or focused by
deliberately applied and controlled the individual.
by the individual, as opposed to
attention that is spontaneously • Post- voluntary: attention that has
captured by a stimulus in the been captured by an absorbing and
environment. meaningful activity and that can be
sustained enjoyably and productively
• Involuntary: attention that is for long periods of time. Such
captured by a prominent or salient attention di ers from involuntary
stimulus—for example, in the attention in not being passive and
peripheral visual eld—rather than from voluntary attention in not being
experienced as e ortful.

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• Factors a ecting attention- Internal • External/ Objective ( dependant
and External on the environment where the
object/ activity is present or taking
• Internal/Subjective ( dependant place)- Size, colour, novelty,
on us)- Interest towards an object/ intensity, contrast, location of the
activity, motive or basic drives/ stimuli.
urges of the individual (hunger, sex
etc.), past experience, emotional
state, INSTINCTS, habits, Aim/
purpose/ ambitiousness.

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Attention Span
The extent or duration of which a person can concentrate on something without thinking about anything else at a speci c time.

• It varies with age, physical, mental

and emotional condition, and nature
of the material read ( internal and
external factors )

• The average attention span of

children is about 4-5 objects/ letters/
numbers at a given time whereas
those of adults is about 7-8.

• Tachistoscope is an instrument used

for attention span and recall/
recognition studies
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