Module 1.
6a Sensation: Basic Concepts
Processing Sensations and Perceptions
- Sensation: the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive
and represent stimulus energies from our environment
- Sensory receptors: sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli
- Perception: the process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory
information, enabling us to recognize objects and events as meaningful.
- Bottom-up processing: information processing that begins with the sensory
receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
- Top-down processing: information processing guided by higher-level mental
processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and
expectations.
Transduction
- Transduction: conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the
transforming of physical energy, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural
impulses the brain can interpret.
- Psychophysics: the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of
stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
Thresholds
- Absolute thresholds: the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular
stimulus 50 percent of the time
- Signal detection theory: a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence
of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise); assumes there is
no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s
experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.
- Subliminal: below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness
- Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus
predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.
- Difference threshold: the minimum difference between two stimuli required for
detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just
noticeable difference
- Weber’s law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ
by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)
Sensory Adaptation
- Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant
stimulation
- Provides an important benefit of freedom to focus on informative changes in out
environment
Module 1.6b Sensation: Vision
The Stimulus Input: Light Energy
- What we see as visible light is but a thin slice of the wide spectrum of
electromagnetic energy, ranging from imperceptibly short gamma waves to the long
waves of radio transmission
- Wavelength: the distance from the peak of one light wave or sound wave to the peak
of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short gamma waves to the
long pulses of radio transmission.
- Hue: the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we
know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.
- Intensity: the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what
we perceive as brightness or loudness. Intensity is determined by the wave’s
amplitude (height)
The Eye
- Cornea: the eye’s clear, protective outer layer, covering the pupil and iris.
- Pupil: the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
- Iris: a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the
pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.
- Lens: the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus
images on the retina.
- Retina: the light-sensitive back inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods
and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.
- Accommodation: the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus
images of near or far objects on the retina.
The Eye-to-Brain Pathway
- Rods: retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to
movement. Rods are necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t
respond.
- Cones: retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that
function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to
color sensations.
- Optic nerve: the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.
- Blind spot: the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind” spot
because no receptor cells are located there
Cones Rods
Number 6 million 120 million
Location in retina Center Periphery
Sensitivity in dim light Low High
Color sensitivity High Low
Detail sensitivity High Low
Color Processing
- Young–Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory: the theory that the retina
contains three different types of color receptors — one most sensitive to red, one to
green, one to blue — which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the
perception of any color
- Opponent-process theory: the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green,
blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are
stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited
by green
Feature Detection
- Feature Detection: nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific
features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement
Parallel Processing
- Parallel processing: processing multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem
simultaneously