CHAPTER TWO
Sensation and Perception
1.1. Sensations
Sensations can be defined as the passive process of bringing information from the outside world
into the body and to the brain. The process is passive in the sense that we do not have to be
consciously engaging in a "sensing" process. It also defined as the process in which a sensory
receptor is stimulated, producing nerve impulses that travel to the brain, which in turn interprets
such impulses as a visual image, a sound, taste, odor, touch, or pain.
When sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor, sensation has occurred. For
example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes in cells that line the back of the eye.
These cells relay messages, in the form of action potentials to the central nervous system. The
conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential is known as transduction.
You have probably known since elementary school that we have five senses: vision, hearing
(audition), smell (olfaction), taste (gustation), and touch (somato-sensation). It turns out that this
notion of five senses is oversimplified. We also have sensory systems that provide information
about balance (the vestibular sense), body position and movement (proprioception and
kinesthesia), pain (nociception), and temperature (thermo-ception).
1.1.1. The Sensory Systems
The body has several distinct sensory systems: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory,
kinesthetic and vestibular. Each system is associated with specific sensory organs, sensory
receptors (cells specialized for detecting specific kinds of stimulus energy) and sensory nerve
fibers that transmit information to the brain for further processing. Each sensory system detects a
particular type of energy from the external environment. The following table details each of the
sensory systems and the organs, receptors, and type of energy associated with each system.
Sense Sensory Organs Energy Detected Receptors
Visual Eyes Light waves Rods and cones in the
retina
Auditory Ears Sound waves (vibrations) Hair cells lining the
cochlea in the inner ear
Olfactory Nose Odor molecules Hair cells lining the
upper nose
Gastatory Tongue Taste molecules Taste buds (papillae)
along the tongue
Tactile Skin Touch, pressure, temperature Nerve endings in the
skin
Kinesthetic Muscles, tendons and joints Limb position and movement Cells in the muscles,
tendons and joints
Vestibular Semicircular canals in the Head position and movement Hair cells lining the
inner ear semicircular canals in
the inner ear
1.1.2. Sensory Thresholds
The first systematic studies of sensory thresholds were conducted by physiologist Ernst Weber at
the University of Leipsig in Leipsig, Germany, the same university where Wilhelm Wundt would
later transform psychology into an experimental science. Weber's experiments were designed to
determine sensory thresholds, of which there are two types:
Absolute threshold -- the minimum intensity of a stimulus that one can notice
Difference threshold -- the minimum difference in intensity between two stimuli that
one can notice. Also known as Just Noticeable Difference (JND). For example, if you
were asked to hold two objects of different weights. The just noticeable difference would
be the minimum weight difference between the two that you could sense half of the time.
1.1.3. Adaptation and Attention in Sensation
Sensory adaptation is a phenomenon that occurs when the sensory receptors become exposed to
stimuli for a prolonged period. Depending on the stimulus, receptors may increase or decrease
their ability to respond, and will develop an enhanced or diminished sensitivity to the stimulus.
This can occur with all of our basic five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.
Although our perceptions are built from sensations, not all sensations result in perception. In
fact, we often don’t perceive stimuli that remain relatively constant over prolonged periods of
time. This is known as sensory adaptation. Imagine entering a classroom with an old analog
clock. Upon first entering the room, you can hear the ticking of the clock; as you begin to engage
in conversation with classmates or listen to your professor greet the class, you are no longer
aware of the ticking. The clock is still ticking, and that information is still affecting sensory
receptors of the auditory system. The fact that you no longer perceive the sound demonstrates
sensory adaptation and shows that while closely associated, sensation and perception are
different.
Attention is a concept studied in cognitive psychology that refers to how we actively process
specific information in our environment. As you are reading this, there are numerous sights,
sounds, and sensations going on around you—the pressure of your feet against the floor, the
sight of the street out of a nearby window, the soft warmth of your shirt, the memory of a
conversation you had earlier with a friend. Selective attention is the process of focusing on a
particular object in the environment for a certain period of time. Attention is a limited
resource, so selective attention allows us to tune out unimportant details and focus on what really
matters.
1.2. Perception
Perception can be defined as the active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the
information brought to the brain by the senses. Perception refers to the occurrence when the
brain performs organization of information it obtains from the neural impulses, and then
begins the process of translation and interpretation. It is a vital process that helps us
rationalize or make sense of the information related to the physical stimulus. Perception occurs
when the brain processes information to give meaning to it, by means of emotions, memories,
etc. Bottom-up processing refers to the fact that perceptions are built from sensory input. On the
other hand, how we interpret those sensations is influenced by our available knowledge, our
experiences, and our thoughts. This is called top-down processing.
1.2.1. Basic Processes of perception
Perception consists of three basic processes:
1. Selection
2. Organization
3. Interpretation
1. Selective Attention (Focused)
It is filtering or discarding out some stimuli from the mass of different stimuli. Paying attention
to stimulus by eliminating other irrelevant stimulus. This is the first stage in perception.
Factors Influence Selective Attention: This can be divided into two; personal and
environmental factors.
I. Environmental Factors:
1) Intensity: a bright color will attract us more than a dull one.
2) Size: a large thing is more likely to catch our attention than something small.
3) Duration of repetition: a quickly running stimulus will not catch our attention as easily as
one, which persists or is repeated.
4) Emotional content: a stimulus, which creates emotional feeling, attracts our attention more
than a neutral one.
5) Suddenness or novelty: sudden stimulus is likely to catch our attention more easily than one
we have been expecting.
II. Personal Factors
Personal factors like motivation, experience, memories, emotion and interests are affecting our
attention.
2. Perceptual Organization
Gestalt psychology focuses on the way in which humans construct meaningful perceptions from
sensory data. Based on the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Gestalt
psychologists argue that perception of stimuli goes beyond the mere patching together of the
individual elements that we sense. Rather, perception is a constructive process in which the
ultimate perception is quite different from the sum of the individual elements. A number of
Gestalt laws or principles have been proposed that speak to the tendency of the brain to organize
individual sensory elements into meaningful percent.
A. The figure-ground principle states that the brain automatically sorts sensory
information into a figure and a ground. The figure is the aspect of the sensory experience
that stands out and is the center of attention; the ground is the field against which the
figure stands out. It is possible in various instances for the background to become the
figure, depending on where we focus our attention, and sometimes the figure and ground
can be completely reversed, as in the famous face-vase example.
B. The principle of similarity refers to the tendency of the brain to group similar sensory
elements together (to see them as a unit). In the following example, individuals tend to
report seeing rows of X’s and O’s rather than several columns of alternating X’s and
O’s.
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C. The principle of proximity refers to the tendency of the brain to perceive objects that
are close to each other as meaningful units. In the following example, we tend to see the
stimuli as pairs of X’s and O’s, rather than a column of X’s next to a column of O’s with
a space, and then another column of X’s next to a column of O’s, and so on.
D. The principle of continuity refers to the tendency of the brain to perceive fluid or
continuous forms rather than jagged or irregular ones. In the following example, we tend
to see two intersecting lines (one from points 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 and one from points 6
to 7 to 8 to 9 to 10).
E. The principle of closure refers to the tendency of the brain to close up or complete
sensory experiences that are not complete. (If an element is missing, we still perceive the
experience as a whole.) In the following example, we tend to see two lines rather than
eight separate lines.
F. The principle of simplicity, also known as the law of pragnanz, refers to the fact that
when multiple interpretations are possible, we tend to create the simplest perception.
3. Interpretation
It is giving meanings to the organized perceptions. It is influenced by personal factors like
motivation, beliefs, expectation/perceptual set. Example, Food can be perceived as fuel.
1.2.2. Perceptual Illusions
Stimuli that tend to make us misperceive the true characteristics of objects
or images. Misleading or distorted perceptions of stimuli that actually
exists:
The Muller-Lyer illusion – the misperception of identical length of
two lines due to arrows pointing in different directions.
The moon illusion – the misperception that the moon is larger when
it is closer to the horizon.
1.2.3. Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and skin- we rely on these organs for our
experience of the external world. Some people, however, claim they can
send and receive messages about the world without relying on the usual
sensory channels, by using Extrasensory Perception (ESP). Reported ESP
experiences fall into four general categories:
Telepathy is a direct communication from one mind to another
without the usual visual, auditory and other sensory signals.
Clairvoyance is the perception of an event or fact without normal
sensory input.
Precognition is the perception of an event that has not yet
happened.
Psychokinesis is the ability to affect the physical world purely
through thought. Persons with such abilities claim to move or affect
objects without touching them.
Normal perception depends on the ability to detect changes in energy in
the physical world. Claims for most forms of ESP, however, challenge
everything we currently now know to be true about the way the world
and the universe operate.
1.2.4. Relationship between Sensation and Perception
Sensation and perception are elements that balance and complement one another. They work
together for us to be able to identify and create meaning from stimuli-related information.
Without sensation, perception will not be possible, except for people who believe in extrasensory
perception. And without perception, our sensations would remain to be "unknown" to us since
there is no mental processing of what we sense.
1.2.5. Differences between Sensation and Perception
Sensation and perception are two completely different elements in terms of how they process
information. In sensation, the physical stimulus, together with its physical properties, is
registered by sensory organs. Then, the organs decode this information, and transform them into
neural impulses or signals. These signals are transmitted to the sensory cortices of the brain. The
line of difference between sensation and perception is now drawn; perception follows sensation.
In the brain, the nerve impulses go through a series of organization, translation and
interpretation. Once perception is finished, a person is able to "make sense" out of the sensations.
For instance, seeing the light (sensation) is different from determining its color (perception).
Another example is that feeling the coldness of the environment is different from perceiving that
winter is coming. Also, hearing a sound is different from perceiving the music being played.
Most psychologists believe that sensation is an important part of bottom-up processing. This
means that sensation occurs when the sensory organs transmit information towards the brain. On
the other hand, perception is a part of top-down processing. In this case, perception happens
when the brain interprets the sensory information and sends corresponding signals to sensory
organs for response to the physical stimuli.