PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 4
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Bellringer
If you had to choose one of your senses to lose which one would
it be and why?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Chapter 4
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Section 1: Sensation and Perception: The Basics
Section 2: Vision
Section 3: Hearing
Section 4: Other Senses
Section 5: Perception
2
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Chapter 4: Section 1
Sensation and Perception: The Basics
3
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Main Objective:
 Distinguish between sensation and
perception, and explain how they
contribute to an understanding of our
environment.
4
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
CHAPTER
Chapter
4 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Sensation and Perception
Senses
Vision
5
Hearing
Smell
Touch
Taste
Body Senses
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
What is Sensation and Perception??????
 Sensation:
 The stimulation of sensory receptors and the
transmission of sensory information to the central
nervous system (the spinal cord and brain).
 Perception:
 Psychological process through which we interpret
sensory stimulation.
 EX: We realize that the people
on a small TV are bigger in real life.
6
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Stimulation of senses and the ways in which people
interpret that stimulation are affected by
several concepts:
 Absolute threshold
 Difference Threshold
 Signal-detection theory
 Sensory adaptation
7
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 4
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Absolute Threshold:
 Absolute Threshold:
 The weakest amount of a stimulus that can be
sensed.
 EX: Hearing the first beep in a hearing test.
 Dogs can hear and smell things that people cannot…they have
a different threshold.
 Thresholds differ
from person to person!
8
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Difference Threshold:
 Difference threshold:
 The minimum amount of difference that can be
detected between two stimuli.
 EX: differences in shades of color.
9
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Signal-Detection Theory:
 A method of distinguishing sensory stimuli that takes
into account not only their strengths but also such
elements as the setting, your physical state, your
mood, your attitudes, and motivation.
 EX: Mind wandering in class…
you still hear but your mind
will wander.
10
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
Chapter 4
PSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
Sensory Adaptation:
 The process by which we become more
sensitive to weak stimuli and less sensitive
to unchanging stimuli.
 Sensory systems adapt to changing environment.
 Seeing people in movie theater (weak stimuli)
 City dwellers adapt to sounds
of traffic (unchanging stimuli)
11
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON