Unit 4: Sensation and Perception
Key Learning
The brain senses the world indirectly because the sense organs convert stimulation into the language of the
nervous system: neural messages. The senses all operate in much the same way, but each extracts different
information and sends it to its own specialized processing region in the brain. Perception brings meaning to
sensation, so perception produces an interpretation of the world, not a perfect representation of it .
Essential Questions
I. How does stimulation become sensation?
II. How do the five senses receive and translate signals to the brain for processing?
III. How are the senses alike? How are they different?
IV. What is the relationship between sensation and perception? How do sensation and perception differ?
V. How does the brain process sensory signals accurately? Inaccurately?
Objectives
I. Define and distinguish between the terms sensation and perception.
II. Describe how physical stimuli become neural messages that can be interpreted in the central nervous system.
III. Define and discuss basic concepts from classical psychophysics and describe the significance of these concepts in everyday
psychological functioning.
IV. Name the eight senses and describe their basic anatomy and functioning.
V. Describe how human make perceptual judgments and what influences can cause these judgments to be inaccurate.
VI. Distinguish between bottom-up and top-down processing.
VII. Describe what we can learn about sensations and perceptions from examining illusions.
VIII. Identify and discuss the major theoretical explanations of perception.
IX. Define perceptual set and discuss its significance in understanding human behavior and experience.
Concept / Content Outline:
I. Basic Principles of Sensation and Perception
II. Influences on Perception
III. Vision
IV. Visual Organization and Interpretation
V. Hearing
VI The Other Senses
Major Players:
Herman Von Helmholtz, Gustav Fechner, David Huber, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel, William James
Key Vocabulary:
sensation, perception, bottom-up processing, top-down processing, selective attention, inattentional blindness,
change blindness, transduction, psychophysics, absolute threshold, signal detection theory, subliminal, priming,
difference threshold, Weber’s Law, sensory adaptation, perceptual set, extrasensory perception (ESP,
parapsychology, wavelength, hue intensity, pupil, iris, lens, retina, accommodation, rods, cones, optic nerve, blind
spot, fovea, feature detectors, parallel processing, Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory, opponent-process theory,
gestalt, figure-ground, grouping, depth perception, visual cliff, binocular cues, retinal disparity, monocular clues,
phi phenomenon, perceptual constancy, color constancy, perceptual adaptation, audition, frequency, pitch, middle
ear, cochlea, inner ear, sensorineural hearing loss, conduction hearing loss, cochlear implant, place theory,
frequency theory, gate-control theory, kinesthesia, vestibular sense, sensory interaction, embodied cognition.