CHAPTER 3 – SENSATION AND
PERCEPTION
I.
THE NATURE OF SENSORY PROCESSES
A.. The General Character of Sensation
1. Sequence
a. Some form of
b. Receptor responds
c. As passes along
d. From these signals
B. Sensory Thresholds
1. Absolute threshold –
2. Difference threshold – just noticeable difference
threshold
II.
VISION
A. The Visual System
1. Light enters
a. Cornea
b. Pupil
c. Iris
d. Lens
e. Retina
f. Fovea2. The Receptor Cells – retina
a. Rods –
b. Cones –
c. Cones – mainly in
d. Rods not in
e. Bipolar neurons –
1) Cones –
2) Rods –
3. Adaptation
a. Dark – increase
b. Light – decreased
c. Afterimage –
4. From eye to
a. Bipolar
b. Ganglion
c. Optic nerve
d. Optic chiasma
B. Color Vision
1. Color properties
a. Hues –
b. Saturation –
c. Brightness
2. Color mixing
a. Additive color mixing –
b. Complementary colors –
c. Nonspectral color –
d. Primary colors –
e. Subtractive color mixing –
3. Theories of Color Vision
a. Trichromatic Theory – Helmholtz
b. Opponent Process Theory – Hering –
c. Also explains
1) Color blindness –
2) Trichromats –
3) Monochromats –
4) Dichromats –
5) After-image –
d. 3 Receptors as per
III.
HEARING
A.. Sound
1. Physical stimuli
2. Frequency
3. Pitch –
4. Amplitude –
5. Overtones –
B. The Ear
1. Ear drum
2. Tiny bones in middle ear –
3. Oval window
4. Round window –
5. Cochlea –
6. Basilar membrane
7. Top of Basilar membrane
8. Auditory Nerve
C. Neural Connections
1. Each ear sends
2. Switching in
3. Some go to the centers –
4. Others throught the reticular
5. Most of the auditory sections in the
6. 4 levels of
D. Theories of Hearing
1. Place Theory – Helmholtz
a. Place on Basilar
2. Frequency Theory
a. Basilar membrane as a
b. Volley principle –
3. Neither explains
IV.
OTHER SENSES
A.. Smell
1. Humans not need for
2. Smell 10,000 times as
3. Decrease with
4. Sense is activated by
5. Protein bonds airborne molecules
a. Nerve cells die and
b. Only nerve cells
6. Axons go directly
7. Difficult to
8. Can be sensitive
9. Related to
10. Process adaptation
11. Anosmia –
B. Taste
1. Flavor –
2. Taste buds –
3. Contained in
4. Each taste bud contains
5. 1/10 second can
6. 4 primary
7. Sensory adaptation
8. Cross adaptation
C. The Vestibular Senses
1. Equilibrium and awareness of
2. Arise inner ear and sense
3. 2 Kinds
a. Body rotation
b. Gravitation and movement
1) Utricle –
2) Saccule –
4. Travel on auditory nerve –
D. Sensation of Motion
1. Motion sickness –
2. Can be completely overwhelmed –
E. The Skin Senses
1. Sense organs with
2. 13 different types of
3. To brain through
4. Cutaneous sensation –
5. Meissner Corpuscles –
6. Parcinian Corpuscles –
7. Ruffini endings and Krause bulbs –
8. In addition relation particular
9. Paradoxical heat –
10.
Aristotle’s Illusion –
F. Pain
1. Differs from other sense in
2. Widely different physiological
3. Attribute to psychological
4. Beliefs about pain –
5. Ethnic groups
6. Gate Control Theory of Pain (Melzack, 1980) –
7. Biochemistry
V.
PERCEPTION
- brain creates perceptual experience
A . Perceptual Organization
1. Figures from ground –
2. Sometimes not
3. Sometimes perceived
B. Perceptual Constancies
1. Tendency perceive objects
2. Memory and experience
3. Size Constancy –
4. Shape Constancy –
5. Brightness Constancy –
6. Color Constancy –
C. Observer Characteristics
1. Motivation –
2. Expectations
3. Cognitive Style
a. Field dependent –
b. Field independent –
c. Levelers –
d. Sharpeners –
4. Cultural background
a. Language
b. Cultural differences in
D. Perception of Distance and Depth
1. Monocular Clues
a. Superposition
b. Linear perspective
c. Aerial perspective
d. Elevation
e. Texture gradient
f. Shadowing
g. Motion parallax
2. Binocular Clues
a. Stereoscopic vision –
b. Retinal disparity
c. Convergence
3. Binocular Depth Inversion 4. Location of Sounds –
a. Sound localization –
b. Monaural
c. Binaural
E. Perception of Movement
1. Real Movement – position object
2. Autokinetic illusion
3. Stroboscopic motion
4. Phi phenomenon
F. Visual Illusions
1. Physical Illusion –
2. Perceptual Illusion -