Ms. Pries/AP Psychology
Chapters 5 & 6: Sensation and Perception
Unit Outline
Notes:
 Sensation (Chapter 5) and Perception (Chapter 6) are the last of the biology-heavy units!
 The reading listed for each day is the reading you should have already completed when you walk into class
that day. This requires you to look ahead on the blue sheet!
General Objectives:
After completing this unit, students should be able to:
1. Contrast the processes of sensation and perception and discuss key phenomena associated with both processes
2. Explain the visual process, including stimulus input, the structure of the eye, and the transduction of light energy, as
well as theories of color vision and color constancy
3. Describe the auditory process, touch, taste, smell, and kinesthetic senses
4. Examine the nature of perceptual organization and interpretation
Terms to Understand, Encode, and Store for Successful Retrieval: (Each item should be placed
on its own note card with the term on the front, the definition on the back, along with an example
from your own studies or experience)
Chapter 5 Terms: sensation, perception, bottom-up processing, top-down processing, psychophysics, absolute
threshold, signal detection theory, subliminal, difference threshold, Weber’s Law, sensory adaptation, transduction,
wavelength, pupil, iris, lens, accommodation, retina, acuity, nearsightedness, farsightedness, rods, cones, optic
nerve, blind spot, fovea, parallel processing, Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory, opponent-process
theory, color constancy, frequency, pitch, middle ear, inner ear, cochlea, place theory, frequency theory, conduction
hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, gate-control theory, kinesthesis, vestibular sense
Chapter 6 Terms: selective attention, visual capture, gestalt, depth perception, binocular cues, monocular cues,
retinal disparity, convergence, phi phenomenon, perceptual constancy, perceptual adaptation, perceptual set, human
factors psychology, extrasensory perception (ESP), parapsycholgy
Daily Activities and Due Dates:
 Day One (193-198)
o BR: If you had to lose one sense, which would it be? Why?
o Introduction to Sensation (Myers resources)
o Notes: Sensing the World: some basic principles of perception (including Weber’s
law demonstration)
 Day Two: (199-103)
o BR: What is the difference between sensation and perception? What are some
examples of sensory adaptation you’ve experienced in the last 24 hours?
o Activity: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Processing
o Vision Notes (including rods and cones demonstration)
 Day Three: (203-211)
o BR: Distinguish between the difference threshold and the absolute threshold
o Notes: Vision (including after-image effects)
o Partner Activity: Visual Information Processing: This activity should go in your
binder!
 Day Four: (212-218)
o BR: What is the distinction between frequency and pitch?
o Locating sounds demonstration
o Activity: Build a Human Ear
o Writing Prompt: If you had been born deaf, do you think you would want to receive
a cochlear implant? Does it surprise you that most natively born deaf adults do
not desire implants for themselves or their deaf children?
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Day Five: (219-229)
o BR: What sorts of tastes do you prefer most?
o Notes: The Other Senses (including demonstrations for identifying odors, vision
and balance, two-point thresholds)
Day Six
o Group Quiz and Reflection
Day Seven: (231-238)
o BR: Short video
o Notes: Perceptual Organization
o Gestalt Art Analysis
Day Eight: (238-247)
o BR: Check out the Hermann grid on the overhead. What does this illusion tell us
about sensation and perception?
o Notes: Perceptual Organization (continued)
o Monocular vs. Binocular Lab
Day Nine: (248-262)
o BR: Photo analysis: Look at the photo on the overhead for a moment. Look away
and write down what you recall about the photo.
o Notes: Perceptual Organization/Context and Expectations (Zimbardo)
o Activity: Psychology & Your Life: Seeing and Believing (Zimbardo)
Day Eleven
o BR: List 3 things you’d like to review for tomorrow’s exam
o Review for Exam
Day Twelve
o Note Cards and Study Guides are due in my inbox at the bell!
o Sensation and Perception Exam!!!
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Sensation Study Questions:
I. Sensing the World: Some Basic Principles pgs 193-199
1. What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up processing?
2. Explain the difference between sensation and perception.
3. What is the difference between absolute and difference thresholds?
4. What does research on signal detection theory tell us?
5. Are subliminal stimuli sensed? Are they perceived?
6. Briefly explain the process of sensory adaptation. How does it focus our attention on changing
stimulation?
II. Vision pgs 199-211
1. Explain the cause of farsightedness and nearsightedness.
2. How do Young-Helmholtz and the opponent-process theories contribute to our understanding of
color vision?
3. What is color constancy and how is it important to our understanding of vision?
III. Hearing pgs. 212-219
1. Explain the auditory process. Your answer should include the stimulus input and the structure
and function of the ear.
2. How do the place and frequency theories contribute to our understanding of pitch perception?
3. How are sounds located?
4. What are the nature and causes of hearing loss?
IV: The Other Senses pgs. 219-228
1. Describe the sense of touch. Your answer should include a discussion of pain and the gatecontrol theory of pain.
2. Describe the sense of taste.
3. Describe the sense of smell. How is it different from the other senses?
4. Describe the kinesthetic and vestibular senses. How are they different?
Perception Study Questions
I. Selective Attention and Perceptual Illusions
1. Explain selective attention and give an example of it.
II. Perceptual Organization
1. How does Gestalt psychology help us understand our own perception? Your answer should
include the figure-ground relationship, as well as the principles of perceptual grouping.
2. What does research on the visual cliff (remember this from the development video?) tell us about
depth perception?
3. Describe the monocular and binocular cues in depth perception.
4. How do we perceive motion? Your answer should include a discussion of stroboscopic
movement and the phi phenomenon.
5. What is perceptual constancy and how does it operate in visual illusions?
III. Perceptual Interpretation
1. What is perceptual adaptation?
2. What does the use of distorting goggles indicate regarding the adaptability of perception?
3. How do our experiences, assumptions, and expectations give us a perceptual set that greatly
influences what we perceive?
4. What do human factors psychologists do?
IV. Is There Extrasensory Perception?
1. What are the claims of ESP? Why are most research psychologists skeptical about ESP?
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