SENSATION & PERCEPTION (GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY) by Dr.

Annaliza Rosario P. Dy The sensitivity of a given sensory system to the

relevant stimuli can be expressed as an absolute
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION threshold. Absolute threshold refers to the
o Sensation refers to the process of sensing our environment minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be
through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. This information is present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the
sent to our brain in raw form where perception comes into play. time. Another way to think about this is by asking
- Senses are getting information from the outside environment. how dim can a light be or how soft can a sound be
o Perception is the way we interpret these sensations and therefore and still be detected half of the time. The
make sense of everything around us. sensitivity of our sensory receptors can be quite
- The brain giving meaning to what is received by the senses as amazing. It has been estimated that on a clear
information. night, the most sensitive sensory cells in the back
of the eye can detect a candle flame 30 miles away (Okawa & Sampath,
SENSATION 2007). Under quiet conditions, the hair cells (the receptor cells of the
What does it mean to sense something? Sensory receptors are inner ear) can detect the tick of a clock 20 feet away (Galanter, 1962).
specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli. When
sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor, sensationhas SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES
occurred. For example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes A message below that threshold is said to be subliminal: we receive it,
in cells that line the back of the eye. These cells relay messages, in the but we are not consciously aware of it. Therefore, the message is sensed,
form of action potentials (as you learned when studying biopsychology), but for whatever reason, it has not been selected for processing in
to the central nervous system. The conversion from sensory stimulus working or short-term memory. Over the years there has been a great deal
energy to action potential is known as transduction. of speculation about the use of subliminal messages in advertising, rock
music, and self-help audio programs. Research evidence shows that in
We have five senses: laboratory settings, people can process and respond to information
1. Vision outside of awareness. But this does not mean that we obey these
2. Hearing (audition) messages like zombies; in fact, hidden messages have little effect on
3. Smell (olfaction) behavior outside the laboratory (Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980; Rensink,
4. Taste (gustation), and 2004; Nelson, 2008; Radel, Sarrazin, Legrain, & Gobancé, 2009; Loersch,
5. Touch (somatosensation). Durso, & Petty, 2013).

We also have: UNCONSCIOUS PERCEPTION

1. The vestibular sense - sensory systems that provide information about These days, most scientific research on unconscious processes is aimed
balance. at showing that people do not need consciousness for certain
2. Proprioception and kinesthesia - body position and movement. psychological processes or behaviors. One such example is attitude
3. Nociception - pain and formation. The most basic process of attitude formation is through mere
4. Thermoception – temperature exposure (Zajonc, 1968). Merely perceiving a stimulus repeatedly, such as
a brand on a billboard one passes every day or a song that is played on the which caused her screen to light up, chances are that many people would
radio frequently, renders it more positive. Interestingly, mere exposure notice the change in illumination in the theater. However, if the same thing
does not require conscious awareness of the object of an attitude. happened in a brightly lit arena during a basketball game, very few people
In fact, mere-exposure effects occur even when novel stimuli are would notice. The cell phone brightness does not change, but its ability to
presented subliminally for extremely brief durations (e.g., Kunst-Wilson & be detected as a change in illumination varies dramatically between the
Zajonc, 1980). two contexts. Ernst Weber proposed this theory of change in difference
threshold in the 1830s, and it has become known as Weber’s law: The
Another example of modern research on unconscious processes is difference threshold is a constant fraction of the original stimulus, as the
research on priming. Priming generally relies on supraliminal stimuli, example illustrates. It is the idea that bigger stimuli require larger
which means that the messaging may occur out of awareness, but it is differences to be noticed.
still perceived, unlike subliminal messaging. Supraliminal messages are
be perceived by the conscious mind. For example, in one study, shoppers PERCEPTION
listened to either French or German music (the supraliminal messaging) While our sensory receptors are constantly collecting information from
while buying wine, and sales originating from either country were higher the environment, it is ultimately how we interpret that information that
when music from that same country was played overhead. In a well- affects how we interact with the world. Perception refers to the way
known experiment by a research team led by the American psychologist sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously
John Bargh (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996), half the participants were experienced. Perception involves both bottom-up and top-down
primed with the stereotype of the elderly by doing a language task (they processing. Bottom-up processing refers to the fact that perceptions are
had to make sentences on the basis of lists of words). These lists built from sensory input. On the other hand, how we interpret those
contained words commonly associated with the elderly (e.g., “old,” sensations is influenced by our available knowledge, our experiences,
“bingo,” “walking stick,” “Florida”). The remaining participants received a and our thoughts. This is called top-down processing.
language task in which the critical words were replaced by words not
related to the elderly. After participants had finished they were told the Look at the shape in Figure 3 below. Seen alone, your brain engages in
experiment was over, but they were secretly monitored to see how long bottom-up processing. There are two thick vertical lines and three thin
they took to walk to the nearest elevator. The primed participants took horizontal lines. There is no context to give it a specific meaning, so there
significantly longer. That is, after being exposed to words typically is no top-down processing
associated with being old, they behaved in line with the stereotype of old involved.
people: being slow. Such priming effects have been shown in other
domains as well.

Sometimes, we are more interested in how much difference in stimuli is

required to detect a difference between them. This is known as the just
noticeable difference (jnd) or difference threshold. Unlike the absolute
threshold, the difference threshold changes depending on the stimulus
intensity. As an example, imagine yourself in a very dark movie theater. If
an audience member were to receive a text message on her cell phone
 Figure 1. What is this image? Without any the perception may be “Mmm, this smells like the bread Grandma used to
context, you must use bottom-up bake when the family gathered for holidays.”
processing. 1) Selective Attention - process of discriminating between what
is important & is irrelevant (Seems redundant: selective-
attention?) and is influenced by motivation.
For example - students in class should focus on what the teachers
are saying and the overheads being presented. Students walking
by the classroom may focus on people in the room, who is the
teacher, etc., and not the same thing the students in the class.
2) Perceptual Expectancy - how we perceive the world is a
Now, look at the same shape in two different contexts. function of our past experiences, culture, and biological makeup.
Surrounded by sequential letters, your brain expects the shape to For example, as an American, when I look at a highway, I expect to
be a letter and to complete the sequence. In that context, you see cars, trucks, etc, NOT airplanes. But someone from a different
perceive the lines to form the shape of the letter “B.” country with different experiences and history may not have any
idea what to expect and thus be surprised when they see cars go
Figure 2. With top-down driving by.
processing, you use context Another example - you may look at a painting and not really
to give meaning to this image. understand the message the artist is trying to convey. But, if
someone tells you about it, you might begin to see things in the
painting that you were unable to see before.

SENSORY ADAPTATION
Surrounded by numbers, the same shape now looks like the Although our perceptions are built from sensations, not all sensations
number “13.” 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
Figure 5. With top- clock. Upon first entering the room, you can hear the ticking of the clock;
down processing, you as you begin to engage in conversation with classmates or listen to your
use context to give professor greet the class, you are no longer aware of the ticking. The clock
meaning to this image. 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
One way to think of this concept is that sensation is a physical process, associated, sensation and perception are different.
whereas perception is psychological. For example, upon walking into a
kitchen and smelling the scent of baking cinnamon rolls, the sensation is
the scent receptors detecting the odor of cinnamon, but
ATTENTION AND PERCEPTION
There is another factor that affects sensation and perception: attention.
Attention plays a significant role in determining what is sensed versus
what is perceived. Imagine you are at a party full of music, chatter, and
laughter. You get involved in an interesting conversation with a friend, and
you tune out all the background noise. If someone interrupted you to ask
what song had just finished playing, you would probably be unable to
answer that question.

Failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of

attention is called inattentional blindness.

MOTIVATIONS, EXPECTATIONS, AND PERCEPTION

Motivation can also affect perception. Have you ever been expecting a
really important phone call and, while taking a shower, you think you hear
the phone ringing, only to discover that it is not? If so, then you have The lines appear to be different lengths, but they are actually the same
experienced how motivation to detect a meaningful stimulus can shift our length.
ability to discriminate between a true sensory stimulus and background
noise. The ability to identify a stimulus when it is embedded in a Figure 4. In the Müller-Lyer illusion, lines appear to be different lengths
distracting background is called signal detection theory. This might also although they are identical. (a) Arrows at the ends of lines may make the
explain why a mother is awakened by a quiet murmur from her baby but line on the right appear longer, although the lines are the same length. (b)
not by other sounds that occur while she is asleep. When applied to a three-dimensional image, the line on the right again
may appear longer although both black lines are the same length.
Our perceptions can also be affected by our beliefs, values, prejudices,
expectations, and life experiences. The shared experiences of people GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
within a given cultural context can have pronounced effects on 1. figure-ground – this is the fundamental way we organize visual
perception. For example, Marshall Segall, Donald Campbell, and Melville perceptions. When we look at an object, we see that object (figure)
Herskovits (1963) published the results of a multinational study in which and the background (ground) on which it sits.
they demonstrated that individuals from Western cultures were more
prone to experience certain types of visual illusions than individuals from
non-Western cultures, and vice versa. One such illusion that Westerners
were more likely to experience was the Müller-Lyer illusion:
2. simplicity/pragnanz (good form) – we group elements that make a
good form. However, the idea of “good form” is a little vague and
subjective. Most psychologists think good form is whatever is easiest
or most simple.
3. proximity – nearness=belongingness. Objects that are close to each
other in physical space are often perceived as belonging together.
4. similarity – do I really need to explain this one? As you probably
guessed, this one states that objects that are similar are perceived as
going together.
5. continuity – we follow whatever direction we are led. Dots in a
smooth curve appear to go together more than jagged angles. This
principle really gets at just how lazy humans are when it comes to
perception.
6. common fate – elements that move together tend to be grouped
together.
7. closure – we tend to complete a form when it has gaps.

GLOSSARY
• absolute threshold: minimum amount of stimulus energy that
must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time
• bottom-up processing: system in which perceptions are built
from sensory input
• inattentional blindness: failure to notice something that is
completely visible because of a lack of attention
• just noticeable difference: difference in stimuli required to
detect a difference between the stimuli
• mere-exposure effects: the result of developing a more positive
attitude towards a stimulus after repeated instances of mere
exposure to it.
• perception: way that sensory information is interpreted and
consciously experienced
• priming: the process by which recent experiences increase a
trait’s accessibility.
• sensation: what happens when sensory information is detected
by a sensory receptor
• signal detection theory: change in stimulus detection as a
function of current mental state
• subliminal message: message presented below the threshold of
conscious awareness
• top-down processing: interpretation of sensations is influenced
by available knowledge, experiences, and thoughts
• sensory adaptation: the reduction in sensitivity after prolonged
exposure to a stimulus
• transduction: conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action
potential
• Weber’s law: Ernst Weber’s discovery that the difference
threshold is a constant fraction of the original stimulus and bigger
stimuli require larger differences to be noticed