Ebook Download Sensation and Perception 11th Edition E. Bruce Goldstein - Ebook PDF All Chapter

Sensation and Perception 11th Edition
E. Bruce Goldstein - eBook PDF

Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebooksecure.com/download/sensation-and-perception-ebook-pdf/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
(Original PDF) Sensation and Perception 10th Edition by

E. Bruce Goldstein
http://ebooksecure.com/product/original-pdf-sensation-and-
perception-10th-edition-by-e-bruce-goldstein/
(eBook PDF) Sensation and Perception 6th Edition
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-sensation-and-
perception-6th-edition/
Sensation and Perception Second Edition (eBook PDF)
http://ebooksecure.com/product/sensation-and-perception-second-
edition-ebook-pdf/
Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and

Everyday Experience 5th Edition E. Bruce Goldstein -
eBook PDF
https://ebooksecure.com/download/cognitive-psychology-connecting-
mind-research-and-everyday-experience-ebook-pdf/
(eBook PDF) Sensation and Perception 2nd Edition by
Bennett L. Schwartz
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-sensation-and-
perception-2nd-edition-by-bennett-l-schwartz/
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2E 2nd Edition E. Bruce Goldstein

Adapter: Johanna C. Van Hooff - eBook PDF
https://ebooksecure.com/download/cognitive-psychology-2e-ebook-
pdf/
(eBook PDF) Sensation & Perception 5th Edition by

Jeremy M. Wolfe
http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-sensation-
perception-5th-edition-by-jeremy-m-wolfe/
Health Psychology 11th Edition Shelley E. Taylor -

eBook PDF
https://ebooksecure.com/download/health-psychology-ebook-pdf/
Microbiology: Practical Applications and Infection

Prevention 1 by Bruce Colbert
http://ebooksecure.com/product/microbiology-practical-
applications-and-infection-prevention-1-by-bruce-colbert/
Eleventh Edition
Sensation and Perception

E. Bruce Goldstein
University of Pittsburgh
University of Arizona
and
Laura Cacciamani
California Polytechnic State University
Australia ● Brazil ● Canada ● Mexico ● Singapore ● United Kingdom ● United States
Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions,
some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed
content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right
to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For
valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate
formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for
materials in your areas of interest.
Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product
text may not be available in the eBook version.
Sensation and Perception, © 2022, 2017, 2013 Cengage Learning, Inc.
Eleventh Edition WCN: 02-300
E. Bruce Goldstein and
Unless otherwise noted, all content is © Cengage.
Laura Cacciamani
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright
SVP, Higher Education & Skills Product:
herein may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,
Erin Joyner
except as permitted by U.S. copyright law, without the prior written
VP, Higher Education & Skills Product: permission of the copyright owner.
Thais Alencar
Product Director: Laura Ross For product information and technology assistance, contact us at
Associate Product Manager: Cazzie Reyes Cengage Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706
or support.cengage.com.
Product Assistant: Jessica Witczak
Learning Designer: Natasha Allen
For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all
Content Manager: Jacqueline Czel requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions.
Digital Delivery Lead: Scott Diggins
Director, Marketing: Neena Bali Library of Congress Control Number: 2021900075
Marketing Manager: Tricia Salata Student Edition:

ISBN: 978-0-357-44647-8
IP Analyst: Deanna Ettinger
IP Project Manager: Carly Belcher Loose-leaf Edition:
ISBN: 978-0-357-44648-5
Production Service: Lori Hazzard,
MPS Limited
Cengage
Art Director: Bethany Bourgeois 200 Pier 4 Boulevard
Cover Designer: Bethany Bourgeois Boston, MA 02210
USA
Cover Image Source: iStockphoto.com/
Chris LaBasco
Cengage is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with
employees residing in nearly 40 different countries and sales in more
than 125 countries around the world. Find your local representative at
www.cengage.com.
To learn more about Cengage platforms and services, register or access

your online learning solution, or purchase materials for your course,
visit www.cengage.com.
Printed in the United States of America

Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2021
To Barbara: It’s been a long and winding
road, but we made it all the way to the
11th edition! Thank you for your unwav-
ering love and support through all of the
editions of this book.
Bruce Goldstein
I also dedicate this book to the editors
I have had along the way, especially
Ken King, who convinced me to write
the book in 1977, and also those that
followed: Marianne Taflinger, Jaime
Perkins, and Tim Matray. Thank you all
for believing in my book and supporting
its creation.
Bruce Goldstein
To Zack, for supporting me through the

winding roads of academia and listening
to me ramble about research on many,
many occasions.
And to my mother, Debbie, for being my

Sarah Williams
life-long role model and demonstrating

what it means to be a compassionate,
persevering, independent woman.
Laura Cacciamani
About the Authors
E. BRUCE GOLDSTEIN is Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychology

at the University of Pittsburgh and is affiliated with the Department of
Psychology at the University of Arizona. He received the Chancellor’s
Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Pittsburgh for
his classroom teaching and textbook writing. He received his bachelor’s
degree in chemical engineering from Tufts University and his PhD in
experimental psychology from Brown University; he was a postdoctoral
fellow in the Biology Department at Harvard University before joining
the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Bruce has published papers
on a wide variety of topics, including retinal and cortical physiology,
visual attention, and the perception of pictures. He is the author of
Barbara Goldstein
Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience,

5th Edition (Cengage, 2019), The Mind: Consciousness, Prediction and the
Brain (MIT Press, 2020), and edited the Blackwell Handbook of Perception
(Blackwell, 2001) and the two-volume Sage Encyclopedia of Perception
(Sage, 2010). He is currently teaching the following courses at the
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, for learners over 50, at the University
of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Arizona:
Your Amazing Mind, Cognition and Aging, The Social and Emotional
Mind, and The Mystery and Science of Shadows. In 2016 he won “The
Flame Challenge” competition, sponsored by the Alan Alda Center for
Communicating Science, for his essay, written for 11-year-olds, on What
Is Sound? (see page 286).
LAURA CACCIAMANI is Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

in the Department of Psychology and Child Development at California
Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She received her bachelor’s
degree in psychology and biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon Uni-
versity and her MA and PhD in psychology with a minor in neuroscience
from the University of Arizona. She completed a two-year postdoctoral
fellowship at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute while also lec-
turing at California State University, East Bay before joining the faculty at
Cal Poly. Laura’s research focuses on the neural underpinnings of object
perception and memory, as well as the interactions between the senses.
She has published papers that have used behavioral, neuroimaging, and
neurostimulation techniques to investigate these topics in young adults,
Nesrine Majzoub
older adults, and people who are blind. Laura is also passionate about
teaching, mentoring, and involving students in research.
iv
Brief Contents
1 Introduction to Perception 3
2 Basic Principles of Sensory Physiology 21
3 The Eye and Retina 39
4 The Visual Cortex and Beyond 67
5 Perceiving Objects and Scenes 89
6 Visual Attention 123
7 Taking Action 149
8 Perceiving Motion 175
9 Perceiving Color 197
10 Perceiving Depth and Size 229
11 Hearing 263
12 Hearing in the Environment 291
13 Perceiving Music 311
14 Perceiving Speech 335
15 The Cutaneous Senses 357
16 The Chemical Senses 389
Appendix
A The Difference Threshold 417
B Magnitude Estimation and the Power Function 418
C The Signal Detection Approach 420

Glossary 426
References 445
Name Index 472
Subject Index 483
v
Contents
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Introduction to Perception 3 Basic Principles of Sensory

Physiology 21
1.1 Why Read This Book? 5

1.2 Why Is This Book Titled Sensation and 2.1 Electrical Signals in Neurons 21
Perception? 5 Recording Electrical Signals in Neurons 22
1.3 The Perceptual Process 6 METHOD | The Setup for Recording From a Single Neuron 22
Distal and Proximal Stimuli (Steps 1 and 2) 7 Basic Properties of Action Potentials 23
Receptor Processes (Step 3) 7 Chemical Basis of Action Potentials 24
Neural Processing (Step 4) 8 Transmitting Information Across a Gap 25
Behavioral Responses (Steps 5–7) 9 2.2 Sensory Coding: How Neurons Represent
Knowledge 10
Information 27
DEMONSTRATION | Perceiving a Picture 10
Specificity Coding 27
1.4 Studying the Perceptual Process 11 Sparse Coding 29
The Stimulus–Behavior Relationship (A) 11 Population Coding 29
The Stimulus–Physiology Relationship (B) 12 TEST YOuRSELF 2.1 30
The Physiology–Behavior Relationship (C) 13 2.3 Zooming Out: Representation in the Brain 30
TEST YOuRSELF 1.1 13
Mapping Function to Structure 30
1.5 Measuring Perception 13 METHOD | Brain Imaging 31
Measuring Thresholds 14 Distributed Representation 33
METHOD | Determining the Threshold 14 Connections Between Brain Areas 33
Measuring Perception Above Threshold 15 METHOD | The Resting State Method of Measuring Functional
METHOD | Magnitude Estimation 16 Connectivity 34
Something to Consider: Why Is the Difference Something to Consider: The Mind–Body Problem 35
Between Physical and Perceptual Important? 18 TEST YOuRSELF 2.2 36
TEST YOuRSELF 1.2 19 THINK ABOUT IT 37
THINK ABOUT IT 19 KEY TERMS 37
KEY TERMS 19
vi
Chapter 3 Chapter 4
The Eye and Retina 39 The Visual Cortex and Beyond 67
3.1 Light, the Eye, and the Visual Receptors 40 4.1 From Retina to Visual Cortex 67
Light: The Stimulus for Vision 40 Pathway to the Brain 68
The Eye 40 Receptive Fields of Neurons in the Visual Cortex 69
DEMONSTRATION | Becoming Aware of the Blind Spot 43 METHOD | Presenting Stimuli to Determine Receptive
DEMONSTRATION | Filling in the Blind Spot 43 Fields 69
3.2 Focusing Light Onto the Retina 43 4.2 The Role of Feature Detectors in Perception 72
Accommodation 43 Selective Adaptation 72
DEMONSTRATION | Becoming Aware of What Is in Focus 44 METHOD | Psychophysical Measurement of the Effect of
Refractive Errors 44 Selective Adaptation to Orientation 72
3.3 Photoreceptor Processes 45 Selective Rearing 74
Transforming Light Energy Into Electrical Energy 45 4.3 Spatial Organization in the Visual Cortex 75
Adapting to the Dark 46 The Neural Map in the Striate Cortex (V1) 75
METHOD | Measuring the Dark Adaptation Curve 46 DEMONSTRATION | Cortical Magnification of Your Finger 76
Spectral Sensitivity 49 The Cortex Is Organized in Columns 77
METHOD | Measuring a Spectral Sensitivity Curve 49 How V1 Neurons and Columns Underlie Perception
TEST YOURSELF 3.1 51 of a Scene 78
3.4 What Happens as Signals Travel Through
the Retina 51 4.4 Beyond the Visual Cortex 79
Rod and Cone Convergence 51 Streams for Information About What and Where 80
DEMONSTRATION | Foveal Versus Peripheral Acuity 54 METHOD | Brain Ablation 80
Ganglion Cell Receptive Fields 55 Streams for Information About What and How 81
METHOD | Double Dissociations in Neuropsychology 81
Something to Consider: Early Events Are Powerful 59
Developmental Dimension: Infant Visual Acuity 60 4.5 Higher-Level Neurons 83
Responses of Neurons in Inferotemporal Cortex 83
METHOD | Preferential Looking 60
Where Perception Meets Memory 85
THINK ABOUT IT 63 Something to Consider: “Flexible” Receptive Fields 86
KEY TERMS 64 TEST YOuRSELF 4.2 87

THINK ABOUT IT 87
KEY TERMS 87
Contents vii
Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Perceiving Objects and Scenes 89 Visual Attention 123
DEMONSTRATION | Perceptual Puzzles in a Scene 89 6.1 What Is Attention? 124

5.1 Why Is It So Difficult to Design a Perceiving 6.2 The Diversity of Attention Research 124
Machine? 91 Attention to an Auditory Message: Cherry and Broadbent’s
The Stimulus on the Receptors Is Ambiguous 91 Selective Listening Experiments 124
Objects Can Be Hidden or Blurred 93 Attention to a Location in Space: Michael Posner’s Precueing
Objects Look Different From Different Viewpoints 94 Experiment 125
5.2 Perceptual Organization 94 METHOD | Precueing 125
The Gestalt Approach to Perceptual Grouping 94 Attention as a Mechanism for Binding Together an Object’s
Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization 96 Features: Anne Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory 126
Perceptual Segregation 99 DEMONSTRATION | Visual Search 126
TEST YOuRSELF 5.1 102 6.3 What Happens When We Scan a Scene by Moving
5.3 Recognition by Components 102 Our Eyes? 127
5.4 Perceiving Scenes and Objects in Scenes 103 Scanning a Scene with Eye Movements 127
Perceiving the Gist of a Scene 103 How Does the Brain Deal with What Happens When the Eyes
METHOD | Using a Mask to Achieve Brief Stimulus Move? 128
Presentations 104 6.4 Things That Influence Visual Scanning 130
Regularities in the Environment: Information for Visual Salience 130
Perceiving 105 DEMONSTRATION | Attentional Capture 130
DEMONSTRATION | Visualizing Scenes and Objects 106 The Observer’s Interests and Goals 131
The Role of Inference in Perception 107 Scene Schemas 131
TEST YOuRSELF 5.2 109 Task Demands 132
5.5 Connecting Neural Activity and Object/Scene TEST YOuRSELF 6.1 133
Perception 110 6.5 The Benefits of Attention 133
Brain Responses to Objects and Faces 110 Attention Speeds Responding 133
Brain Responses to Scenes 113 Attention Influences Appearance 134
The Relationship Between Perception and Brain 6.6 The Physiology of Attention 135
Activity 113 Attention to Objects Increases Activity in Specific Areas
Neural Mind Reading 114 of the Brain 135
METHOD | Neural Mind Reading 114 Attention to Locations Increases Activity in Specific Areas
Something to Consider: The Puzzle of Faces 116 of the Brain 135
Developmental Dimension: Infant Face Attention Shifts Receptive Fields 136
Perception 118 6.7 What Happens When We Don’t Attend? 136
TEST YOuRSELF 5.3 120 DEMONSTRATION | Change Detection 137

THINK ABOUT IT 120 6.8 Distraction by Smartphones 138
KEY TERMS 121 Smartphone Distractions While Driving 138
Distractions Beyond Driving 139
6.9 Disorders of Attention: Spatial Neglect and
Extinction 141
Something to Consider: Focusing Attention by
Meditating 142
Developmental Dimension: Infant Attention and
Learning Object Names 143
METHOD | Head-Mounted Eye Tracking 144
viii Contents
TEST YOuRSELF 6.2 145 Perceiving Objects 176
THINK ABOUT IT 145 Perceiving Events 176
KEY TERMS 146 Social Perception 177
Taking Action 178
Chapter 7 8.2 Studying Motion Perception 179
When Do We Perceive Motion? 179
Taking Action 149 Comparing Real and Apparent Motion 180
Two Real-Life Situations We Want to Explain 180
8.3 The Ecological Approach to Motion
Perception 181
8.4 The Corollary Discharge and Motion
Perception 181
7.1 The Ecological Approach to Perception 150 8.5 The Reichardt Detector 182
The Moving Observer Creates Information in the 8.6 Single-Neuron Responses to Motion 183
Environment 150 Experiments Using Moving Dot Displays 184
Reacting to Information Created by Movement 151 Lesioning the MT Cortex 185
The Senses Work Together 152 Deactivating the MT Cortex 185
DEMONSTRATION | Keeping Your Balance 152 METHOD | Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) 185
Affordances: What Objects Are Used for 152 Stimulating the MT Cortex 185
7.2 Staying on Course: Walking and Driving 154 METHOD | Microstimulation 185
Walking 154 8.7 Beyond Single-Neuron Responses to Motion 186
Driving a Car 155 The Aperture Problem 187
7.3 Finding Your Way Through the Environment 155 DEMONSTRATION | Movement of a Bar Across an Aperture 187
The Importance of Landmarks 156 Solutions to the Aperture Problem 187
Cognitive Maps: The Brain’s “GPS” 157 8.8 Motion and the Human Body 188
Individual Differences in Wayfinding 158 Apparent Motion of the Body 188
TEST YOuRSELF 7.1 159 Biological Motion Studied by Point-Light Walkers 188
7.4 Interacting with Objects: Reaching, Grasping, 8.9 Motion Responses to Still Pictures 190
and Lifting 160 Something to Consider: Motion, Motion, and More
Reaching and Grasping 160
Motion 192
Lifting the Bottle 162
Adjusting the Grip 163 Developmental Dimension: Infants Perceive Biological
7.5 Observing Other People’s Actions 164
Motion 192
Mirroring Others’ Actions in the Brain 164
THINK ABOUT IT 194
Predicting People’s Intentions 165
KEY TERMS 194
7.6 Action-Based Accounts of Perception 167
Something to Consider: Prediction is Everywhere 168 Chapter 9
Developmental Dimension: Infant Affordances 169
TEST YOuRSELF 7.2 171 Perceiving Color 197
THINK ABOUT IT 171
KEY TERMS 172
Chapter 8
Perceiving Motion 175
9.1 Functions of Color Perception 198

9.2 Color and Light 199
Reflectance and Transmission 200
Color Mixing 201
9.3 Perceptual Dimensions of Color 203
8.1 Functions of Motion Perception 176 TEST YOuRSELF 9.1 204
Detecting Things 176
Contents ix
9.4 The Trichromacy of Color Vision 204 10.5 The Physiology of Binocular Depth
A Little History 204 Perception 243
Color-Matching Evidence for Trichromacy 205 10.6 Depth Information Across Species 244
METHOD | Color Matching 205 TEST YOuRSELF 10.1 246
Measuring the Characteristics of the Cone Receptors 205 10.7 Perceiving Size 247
The Cones and Trichromatic Color Matching 206
The Holway and Boring Experiment 247
Color Vision with Only One Pigment: Monochromacy 207
Size Constancy 250
Color Vision with Two Pigments: Dichromacy 208
DEMONSTRATION | Perceiving Size at a Distance 250
DEMONSTRATION | Size–Distance Scaling and Emmert’s
9.5 The Opponency of Color Vision 210
Law 250
Behavioral Evidence for Opponent-Process Theory 210
10.8 Illusions of Depth and Size 252
METHOD | Hue Cancellation 211
The Müller-Lyer Illusion 252
Physiological Evidence for Opponent-Process Theory 211
DEMONSTRATION | The Müller-Lyer Illusion with Books 253
Questioning the Idea of Unique Hues 213
The Ponzo Illusion 254
9.6 Color Areas in the Cortex 213
The Ames Room 254
Something to Consider: The Changing Moon 255
9.7 Color in the World: Beyond Wavelength 215
Color Constancy 215
Developmental Dimension: Infant Depth
DEMONSTRATION | Adapting to Red 216 Perception 257
Lightness Constancy 220 Binocular Disparity 257
Pictorial Cues 257
DEMONSTRATION | The Penumbra and Lightness
METHOD | Preferential Reaching 258
Perception 222
DEMONSTRATION | Perceiving Lightness at a Corner 222
Think About It 259
Something to Consider: We Perceive Color from Key Terms 259
Colorless Wavelengths 223
Developmental Dimension: Infant Color Vision 225 Chap ter 11
Think About It 226 Hearing 263
KEY TERMS 227
Chapter 10
Perceiving Depth and Size 229
11.1 Physical Aspects of Sound 264

Sound as Pressure Changes 264
Pure Tones 265
METHOD | Using Decibels to Shrink Large Ranges
of Pressures 266
10.1 Perceiving Depth 229 Complex Tones and Frequency Spectra 267
10.2 Oculomotor Cues 231 11.2 Perceptual Aspects of Sound 268
DEMONSTRATION | Feelings in Your Eyes 231 Thresholds and Loudness 268
10.3 Monocular Cues 231 Pitch 270
Pictorial Cues 231 Timbre 271
Motion-Produced Cues 234 TEST YOuRSELF 11.1 271
DEMONSTRATION | Deletion and Accretion 234 11.3 From Pressure Changes to Electrical Signals 272
10.4 Binocular Depth Information 236 The Outer Ear 272

The Middle Ear 272
DEMONSTRATION | Two Eyes: Two Viewpoints 236
The Inner Ear 273
Seeing Depth with Two Eyes 236
Binocular Disparity 238 11.4 How Frequency Is Represented in the Auditory
Disparity (Geometrical) Creates Stereopsis (Perceptual) 240 Nerve 276
The Correspondence Problem 242 Békésy Discovers How the Basilar Membrane Vibrates 276
x Contents
The Cochlea Functions as a Filter 277 Interactions in the Brain 307
METHOD | Neural Frequency Tuning Curves 278 Echolocation in Blind People 307
The Outer Hair Cells Function as Cochlear Amplifiers 278 Listening to or Reading a Story 308
TEST YOuRSELF 11.2 279 TEST YOuRSELF 12.2 309
11.5 The Physiology of Pitch Perception: The Cochlea 280 Think About It 309
Key Terms 309
Place and Pitch 280
Temporal Information and Pitch 281
Problems Remaining to Be Solved 281 Chapter 13
11.6 The Physiology of Pitch Perception:
The Brain 282 Perceiving Music 311
The Pathway to the Brain 282

Pitch and the Brain 282
11.7 Hearing Loss 284
Presbycusis 284
Noise-Induced Hearing Loss 284
Hidden Hearing Loss 285
Something to Consider: Explaining Sound to 13.1 What Is Music? 311
an 11-Year Old 286 13.2 Does Music Have an Adaptive Function? 312
Developmental Dimension: Infant Hearing 286
13.3 Outcomes of Music 313
Thresholds and the Audibility Curve 286 Musical Training Improves Performance in Other Areas 313
Recognizing Their Mother’s Voice 287 Music Elicits Positive Feelings 313
Music Evokes Memories 313
THINK ABOUT IT 288
KEY TERMS 288
13.4 Musical Timing 314
The Beat 315
Meter 315
Chapter 12
Rhythm 316
Hearing in the Environment 291
Syncopation 316
The Power of the Mind 317
13.5 Hearing Melodies 319
Organized Notes 319
Intervals 319
Trajectories 320
Tonality 320
12.1 Sound Source Localization 292 13.6 Creating Emotions 321
Binaural Cues for Sound Localization 293 Structural Features Linking Music and Emotion 322
Spectral Cues for Localization 294 Expectancy and Emotion in Music 323
METHOD | Studying Syntax in Language Using the
12.2 The Physiology of Auditory Localization 296
Event-Related Potential 323
The Jeffress Neural Coincidence Model 296
Physiological Mechanisms of Musical Emotions 325
Broad ITD Tuning Curves in Mammals 297
Cortical Mechanisms of Localization 298 Something to Consider: Comparing Music and
12.3 Hearing Inside Rooms 299 Language Mechanisms in the Brain 327
Perceiving Two Sounds That Reach the Ears at Different Evidence for Shared Mechanisms 327
Times 300 Evidence for Separate Mechanisms 327
Architectural Acoustics 301 Developmental Dimension: How Infants Respond to

TEST YOuRSELF 12.1 302 the Beat 329
12.4 Auditory Scene Analysis 302 Newborns’ Response to the Beat 329
Simultaneous Grouping 303 Older Infants’ Movement to the Beat 329
Sequential Grouping 303 Infants’ Response to Bouncing to the Beat 329
METHOD | Head-Turning Preference Procedure 330
Something to Consider: Interactions Between Hearing
and Vision 306 13.7 Coda: Music Is “Special” 330
The Ventriloquism Effect 306 TEST YOuRSELF 13.2 331

The Two-Flash Illusion 306 THINK ABOUT IT 331
Understanding Speech 306 KEY TERMS 331
Contents xi
Chapter 14 Mechanoreceptors 358
Pathways From Skin to Cortex and Within the Cortex 359
Perceiving Speech 335 Somatosensory Areas in the Cortex 361
15.2 Perceiving Details 362
METHOD | Measuring Tactile Acuity 363
Receptor Mechanisms for Tactile Acuity 363
DEMONSTRATION | Comparing Two-Point Thresholds 364
Cortical Mechanisms for Tactile Acuity 364
15.3 Perceiving Vibration and Texture 365
Vibration of the Skin 365
14.1 The Speech Stimulus 336
Surface Texture 366
The Acoustic Signal 336
DEMONSTRATION | Perceiving Texture with a Pen 367
Basic Units of Speech 337
14.2 Variability of the Acoustic Signal 338
15.4 Perceiving Objects 368
Variability From Context 338
DEMONSTRATION | Identifying Objects 368
Variability in Pronunciation 339
Identifying Objects by Haptic Exploration 368
14.3 Some History: The Motor Theory of Speech The Cortical Physiology of Tactile Object Perception 369
Perception 340 15.5 Social Touch 371
The Proposed Connection Between Production and Sensing Social Touch 371
Perception 340 The Social Touch Hypothesis 371
The Proposal That “Speech Is Special” 340 Social Touch and the Brain 372
Top-Down Influences on Social Touch 372
14.4 Information for Speech Perception 342
Motor Processes 342 Pain Perception
The Face and Lip Movements 343 15.6 The Gate Control Model of Pain 373
Knowledge of Language 344 15.7 Top-Down Processes 374
The Meaning of Words in Sentences 345 Expectation 375
DEMONSTRATION | Perceiving Degraded Sentences 345 Attention 375
DEMONSTRATION | Organizing Strings of Sounds 346 Emotions 376
Learning About Words in a Language 346 TEST YOuRSELF 15.2 376
15.8 The Brain and Pain 376
14.5 Speech Perception in Difficult Brain Areas 376
Circumstances 347 Chemicals and the Brain 377
14.6 Speech Perception and the Brain 349 15.9 Social Aspects of Pain 378
Something to Consider: Cochlear Implants 351 Pain Reduction by Social Touch 379
Developmental Dimension: Infant-Directed The Effect of Observing Someone Else’s Pain 379
Speech 353 The “Pain” of Social Rejection 380

TEST YOuRSELF 14.3 354 Something to Consider: Plasticity and the Brain 382
THINK ABOUT IT 355 Developmental Dimension: Social Touch in Infants 383
KEY TERMS 355 TEST YOuRSELF 15.3 385
THINK ABOUT IT 385
Chapter 15 KEY TERMS 386
The Cutaneous Senses 357 Chapter 16
The Chemical Senses 389
Perception by the Skin and Hands

15.1 Overview of the Cutaneous System 358 16.1 Some Properties of the Chemical Senses 390
The Skin 358 16.2 Taste Quality 390
xii Contents
Basic Taste Qualities 391 Something to Consider: The Community of the
Connections Between Taste Quality and a Substance’s Senses 411
Effect 391 Correspondences 412
16.3 The Neural Code for Taste Quality 391 Influences 412
Structure of the Taste System 391 Developmental Dimension: Infant Chemical
Population Coding 393 Sensitivity 413
Specificity Coding 394 TEST YOuRSELF 16.3 415
16.4 Individual Differences in Taste 396 THINK ABOUT IT 415
TEST YOuRSELF 16.1 397 KEY TERMS 415
16.5 The Importance of Olfaction 397
16.6 Olfactory Abilities 398 appendix
Detecting Odors 398
Identifying Odors 398 A The Difference Threshold 417
DEMONSTRATION | Naming and Odor Identification
Individual Differences in Olfaction 398
398
B Magnitude Estimation
Loss of Smell in COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s Disease 399 and the Power Function 418
16.7 Analyzing Odorants: The Mucosa and
Olfactory Bulb 400
C The Signal Detection
The Puzzle of Olfactory Quality 400 Approach 420
The Olfactory Mucosa 401 A Signal Detection Experiment 420
How Olfactory Receptor Neurons Respond to Odorants 401 The Basic Experiment 421
METHOD | Calcium Imaging 402 Payoffs 421
The Search for Order in the Olfactory Bulb 403 What Does the ROC Curve Tell Us? 422
Signal Detection Theory 423
16.8 Representing Odors in the Cortex 405 Signal and Noise 423
How Odorants Are Represented in the Piriform Cortex 405 Probability Distributions 423
How Odor Objects Are Represented in the Piriform The Criterion 423
Cortex 406 The Effect of Sensitivity on the ROC Curve 424
How Odors Trigger Memories 407
Glossary 426
16.9 The Perception of Flavor 408
DEMONSTRATION | Tasting With and Without the Nose 408 References 445
Taste and Olfaction Meet in the Mouth and Nose 408 Name Index 472
Taste and Olfaction Meet in the Nervous System 408
Flavor Is Influenced by Cognitive Factors 410 Subject Index 483
Flavor Is Influenced by Food Intake: Sensory-Specific
Satiety 410
Contents xiii
Methods
Determining the Threshold 14 Neural Mind Reading 114

Magnitude Estimation 16 Precueing 125
The Setup for Recording From a Single Neuron 22 Head-Mounted Eye Tracking 144
Brain Imaging 31 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) 185
The Resting State Method of Measuring Functional Microstimulation 185
Connectivity 34 Color Matching 205
Measuring the Dark Adaptation Curve 46 Hue Cancellation 211
Measuring a Spectral Sensitivity Curve 49 Preferential Reaching 258
Preferential Looking 60 Using Decibels to Shrink Large Ranges of Pressures 266
Presenting Stimuli to Determine Receptive Fields 69 Neural Frequency Tuning Curves 278
Psychophysical Measurement of the Effect Studying Syntax in Language Using the Event-Related
of Selective Adaptation to Orientation 72 Potential 323
Brain Ablation 80 Head-Turning Preference Procedure 330
Double Dissociations in Neuropsychology 81 Measuring Tactile Acuity 363
Using a Mask to Achieve Brief Stimulus Presentations 104 Calcium Imaging 402
xiv
Demonstrations
Perceiving a Picture 10 Perceiving Lightness at a Corner 222

Becoming Aware of the Blind Spot 43 Feelings in Your Eyes 231
Filling in the Blind Spot 43 Deletion and Accretion 234
Becoming Aware of What Is in Focus 44 Two Eyes: Two Viewpoints 236
Foveal Versus Peripheral Acuity 54 Perceiving Size at a Distance 250
Cortical Magnification of Your Finger 76 Size–Distance Scaling and Emmert’s Law 250
Perceptual Puzzles in a Scene 89 The Müller-Lyer Illusion with Books 253
Visualizing Scenes and Objects 106 Perceiving Degraded Sentences 345
Visual Search 126 Organizing Strings of Sounds 346
Attentional Capture 130 Comparing Two-Point Thresholds 364
Change Detection 137 Perceiving Texture with a Pen 367
Keeping Your Balance 152 Identifying Objects 368
Movement of a Bar Across an Aperture 187 Naming and Odor Identification 398
Adapting to Red 216 Tasting With and Without the Nose 408
The Penumbra and Lightness Perception 222
xv
Preface
by Bruce Goldstein
A long, long time ago, Ken King, the psychology editor

of Wadsworth Publishing Co., knocked on the door to
my office at the University of Pittsburgh, came in, and
proposed that I write a textbook titled Sensation and Perception.
This led me to begin writing the first edition of Sensation and Per-
book was popular, largely because of my decision to present
not just facts, but also to present the story and reasoning be-
hind the facts.
The producers of Star Wars had no idea, when they released
their first movie, that it would give birth to a franchise that is
ception in 1977, the year Star Wars made its debut in theaters and still alive today. Similarly, I had no idea, when the first edition
when the first mass-market personal computer was introduced. of Sensation and Perception was published, that it would be the
While Luke Skywalker was dealing with Darth Vader and first of 11 editions.
was working to master the Force, I was dealing with under- The book you are reading was, in a sense, born as the first
standing the perception literature and was working to pres- edition was being written in 1977. But a lot has happened since
ent the results in this literature as a story that would be both then. One indication of this is the graph in Figure P.2, which
interesting to students and would help them understand how plots the number of references in this edition by decade. Most
perception works. of the references to the left of the dashed line appeared in the
How do you tell a story in a textbook? This is a problem I first edition. The ones to the right were published after the first
grappled with when writing the first edition, because while the edition.
textbooks available at that time presented “the facts,” they did Another measure of the evolution of this book is pro-
so in a way that wasn’t very interesting or inviting to students. vided by the illustrations. The first edition had 313 illustra-
I decided, therefore, that I would create a story about perceptions. Of these, 116 have made it all the way to this edition
tion that was a narrative in which one idea followed from (but transformed from black and white into color). This edi-
another and that related the results of research to everyday tion has 440 illustrations that weren’t in the first edition, for
experience—a story describing both the historical background a total of 556.
behind scientific discoveries and the reasoning behind scien- But enough history. Most users of this book are probably
tific conclusions. The result was the first edition of Sensation more interested in “what have you done for the book lately?”
and Perception, which was published in 1980 (Figure P.1). The Returning to illustrations, 90 of the illustrations in this edition
406 410
400
Number of references
300
200 198
117
100 80
57
26 34
13
17
0
Before 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
1940 Decades
Figure P.2 The number of reference citations in this edition, by

decade. For example, 1970 includes all references dated from
1970 to 1979. This means that all of the references to the right
of the dashed vertical line appeared 1980 or after, and so were
Figure P.1 The cover of the first edition of Sensation and Perception in editions after the first edition. The line on the right is dashed
(1980), which featured a reproduction of the painting Vega-Nor 1960, by because it connects to 2020, which includes references only from
Victor Vasarely, from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. 2020 and the beginning of 2021, not a whole decade.
xvi
are new since the 10th edition. There’s much more that’s new expanded in this edition. This feature, which appears at
since the 10th edition when it comes to content, which I’ll get the end of chapters, focuses on perception in infants and
to shortly. But first, one of the most important things about young children.
this edition is that it still contains the popular content and
teaching features that have been standbys for many editions.
These features are as follows: The following feature provides digital learning opportu-
nities that support the material in the text:
MindTap for Sensation and Perception engages and
Features
■■
empowers students to produce their best work—

consistently. For those courses that include MindTap,
The following features focus on student engagement and the textbook is supplemented with videos, activities,
learning: apps, and much more. MindTap creates a unique
■■ Learning Objectives. Learning Objectives, which pro- learning path that fosters increased comprehension
vide a preview of what students can expect to learn and efficiency.
from each chapter, appear at the beginning of each For students:
chapter.
■■ MindTap delivers real-world relevance with activities and
■■ Test Yourself. Test Yourself questions appear in the assignments that help students build critical thinking and
middle and at the end of each chapter. These questions analytic skills that will transfer to other courses and their
are broad enough that students have to unpack the ques- professional lives.
tions themselves, thereby making students more active
participants in their studying. ■■ MindTap helps students stay organized and efficient with
a single destination that reflects what’s important to the
■■ Think About It. The Think About It section at the end instructor, along with the tools students need to master
of each chapter poses questions that require students to the content.
apply what they have learned and that take them beyond
the material in the chapter. ■■ MindTap empowers and motivates students with infor-
mation that shows where they stand at all times—both
The following feature enables students to participate in individually and compared to the highest performers in
perceptual activities related to what they are reading: class.
■■ Demonstrations. Demonstrations have been a popular Additionally, for instructors, MindTap allows you to:
feature of this book for many editions. They are inte-
grated into the flow of the text and are easy enough to ■■ Control what content students see and when they see it
be carried out with little trouble, thereby maximizing with a learning path that can be used as is, or matched to
the probability that students will do them. See list on your syllabus exactly.
page xv.
■■ Create a unique learning path of relevant readings, multi-
The following features highlight different categories of media, and activities that move students up the learning
material: taxonomy from basic knowledge and comprehension to
■■ Methods. It is important not only to present the analysis, application, and critical thinking.
facts of perception, but also to make students ■■ Integrate your own content into the MindTap Reader,
aware of how these facts were obtained. Highlighted using your own documents or pulling from sources
Methods sections, which are integrated into the ongoing like RSS feeds, YouTube videos, websites, Google Docs,
discussion, emphasize the importance of methods, and the and more.
highlighting makes it easier to refer back to them when
referenced later in the book. See list on page xiv. ■■ Use powerful analytics and reports that provide a snap-
shot of class progress, time in course, engagement, and
■■ Something to Consider. This end-of-chapter completion.
feature offers the opportunity to consider especially
interesting phenomena and new findings. A few In addition to the benefits of the platform, MindTap for
examples include The Puzzle of Faces (Chapter 5), Sensation and Perception includes:
Focusing Attention by Meditating (Chapter 6), The ■■ Exploration. The MindTap Exploration feature enables
Changing Moon (Chapter 10), and Community of the students to view experimental stimuli, perceptual
Senses (Chapter 16). demonstrations, and short film clips about the
■■ Developmental Dimensions. The Developmental Dimen- research being discussed. These features have been
sion feature, which was introduced in the ninth edition, updated in this edition, and new items have been
has proven to be popular and so has been continued and added to the labs carried over from the ninth edition.
Preface xvii
Most of these items have been generously provided the next; (2) Updating: Material describing new experi-
by researchers in vision, hearing, and perceptual mental results and new approaches in the field has been
development. added. New “Developmental Dimensions” topics are in-
dicated by DD and new “Something to Consider” topics
by STC.
New to This Edition Perceptual Principles (Chapters 1–4)

The initial chapters, which introduce basic concepts and
This edition offers many improvements in organization, research approaches, have been completely reorganized to
designed to make the text read more smoothly and flow make the opening of the book more inviting to students,
more logically. In addition, each chapter has been updated to create a more logical and smooth flow, and to include all
to highlight new advances in the field, supported by many of the senses up-front. Discussing a number of senses in
new references. Here are a few examples of changes in this Chapter 2 corrects a problem perceived by some teachers,
edition. who felt that the opening of the 10th edition was too “vision-
centric.” Chapter 2 also contains a new section discussing
Key Terms New to This Edition structural and functional connectivity.
The following key terms represent methods, concepts, and Perceiving Objects and Scenes (Chapter 5)
topics that are new to this edition: ■■ Updated section on computer vision
Aberration Mild cognitive impairment ■■ Predictive coding
■■ Pre-wiring of functional connectivity for faces in human
Action affordance Mind wandering
infants
Adaptive optical imaging Multimodal interactions
Adult-directed speech Munsell color system Visual Attention (Chapter 6)
Affective function of touch Music-evoked autobiograph- ■■ Predictive remapping of attention
Alzheimer’s disease ical memory (MEAM) ■■ Mere presence of smartphones can negatively impact
Arch trajectory Musical phrases performance.
Novelty-preference ■■ Head-mounted tracking devices to measure infant
Automatic speech
procedure attention
recognition (ASR)
■■ STC: Focusing Attention by Meditating
Cloze probability task Odor-evoked autobio-
■■ DD: Infant Attention and Learning Object Names
COVID-19 graphical memory
Dopamine Predictive coding Taking Action (Chapter 7)
Duple meter Predictive remapping of ■■ New material on proprioception
attention Hippocampus-related navigation differences in non-taxi
Early right anterior ■■
negativity (ERAN) Seed location drivers

Semitone ■■ STC: Prediction Is Everywhere
Experience sampling
Social pain ■■ DD: Infant Affordances
Figural cues
Functional connectivity Social touch Perceiving Motion (Chapter 8)
Hand dystonia Social touch hypothesis
■■ Changes in motion perception over the first year
Head-mounted eye tracking Sustentacular cell ■■ Motion and social perception
Interpersonal touching Syncopation ■■ STC: Motion, Motion, and More Motion
Syntax, musical
Meditation Perceiving Color (Chapter 9)
Metrical structure Task-related fMRI
Temporal structure ■■ Color and judging emotions of facial expressions
Microneurography ■■ Reevaluation of the idea of “unique hues”
Triple meter
■■ Social functions of color
■■ Color areas in cortex sandwiched between face and
place areas
Revisions and New Material ■■ #TheDress and what it tells us about individual
Each chapter has been revised in two ways: (1) Organi- differences and color constancy
zation: Chapters and sections within chapters have been ■■ Novelty-preference procedure for determining infant
reorganized to achieve smoother f low from one idea to color categorization
xviii Preface
Perceiving Depth and Size (Chapter 10) ■■ Cazzie Reyes, Associate Product Manager, for providing
resources to support the book.
■■ Praying mantis cinema used to test binocular depth ■■ Jacqueline (Jackie) Czel, Content Manager, for coordinat-
perception ing all of the components of the book as it was being
■■ STC: The Changing Moon
produced.
Hearing (Chapter 11) ■■ Lori Hazzard, Senior Project Manager of MPS Limited,
for taking care of the amazing number of details in-

■■ STC: Explaining Sound to an 11-Year-Old volved in turning my manuscript into a book. Thank
you, Lori, not only for taking care of details, but for
Hearing in the Environment (Chapter 12)
your flexibility and your willingness to take care of all of
■■ Human echolocation those “special requests” that I made during the produc-
■■ STC: Interactions Between Hearing and Vision tion process.
■■ Bethany Bourgeois, for the striking cover.
Perceiving Music (Chapter 13)
■■ Heather Mann, for her expert and creative
■■ New chapter, greatly expanding coverage of music, which copyediting.
was part of Chapter 12 in the 10th edition
In addition to the help received from people on the edito-
■■ Music and social bonding
rial and production side, Laura and I also received a great
■■ Therapeutic effects of music
deal of help from perception researchers. One of the things I
■■ Infant emotional response to music
have learned in my years of writing is that other people’s ad-
■■ Chemistry of musical emotions
vice is crucial. The field of perception is a broad one, and we
■■ Effect of syncopation on music-elicited movement
have relied heavily on the advice of experts in specific areas
■■ Cross-cultural similarities
to alert us to emerging new research and to check the con-
■■ Music and prediction
tent for accuracy. The following is a list of “expert reviewers,”
■■ Behavioral and physiological differences between music
who checked the relevant chapter from the 10th edition for
and speech
accuracy and completeness, and provided suggestions for
■■ DD: How Infants Respond to the Beat
updating.
Perceiving Speech (Chapter 14)
■■ Role of motor processes in speech perception Chapter 5 Bevil Conway
■■ STC: Cochlear Implants Joseph Brooks Wellesley College
■■ DD: Infant-Directed Speech Keele University
Chapter 10
The Cutaneous Senses (Chapter 15) Chapter 6 Gregory DeAngeles
■■ Social touch and CT afferents Marisa Carrasco University of Rochester
■■ Cortical responses to surface texture New York University Jenny Read
■■ Top-down influences on social touch University of Newcastle
John McDonald
■■ Pain reduction by social touching
Simon-Fraser University Andrew Welchman
■■ Pre- and post-partum touch perception
University of Cambridge
■■ STC: Plasticity and the Brain Chapter 7
■■ DD: Social Touch in Infants
Sarah Creem-Reghr Chapter 11
The Chemical Senses (Chapter 16) University of Utah Daniel Bendor
Jonathan Marotta University College London
■■ Comparing human and animal perception of scent
■■ Music can influence flavor University of Manitoba Nicholas Lesica
■■ Color can influence flavor University College London
■■ Odors can influence attention and performance
Chapter 8
■■ Loss of smell in COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s Emily Grossman Chapter 12
■■ STC: Community of the Senses University of California, Irvine Yale Cohen
Duje Tadin University of Pennsylvania
Acknowledgments University of Rochester John Middlebrooks

University of California, Irvine
Chapter 9
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the following people who William Yost
worked tirelessly to turn the manuscript into an actual book. David Brainard
University of Pennsylvania Arizona State University
Without these people, this book would not exist, and both
Laura and I are grateful to all of them.
Preface xix
Chapter 13
Bill Thompson
Chapter 15
Sliman Bensmaia A Note on the Writing
Macquarie University University of Chicago
Tor Wager
of this Edition
Chapter 14
Dartmouth College Taking the 10th edition as our starting point, this edition
Laura Dilley was created by myself (B. G.) and Laura Cacciamani. Laura
Michigan State University Chapter 16 revised Chapters 1–5, and is therefore responsible for the
Phil Monahan Donald Wilson greatly improved organization of Chapters 1–4, which intro-
University of Toronto New York University duce the field of perception and which set the stage for the
discussion of the different aspects of perception in the chap-
Howard Nussbaum ters that follow. I revised Chapters 6–16. We read and com-
University of Chicago mented on each other’s chapters and made suggestions re-
garding both the writing and the content, so this was, in a
I also thank the following people who donated photographs very real sense, a collaborative project.
and research records for illustrations that are new to this
edition.
Sliman Bensmaia Jenny Reed

University of Chicago University of Newcastle
Jack Gallant István Winkler
University of California, University of Helsinki
Berkeley
Chen Yu
Daniel Kish Indiana University
Visoneers.org
xx Preface
Eleventh Edition
Sensation and Perception
Perception is a miracle. Somehow,
the markings on this page become a
sidewalk, stone walls, and a quaint
ivy-covered house. Even more miracu-
lous is that if you were standing in the
real scene, the flat image on the back
of your eye is transformed into three-
dimensional space that you can walk
through. This book explains how this
miracle happens.
Bruce Goldstein
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to …
■■ Explain the seven steps of the perceptual process. ■■ Explain “absolute threshold” and “difference threshold” and the
■■ Differentiate between “top-down” and “bottom-up” processing. various methods that can be used to measure them.
■■ Describe how knowledge can influence perception. ■■ Describe how perception above threshold can be measured by
■■ Understand how perception can be studied by determining considering five questions about the perceptual world.
the relationships between stimulus and behavior, stimulus and ■■ Understand the importance of the distinction between physical
physiology, and physiology and behavior. stimuli and perceptual responses.
C ha p ter 1
Introduction
to Perception
Chapter Contents
1.1 Why Read This Book? 1.4 Studying the Perceptual METHOD: Magnitude Estimation
1.2 Why Is This Book Titled Process SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: Why is the
Sensation and Perception? The Stimulus–Behavior Relationship (A) Difference Between Physical and
The Stimulus–Physiology Relationship (B) Perceptual Important?
1.3 The Perceptual Process
The Physiology–Behavior Relationship (C)
Distal and Proximal Stimuli (Steps 1 Test Yourself 1.2
and 2) Test Yourself 1.1
THINK ABOUT IT
Receptor Processes (Step 3) 1.5 Measuring Perception
Neural Processing (Step 4) Measuring Thresholds
Behavioral Responses (Steps 5–7) METHOD: Determining the Threshold
Knowledge Measuring Perception Above Threshold
DEMONSTRATION: Perceiving a
Picture
Some Questions We Will Consider: similarities or identities between patterns of optical, electri-
cal, or tonal information, in a manner which may be closely
■■ Why should you read this book? (p. 5) analogous to the perceptual processes of a biological brain”
■■ What is the sequence of steps from looking at a stimulus (Rosenblatt, 1957). A truly astounding claim! And, in fact,
like a tree to perceiving the tree? (p. 6) Rosenblatt and other computer scientists in the 1950s and
■■ What is the difference between perceiving something and 1960s proposed that it would take only about a decade or
recognizing it? (p. 9) so to create a “perceiving machine,” like the Perceptron, that
could understand and navigate the environment with hu-
■■ How do perceptual psychologists go about measuring the
manlike ease.
varied ways that we perceive the environment? (p. 11)
So how did Rosenblatt’s Perceptron do in its attempt
I
to duplicate human perception? Not very well, since it took
n July of 1958, the New York Times published an intriguing 50 trials to learn the simple task of telling whether a card
article entitled, “Electronic ‘Brain’ Teaches Itself.” The arti- had a mark on the left or on the right, and it was unable to
cle described a new, potentially revolutionary technological carry out more complex tasks. It turns out that perception is
advancement: “… an electronic computer named the Percep- much more complex than Rosenblatt or his Perceptron could
tron which, when completed in about a year, is expected to be comprehend. This invention therefore received mixed feed-
the first non-living mechanism able to perceive, recognize, and back from the field, and ultimately this line of research was
identify its surroundings without human training or control.” dropped for many years. However, Rosenblatt’s idea that a
The first Perceptron, created by psychologist Frank Rosen- computer could be trained to learn perceptual patterns laid
blatt (1958), was a room-sized five-ton computer (Figure 1.1) the groundwork for a resurgence of interest in this area in the
that could teach itself to distinguish between basic images, 1980s, and many now consider Rosenblatt’s work to be a key
such as cards with markings on the left versus on the right. precursor to modern artificial intelligence (Mitchell, 2019;
Rosenblatt claimed that this device could “… learn to recognize Perez et al., 2017).
takes occur, as when a picture similar to the one in Figure 1.2b
was identified as “a young boy holding a baseball bat.” The
computer’s problem is that it doesn’t have the huge store-
house of information that humans begin accumulating as
soon as they are born. If a computer has never seen a tooth-
brush, it identifies it as something with a similar shape. And,
although the computer’s response to the airplane picture is
accurate, it is beyond the computer’s capabilities to recognize
that this is a picture of airplanes on display, perhaps at an air
show, and that the people are not passengers but are visit-
ing the air show. So on one hand, we have come a very long
way from the first attempts in the 1950s to design computer-
vision systems, but to date, humans still out-perceive com-
puters.
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

Why did early computer scientists think they would be
able to create a computer capable of human-like perception
within a decade or so, when it has actually taken over 60 years,
and we still aren’t there yet? One answer to this question is
that perception—the experiences that result from stimulation
of the senses—is something we usually accomplish so easily
that we often don’t even give it a second thought. Perception
seems to “just happen.” We open our eyes and see a landscape,
a campus building, or a group of people. But the reality, as you
will appreciate after reading this book, is that the mechanisms
responsible for perception are extremely complex.
Throughout this book, we’ll see many more examples il-
lustrating how complex and amazing perception is. Our goal is
Figure 1.1 Frank Rosenblatt’s original “Perceptron” machine.
to understand how humans and animals perceive, starting with
Now over 60 years later, although great strides have been the detectors—located in the eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose, and
made in computer vision, computers still can’t perceive as well mouth—and then moving on to the “computer”—the brain. We
as humans (Liu et al., 2019). Consider Figure 1.2, which shows want to understand how we sense things in the environment
pictures similar to those that were provided to a computer, and interact with them.
which then created descriptions for each image (Fei-Fei, 2015). In this chapter, we will consider some practical reasons for
For example, the computer identified a scene similar to the one studying perception, how perception occurs in a sequence of
in Figure 1.2a as “a large plane sitting on a runway.” But mis- steps, and how perception can be measured.
© Cengage 2021
(a) (b)
Figure 1.2 Pictures similar to one that a computer vision program identified as (a) “a large plane sitting on a runway” and (b) “a
young boy holding a baseball bat.” (Adapted from Fei-Fei, 2015)
4 Chapter 1 Introduction to Perception
1.1 Why Read This Book? seems likely that what you are seeing is what is actually there.
But one of the things you will learn as you study perception is
that everything you see, hear, taste, feel, or smell is the result of
The most obvious answer to the question “Why read this
the activity in your nervous system and your knowledge gained
book?” is that it is required reading for a course you are tak-
from past experience.
ing. Thus, it is probably an important thing to do if you want
Think about what this means. There are things out
to get a good grade. But beyond that, there are a number of
there that you want to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel. But
other reasons for reading this book. For one thing, it will
the only way to achieve this is by activating sensory receptors
provide you with information that may be helpful in other
in your body designed to respond to light energy, sound en-
courses and perhaps even your future career. If you plan to
ergy, chemical stimuli, and pressure on the skin. When you
go to graduate school to become a researcher or teacher in
run your fingers over the pages of this book, you feel the
perception or a related area, this book will provide you with
page and its texture because the pressure and movement are
a solid background to build on. In fact, many of the research
activating small receptors just below the skin. Thus, what-
studies you will read about were carried out by researchers
ever you are feeling depends on the activation of these recep-
who read earlier editions of this book when they were under-
tors. If the receptors weren’t there, you would feel nothing,
graduates.
or if they had different properties, you might feel something
The material in this book is also relevant to future stud-
different from what you feel now. This idea that perception
ies in medicine or related fields, because much of our discus-
depends on the properties of the sensory receptors is one of the
sion is about how the body operates. Medical applications
themes of this book.
that depend on an understanding of perception include
A few years ago, I received an email from a student (not
devices to restore perception to people who have lost vision
one of my own, but from another university) who was us-
or hearing and treatments for pain. Other applications in-
ing an earlier edition of this book.1 In her email, “Jenny”
clude autonomous vehicles that can find their way through
made a number of comments about the book, but the one
unfamiliar environments, face recognition systems that can
that struck me as being particularly relevant to the question
identify people as they pass through airport security, speech
“Why read this book?” is the following: “By reading your
recognition systems that can understand what someone is
book, I got to know the fascinating processes that take place
saying, and highway signs that are visible to drivers under a
every second in my brain, that are doing things I don’t even
variety of conditions.
think about.” Your reasons for reading this book may turn
But reasons to study perception extend beyond the pos-
out to be totally different from Jenny’s, but hopefully you
sibility of creating or understanding useful applications.
will find out some things that will be useful, or fascinating,
Studying perception can help you become more aware of the
or both.
nature of your own perceptual experiences. Many of the ev-
eryday experiences that you take for granted—such as tast-
1.2 Why Is This Book Titled

ing food, looking at a painting in a museum, or listening to
someone talking—can be appreciated at a deeper level by con-
sidering questions such as “Why do I lose my sense of taste
when I have a cold?” “How do artists create an impression of Sensation and Perception?
depth in a picture?” and “Why does an unfamiliar language
sound as if it is one continuous stream of sound, without You may have noticed that so far in our discussion we’ve used
breaks between words?” This book will not only answer these the word perception quite a lot, but haven’t mentioned sensa-
questions but will answer other questions that you may not tion, even though the title of this book is Sensation and Percep-
have thought of, such as “Why don’t I see colors at dusk?” tion. Why has sensation been ignored? To answer this question,
and “How come the scene around me doesn’t appear to move let’s consider the terms sensation and perception. When a dis-
as I walk through it?” Thus, even if you aren’t planning to tinction is made between sensation and perception, sensation
become a physician or an autonomous vehicle designer, you is often identified as involving simple “elementary” processes
will come away from reading this book with a heightened that occur right at the beginning of a sensory system, such as
appreciation of both the complexity and the beauty of the when light reaches the eye, sound waves enter the ear, or your
mechanisms responsible for your perceptual experiences, food touches your tongue. In contrast, perception is identified
and perhaps even with an enhanced awareness of the world with complex processes that involve higher-order mechanisms
around you. such as interpretation and memory that involve activity in
Because perception is something you experience con- the brain—for instance, identifying the food you’re eating
stantly, knowing about how it works is interesting in its own
right. To appreciate why, consider what you are experiencing 1
Who is “I”? In various places in the book you will see first-person references such
right now. If you touch the page of this book, or look out at as this one (“I received an email”) or others, like “a student in my class,” or “I tell my
students,” or “I had an interesting experience.” Because this book has two authors,
what’s around you, you might get the feeling that you are you may wonder who I or my is. The answer is that, unless otherwise noted, it is
perceiving exactly what is “out there” in the environment. After author B. G., because most of the first-person references in this edition are carried
all, touching this page puts you in direct contact with it, and it over from the 10th edition.
1.2 Why Is This Book Titled Sensation and Perception? 5
in modern research papers (mainly in papers on the sense of
taste, which refer to taste sensations, and touch which refer
to touch sensations), whereas the term perception is extremely
common. Despite the fact that introductory psychology books
may distinguish between sensation and perception, most per-
ception researchers don’t make this distinction.
(a) (b) So why is this book called Sensation and Perception? Blame
history. Sensation was discussed in the early history of percep-
tual psychology, and courses and textbooks followed suit by in-
cluding sensation in their titles. But while researchers eventually
stopped using the term sensation, the titles of the courses and
books remained the same. So sensations are historically impor-
tant (we will discuss this briefly in Chapter 5), but as far as we
are concerned, everything that involves understanding how we
experience the world through our senses comes under the head-
ing of perception. With that bit of terminology out of the way,
we are now ready to describe perception as involving a number
(c) of steps, which we will call the perceptual process. These steps
Figure 1.3 (a) One dot, (b) a triangle, (c) a house. What do these begin with a stimulus in the environment and end with perceiv-
stimuli tell us about sensations and perceptions? See text for ing the stimulus, recognizing it, and taking action relative to it.
discussion.
and remembering the last time you had it. It is therefore often
stated, especially in introductory psychology textbooks, that
1.3 The Perceptual Process
sensation involves detecting elementary properties of a stimulus Perception happens at the end of what can be described, with
(Carlson, 2010), and perception involves the higher brain func- apologies to the Beatles, as a long and winding road (McCartney,
tions involved in interpreting events and objects (Myers, 2004). 1970). This road begins outside of you, with stimuli in the envi-
Keeping this distinction in mind, let’s consider an ex- ronment—trees, buildings, birds chirping, smells in the air—and
ample from the sense of vision in Figure 1.3. Figure 1.3a is ends with the behavioral responses of perceiving, recognizing,
extremely simple—a single dot. Let’s for the moment assume and taking action. We picture this journey from stimuli to re-
that this simplicity means that there is no interpretation or sponses by the seven steps in Figure 1.4, called the perceptual
higher-order processes, so sensation is involved. Looking at process. The process begins with a stimulus in the environment
Figure 1.3b, with three dots, we might now think that we are (a tree in this example) and ends with the conscious experiences
dealing with perception, because we interpret the three dots of perceiving the tree, recognizing the tree, and taking action
as creating a triangle. Going even further, we can say that with respect to the tree (like walking up to take a closer look).
Figure 1.3c, which is made up of many dots, is a “house.” Although this example of perceiving a tree is from the
Surely this must be perception because it involves many dots sense of vision, keep in mind as we go through these steps that
and our past experience with houses. But let’s return to Fig- the same general process applies to the other senses as well.
ure 1.3a, which we called a dot. As it turns out, even a stimu- Furthermore, because this process is involved in everything
lus this simple can be seen in more than one way. Is this a we will be describing in this book, it is important to note that
black dot on a white background or a hole in a piece of white Figure 1.4 is a simplified version of what happens. First, many
paper? Now that interpretation is involved, does our experi- things happen within each “box.” For example, “neural pro-
ence with Figure 1.3a become perception? cessing” involves understanding not only how cells called neu-
This example illustrates that deciding what is sensation and rons work, but how they interact with each other and how they
what is perception is not always obvious, or even that useful. operate within different areas of the brain. Another reason we
As we will see in this book, there are experiences that depend say that our process is simplified is that steps in the percep-
heavily on processes that occur right at the beginning of a tual process do not always unfold in a one-follows-the-other
sensory system, in the sensory receptors or nearby, and there order. For example, research has shown that perception (“I see
are other experiences that depend on interpretation and past something”) and recognition (“That’s a tree”) may not always
experiences, using information stored in the brain. But this happen one after another, but could happen at the same time,
book takes the position that calling some processes sensation or even in reverse order (Gibson & Peterson, 1994; Peterson,
and others perception doesn’t add anything to our understanding 2019). And when perception or recognition leads to action
of how our sensory experiences are created, so the term perception (“Let’s have a closer look at the tree”), that action could change
is used almost exclusively throughout this book. perception and recognition (“Looking closer shows that what I
Perhaps the main reason not to use the term sensation is thought was an oak tree turns out to be a maple tree”). This is
that, with the exception of papers on the history of perception why there are bidirectional arrows between perception, recog-
research (Gilchrist, 2012), the term sensation appears only rarely nition, and action. In addition, there is an arrow from “action”
We begin with the tree that the person is observing, which
we call the distal stimulus (Step 1). It is called distal because
it is “distant”—out there in the environment. The person’s per-
Perception Recognition Action ception of the tree is based not on the tree getting into his eye
or ear (ouch!), but on light reflected from the tree entering the
eye and reaching the visual receptors, and the pressure changes
5 6 7
in the air caused by the rustling leaves entering the ear and
reaching the auditory receptors. This representation of the tree
on the receptors is the proximal stimulus (Step 2), so called
Distal stimulus
because it is “in proximity” to the receptors.
Neural Knowledge The light and pressure waves that stimulate the receptors
processing introduce one of the central principles of perception, the prin-
ciple of transformation, which states that stimuli and responses
4 created by stimuli are transformed, or changed, between the distal stim-
ulus and perception.
For example, the first transformation occurs when light
hits the tree and is then reflected from the tree to the person’s
Receptor Stimulus hits the Stimulus in the eyes. The nature of the reflected light depends on properties of
processes receptors environment the light energy hitting the tree (is it the midday sun, light on
an overcast day, or a spotlight illuminating the tree from be-
3 2 1 low?), properties of the tree (its textures, shape, the fraction of
Figure 1.4 The perceptual process. These seven steps, plus
light hitting it that it reflects), and properties of the atmosphere
“knowledge” inside the person’s brain, summarize the major events through which the light is transmitted (is the air clear, dusty, or
that occur between the time a person looks at the stimulus in the foggy?). As this reflected light enters the eye, it is transformed
environment (the tree in this example) and perceives the tree, again as it is focused by the eye’s optical system (discussed fur-
recognizes it, and takes action toward it. Information about the ther in Chapter 3) onto the retina, a 0.4-mm-thick network of
stimulus in the environment (the distal stimulus; Step 1) hits the nerve cells which contains the receptors for vision.
receptors, resulting in the proximal stimulus (Step 2), which is a The fact that an image of the tree is focused on the recep-
representation of the stimulus on the retina. Receptor processes tors introduces another principle of perception, the principle
(Step 3) include transduction and the shaping of perception by the of representation, which states that everything a person perceives
properties of the receptors. Neural processing (Step 4) involves
is based not on direct contact with stimuli but on representations of
interactions between the electrical signals traveling in networks of
stimuli that are formed on the receptors and the resulting activity in the
neurons. Finally, the behavioral responses—perception, recognition,
and action—are generated (Steps 5–7).
person’s nervous system.
The distinction between the distal stimulus (Step 1) and
back to the stimulus. This turns the perceptual process into a the proximal stimulus (Step 2) illustrates both transformation
“cycle” in which taking action—for example, walking toward and representation. The distal stimulus (the tree) is transformed
the tree—changes the observer’s view of the tree. into the proximal stimulus, and this image represents the tree in
Even though the process is simplified and only depicts the the person’s eyes. But this transformation from “tree” to “im-
perceptual process in one sense, Figure 1.4 provides a good way age of the tree on the receptors” is just the first in a series of
to think about how perception occurs and introduces some transformations. We’re only on Step 2 of the perceptual pro-
important principles that will guide our discussion of percep- cess, and we can already begin to understand the complexity of
tion throughout this book. In the first part of this chapter, we perception in these transformations! The next transformation
will briefly describe each stage of the process; in the second occurs within the receptors themselves.
part, we will consider ways of measuring the relationship be-
tween stimuli and perception.
Receptor Processes (Step 3)
Sensory receptors are cells specialized to respond to environ-
Distal and Proximal Stimuli (Steps 1 and 2) mental energy, with each sensory system’s receptors special-
There are stimuli within the body that produce internal pain ized to respond to a specific type of energy. Figure 1.5 shows
and enable us to sense the positions of our body and limbs. But examples of receptors from each of the senses. Visual receptors
for the purposes of this discussion, we will focus on stimuli that respond to light, auditory receptors to pressure changes in the
exist “out there” in the environment, like a tree in the woods air, touch receptors to pressure transmitted through the skin,
that you can see, hear, smell, and feel (and taste, if you wanted and smell and taste receptors to chemicals entering the nose
to be adventurous). Using this example, we will consider what and mouth. When the sensory receptors receive the informa-
happens in the first two steps of the perceptual process in which tion from the environment, such as light reflected from the
stimuli from the environment reach the sensory receptors. tree, they do two things: (1) They transform environmental
1.3 The Perceptual Process 7
*
* *
*
*
(a) Vision (b) Hearing (c) Touch (d) Smell (e) Taste
Figure 1.5 Receptors for (a) vision, (b) hearing, (c) touch, (d) smell, and (e) taste. Each of these receptors is
specialized to transduce a specific type of environmental energy into electricity. Stars indicate the place on
the receptor neuron where the stimulus acts to begin the process of transduction.
energy into electrical energy; and (2) they shape perception by The changes in these signals that occur as they are trans-
the way they respond to different properties of the stimuli. mitted through this maze of neurons is called neural processing.
The transformation of environmental energy (such as This processing will be discussed in much more detail in
light, sound, or thermal energy) to electrical energy is called later chapters as we describe each sense individually. How-
transduction. For example, if you were to run your fingers over ever, there are commonalities in neural processing between
the bark of the tree, the stimulation of pressure receptors in the senses.
your fingers would cause these receptors to produce electrical For instance, the electrical signals created through trans-
signals representing the texture of the bark. By transforming duction are often sent to a sense’s primary receiving area
environmental energy into electrical energy, your sensory re- in the cerebral cortex of the brain, as shown in Figure 1.6.
ceptors are allowing the information that is “out there,” like The cerebral cortex is a 2-mm-thick layer that contains the
the texture of the tree, to be transformed into a form that can machinery for creating perceptions, as well as other func-
be understood by your brain. Transduction by the sensory re- tions, such as language, memory, emotions, and thinking.
ceptors is, therefore, crucial for perception. Another way to The primary receiving area for vision occupies most of the
think about transduction is that your sensory receptors are occipital lobe; the area for hearing is located in part of the
like a bridge between the external sensory world and your in- temporal lobe; and the area for the skin senses—touch, tem-
ternal (neural) representation of that world. In the next step of perature, and pain—is located in an area in the parietal lobe.
the perceptual process, further processing of that neural rep- As we study each sense in detail, we will see that once signals
resentation takes place. reach the primary receiving areas, they are then transmitted
Neural Processing (Step 4) Parietal lobe

(skin senses)
Once transduction occurs, the tree becomes represented by
electrical signals in thousands of sensory receptors (visual
receptors if you’re looking at the tree, auditory receptors
if you’re hearing the leaves rustling, and so on). But what
happens to these signals? As we will see in Chapter 2, they Frontal
travel through a vast interconnected network of neurons that lobe
(1) transmit signals from the receptors to the brain and then Occipital lobe
within the brain; and (2) change (or process) these signals as (vision)
they are transmitted. These changes occur because of interac-
tions between neurons as the signals travel from the receptors
to the brain. Because of this processing, some signals become Temporal lobe
reduced or are prevented from getting through, and others (hearing)
are amplified so they arrive at the brain with added strength. Figure 1.6 The four lobes of the brain, with the primary receiving
This processing then continues as signals travel to various areas for vision, hearing, and the skin senses (touch, temperature,
places in the brain. and pain) indicated.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
vomitories, marking the cities of today. Over the whole prospect air-
ships rushed, crossing and intercrossing with incredible aplomb, and
rising nonchalantly when they desired to escape the perturbations of
the lower atmosphere and to traverse the Roof of the World.
"We have indeed advanced, thanks to the Machine," repeated the
attendant, and hid the Himalayas behind a metal blind.
The day dragged wearily forward. The passengers sat each in his
cabin, avoiding one another with an almost physical repulsion and
longing to be once more under the surface of the earth. There were
eight or ten of them, mostly young males, sent out from the public
nurseries to inhabit the rooms of those who had died in various parts
of the earth. The man who had dropped his Book was on the
homeward journey. He had been sent to Sumatra for the purpose of
propagating the race. Vashti alone was travelling by her private will.
At midday she took a second glance at the earth. The air-ship was
crossing another range of mountains, but she could see little, owing
to clouds. Masses of black rock hovered below her, and merged
indistinctly into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them
resembled a prostrate man.
"No ideas here," murmured Vashti, and hid the Caucasus behind a
metal blind.
In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea,
in which lay many small islands and one peninsula.
She repeated, "No ideas here," and hid Greece behind a metal blind.
Part II
THE MENDING APPARATUS

By a vestibule, by a lift, by a tubular railway, by a platform, by a
sliding door—by reversing all the steps of her departure did Vashti
arrive at her son's room, which exactly resembled her own. She
might well declare that the visit was superfluous. The buttons, the
knobs, the reading-desk with the Book, the temperature, the
atmosphere, the illumination—all were exactly the same. And if Kuno
himself, flesh of her flesh, stood close beside her at last, what profit
was there in that? She was too well-bred to shake him by the hand.
Averting her eyes, she spoke as follows:
"Here I am. I have had the most terrible journey and greatly retarded
the development of my soul. It is not worth it, Kuno, it is not worth it.
My time is too precious. The sunlight almost touched me, and I have
met with the rudest people. I can only stop a few minutes. Say what
you want to say, and then I must return."
"I have been threatened with Homelessness," said Kuno.
She looked at him now.
"I have been threatened with Homelessness, and I could not tell you
such a thing through the Machine."
Homelessness means death. The victim is exposed to the air, which
kills him.
"I have been outside since I spoke to you last. The tremendous thing
has happened, and they have discovered me."
"But why shouldn't you go outside!" she exclaimed. "It is perfectly
legal, perfectly mechanical, to visit the surface of the earth. I have
lately been to a lecture on the sea; there is no objection to that; one
simply summons a respirator and gets an Egression-permit. It is not
the kind of thing that spiritually-minded people do, and I begged you
not to do it, but there is no legal objection to it."
"I did not get an Egression-permit."
"Then how did you get out?"
"I found out a way of my own."
The phrase conveyed no meaning to her, and he had to repeat it.
"A way of your own?" she whispered. "But that would be wrong."
"Why?"
The question shocked her beyond measure.
"You are beginning to worship the Machine," he said coldly. "You
think it irreligious of me to have found out a way of my own. It was
just what the Committee thought, when they threatened me with
Homelessness."
At this she grew angry. "I worship nothing!" she cried. "I am most
advanced. I don't think you irreligious, for there is no such thing as
religion left. All the fear and the superstition that existed once have
been destroyed by the Machine. I only meant that to find out a way
of your own was——Besides, there is no new way out."
"So it is always supposed."
"Except through the vomitories, for which one must have an
Egression-permit, it is impossible to get out. The Book says so."
"Well, the Book's wrong, for I have been out on my feet."
For Kuno was possessed of a certain physical strength.
By these days it was a demerit to be muscular. Each infant was
examined at birth, and all who promised undue strength were
destroyed. Humanitarians may protest, but it would have been no
true kindness to let an athlete live; he would never have been happy
in that state of life to which the Machine had called him; he would
have yearned for trees to climb, rivers to bathe in, meadows and hills
against which he might measure his body. Man must be adapted to
his surroundings, must he not? In the dawn of the world our weakly
must be exposed on Mount Taygetus, in its twilight our strong will
suffer euthanasia, that the Machine may progress, that the Machine
may progress, that the Machine may progress eternally.
"You know that we have lost the sense of space. We say 'space is
annihilated,' but we have annihilated not space, but the sense
thereof. We have lost a part of ourselves. I determined to recover it,
and I began by walking up and down the platform of the railway
outside my room. Up and down, until I was tired, and so did
recapture the meaning of 'Near' and 'Far.' 'Near' is a place to which I
can get quickly on my feet, not a place to which the train or the air-
ship will take me quickly. 'Far' is a place to which I cannot get quickly
on my feet; the vomitory is 'far,' though I could be there in thirty-eight
seconds by summoning the train. Man is the measure. That was my
first lesson. Man's feet are the measure for distance, his hands are
the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is
lovable and desirable and strong. Then I went further: it was then
that I called to you for the first time, and you would not come.
"This city, as you know, is built deep beneath the surface of the
earth, with only the vomitories protruding. Having paced the platform
outside my own room, I took the lift to the next platform and paced
that also, and so with each in turn, until I came to the topmost, above
which begins the earth. All the platforms were exactly alike, and all
that I gained by visiting them was to develop my sense of space and
my muscles. I think I should have been content with this—it is not a
little thing—but as I walked and brooded, it occurred to me that our
cities had been built in the days when men still breathed the outer
air, and that there had been ventilation shafts for the workmen. I
could think of nothing but these ventilation shafts. Had they been
destroyed by all the food-tubes and medicine-tubes and music-tubes
that the Machine has evolved lately? Or did traces of them remain?
One thing was certain. If I came upon them anywhere, it would be in
the railway-tunnels of the topmost story. Everywhere else, all space
was accounted for.
"I am telling my story quickly, but don't think that I was not a coward
or that your answers never depressed me. It is not the proper thing,
it is not mechanical, it is not decent to walk along a railway-tunnel. I
did not fear that I might tread upon a live rail and be killed. I feared
something far more intangible—doing what was not contemplated by
the Machine. Then I said to myself, 'Man is the measure,' and I went,
and after many visits I found an opening.
"The tunnels, of course, were lighted. Everything is light, artificial
light; darkness is the exception. So when I saw a black gap in the
tiles, I knew that it was an exception, and rejoiced. I put in my arm—I
could put in no more at first—and waved it round and round in
ecstasy. I loosened another tile, and put in my head, and shouted
into the darkness: 'I am coming, I shall do it yet,' and my voice
reverberated down endless passages. I seemed to hear the spirits of
those dead workmen who had returned each evening to the starlight
and to their wives, and all the generations who had lived in the open
air called back to me, 'You will do it yet, you are coming.'"
He paused, and, absurd as he was, his last words moved her. For
Kuno had lately asked to be a father, and his request had been
refused by the Committee. His was not a type that the Machine
desired to hand on.
"Then a train passed. It brushed by me, but I thrust my head and
arms into the hole. I had done enough for one day, so I crawled back
to the platform, went down in the lift, and summoned my bed. Ah,
what dreams! And again I called you, and again you refused."
She shook her head and said:
"Don't. Don't talk of these terrible things. You make me miserable.
You are throwing civilisation away."
"But I had got back the sense of space and a man cannot rest then. I
determined to get in at the hole and climb the shaft. And so I
exercised my arms. Day after day I went through ridiculous
movements, until my flesh ached, and I could hang by my hands and
hold the pillow of my bed outstretched for many minutes. Then I
summoned a respirator, and started.
"It was easy at first. The mortar had somehow rotted, and I soon
pushed some more tiles in, and clambered after them into the
darkness, and the spirits of the dead comforted me. I don't know
what I mean by that. I just say what I felt. I felt, for the first time, that
a protest had been lodged against corruption, and that even as the
dead were comforting me, so I was comforting the unborn. I felt that
humanity existed, and that it existed without clothes. How can I
possibly explain this? It was naked, humanity seemed naked, and all
these tubes and buttons and machineries neither came into the
world with us, nor will they follow us out, nor do they matter
supremely while we are here. Had I been strong, I would have torn
off every garment I had, and gone out into the outer air unswaddled.
But this is not for me, nor perhaps for my generation. I climbed with
my respirator and my hygienic clothes and my dietetic tabloids!
Better thus than not at all.
"There was a ladder, made of some primæval metal. The light from
the railway fell upon its lowest rungs, and I saw that it led straight
upwards out of the rubble at the bottom of the shaft. Perhaps our
ancestors ran up and down it a dozen times daily, in their building.
As I climbed, the rough edges cut through my gloves so that my
hands bled. The light helped me for a little, and then came darkness
and, worse still, silence which pierced my ears like a sword. The
Machine hums! Did you know that? Its hum penetrates our blood,
and may even guide our thoughts. Who knows! I was getting beyond
its power. Then I thought: 'This silence means that I am doing
wrong.' But I heard voices in the silence, and again they
strengthened me." He laughed. "I had need of them. The next
moment I cracked my head against something."
She sighed.
"I had reached one of those pneumatic stoppers that defend us from
the outer air. You may have noticed them on the air-ship. Pitch dark,
my feet on the rungs of an invisible ladder, my hands cut; I cannot
explain how I lived through this part, but the voices still comforted
me, and I felt for fastenings. The stopper, I suppose, was about eight
feet across. I passed my hand over it as far as I could reach. It was
perfectly smooth. I felt it almost to the centre. Not quite to the centre,
for my arm was too short. Then the voice said: 'Jump. It is worth it.
There may be a handle in the centre, and you may catch hold of it
and so come to us your own way. And if there is no handle, so that
you may fall and are dashed to pieces—it is still worth it: you will still
come to us your own way.' So I jumped. There was a handle, and
——"
He paused. Tears gathered in his mother's eyes. She knew that he
was fated. If he did not die today he would die tomorrow. There was
not room for such a person in the world. And with her pity disgust
mingled. She was ashamed at having borne such a son, she who
had always been so respectable and so full of ideas. Was he really
the little boy to whom she had taught the use of his stops and
buttons, and to whom she had given his first lessons in the Book?
The very hair that disfigured his lip showed that he was reverting to
some savage type. On atavism the Machine can have no mercy.
"There was a handle, and I did catch it. I hung tranced over the
darkness and heard the hum of these workings as the last whisper in
a dying dream. All the things I had cared about and all the people I
had spoken to through tubes appeared infinitely little. Meanwhile the
handle revolved. My weight had set something in motion and I span
slowly, and then——
"I cannot describe it. I was lying with my face to the sunshine. Blood
poured from my nose and ears and I heard a tremendous roaring.
The stopper, with me clinging to it, had simply been blown out of the
earth, and the air that we make down here was escaping through the
vent into the air above. It burst up like a fountain. I crawled back to it
—for the upper air hurts—and, as it were, I took great sips from the
edge. My respirator had flown goodness knows where, my clothes
were torn. I just lay with my lips close to the hole, and I sipped until
the bleeding stopped. You can imagine nothing so curious. This
hollow in the grass—I will speak of it in a minute,—the sun shining
into it, not brilliantly but through marbled clouds,—the peace, the
nonchalance, the sense of space, and, brushing my cheek, the
roaring fountain of our artificial air! Soon I spied my respirator,
bobbing up and down in the current high above my head, and higher
still were many air-ships. But no one ever looks out of air-ships, and
in my case they could not have picked me up. There I was, stranded.
The sun shone a little way down the shaft, and revealed the topmost
rung of the ladder, but it was hopeless trying to reach it. I should
either have been tossed up again by the escape, or else have fallen
in, and died. I could only lie on the grass, sipping and sipping, and
from time to time glancing around me.
"I knew that I was in Wessex, for I had taken care to go to a lecture
on the subject before starting. Wessex lies above the room in which
we are talking now. It was once an important state. Its kings held all
the southern coast from the Andredswald to Cornwall, while the
Wansdyke protected them on the north, running over the high
ground. The lecturer was only concerned with the rise of Wessex, so
I do not know how long it remained an international power, nor would
the knowledge have assisted me. To tell the truth I could do nothing
but laugh, during this part. There was I, with a pneumatic stopper by
my side and a respirator bobbing over my head, imprisoned, all three
of us, in a grass-grown hollow that was edged with fern."
Then he grew grave again.
"Lucky for me that it was a hollow. For the air began to fall back into
it and to fill it as water fills a bowl. I could crawl about. Presently I
stood. I breathed a mixture, in which the air that hurts predominated
whenever I tried to climb the sides. This was not so bad. I had not
lost my tabloids and remained ridiculously cheerful, and as for the
Machine, I forgot about it altogether. My one aim now was to get to
the top, where the ferns were, and to view whatever objects lay
beyond.
"I rushed the slope. The new air was still too bitter for me and I came
rolling back, after a momentary vision of something grey. The sun
grew very feeble, and I remembered that he was in Scorpio—I had
been to a lecture on that too. If the sun is in Scorpio and you are in
Wessex, it means that you must be as quick as you can, or it will get
too dark. (This is the first bit of useful information I have ever got
from a lecture, and I expect it will be the last.) It made me try
frantically to breathe the new air, and to advance as far as I dared
out of my pond. The hollow filled so slowly. At times I thought that
the fountain played with less vigour. My respirator seemed to dance
nearer the earth; the roar was decreasing."
He broke off.
"I don't think this is interesting you. The rest will interest you even
less. There are no ideas in it, and I wish that I had not troubled you
to come. We are too different, mother."
She told him to continue.
"It was evening before I climbed the bank. The sun had very nearly
slipped out of the sky by this time, and I could not get a good view.
You, who have just crossed the Roof of the World, will not want to
hear an account of the little hills that I saw—low colourless hills. But
to me they were living and the turf that covered them was a skin,
under which their muscles rippled, and I felt that those hills had
called with incalculable force to men in the past, and that men had
loved them. Now they sleep—perhaps for ever. They commune with
humanity in dreams. Happy the man, happy the woman, who
awakes the hills of Wessex. For though they sleep, they will never
die."
His voice rose passionately.
"Cannot you see, cannot all your lecturers see, that it is we who are
dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the
Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot
make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and
of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and
narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and
our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops
—but not on our lines. The Machine proceeds—but not to our goal.
We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its
arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die. Oh, I have
no remedy—or, at least, only one—to tell men again and again that I
have seen the hills of Wessex as Ælfrid saw them when he
overthrew the Danes.
"So the sun set. I forgot to mention that a belt of mist lay between my
hill and other hills, and that it was the colour of pearl."
He broke off for the second time.
"Go on," said his mother wearily.
He shook his head.
"Go on. Nothing that you say can distress me now. I am hardened."
"I had meant to tell you the rest, but I cannot: I know that I cannot:
good-bye."
Vashti stood irresolute. All her nerves were tingling with his
blasphemies. But she was also inquisitive.
"This is unfair," she complained. "You have called me across the
world to hear your story, and hear it I will. Tell me—as briefly as
possible, for this is a disastrous waste of time—tell me how you
returned to civilisation."
"Oh—that!" he said, starting. "You would like to hear about
civilisation. Certainly. Had I got to where my respirator fell down?"
"No—but I understand everything now. You put on your respirator,
and managed to walk along the surface of the earth to a vomitory,
and there your conduct was reported to the Central Committee."
"By no means."
He passed his hand over his forehead, as if dispelling some strong
impression. Then, resuming his narrative, he warmed to it again.
"My respirator fell about sunset. I had mentioned that the fountain
seemed feebler, had I not."
"Yes."
"About sunset, it let the respirator fall. As I said, I had entirely
forgotten about the Machine, and I paid no great attention at the
time, being occupied with other things. I had my pool of air, into
which I could dip when the outer keenness became intolerable, and
which would possibly remain for days, provided that no wind sprang
up to disperse it. Not until it was too late, did I realize what the
stoppage of the escape implied. You see—the gap in the tunnel had
been mended; the Mending Apparatus; the Mending Apparatus, was
after me.
"One other warning I had, but I neglected it. The sky at night was
clearer than it had been in the day, and the moon, which was about
half the sky behind the sun, shone into the dell at moments quite
brightly. I was in my usual place—on the boundary between the two
atmospheres—when I thought I saw something dark move across
the bottom of the dell, and vanish into the shaft. In my folly, I ran
down. I bent over and listened, and I thought I heard a faint scraping
noise in the depths.
"At this—but it was too late—I took alarm. I determined to put on my
respirator and to walk right out of the dell. But my respirator had
gone. I knew exactly where it had fallen—between the stopper and
the aperture—and I could even feel the mark that it had made in the
turf. It had gone, and I realized that something evil was at work, and I
had better escape to the other air, and, if I must die, die running
towards the cloud that had been the colour of a pearl. I never
started. Out of the shaft—it is too horrible. A worm, a long white
worm, had crawled out of the shaft and was gliding over the moonlit
grass.
"I screamed. I did everything that I should not have done, I stamped
upon the creature instead of flying from it, and it at once curled round
the ankle. Then we fought. The worm let me run all over the dell, but
edged up my leg as I ran. 'Help!' I cried. (That part is too awful. It
belongs to the part that you will never know.) 'Help!' I cried. (Why
cannot we suffer in silence?) 'Help!' I cried. Then my feet were
wound together, I fell, I was dragged away from the dear ferns and
the living hills, and past the great metal stopper (I can tell you this
part), and I thought it might save me again if I caught hold of the
handle. It also was enwrapped, it also. Oh, the whole dell was full of
the things. They were searching it in all directions, they were
denuding it, and the white snouts of others peeped out of the hole,
ready if needed. Everything that could be moved they brought—
brushwood, bundles of fern, everything, and down we all went
intertwined into hell. The last things that I saw, ere the stopper
closed after us, were certain stars, and I felt that a man of my sort
lived in the sky. For I did fight, I fought till the very end, and it was
only my head hitting against the ladder that quieted me. I woke up in
this room. The worms had vanished. I was surrounded by artificial
air, artificial light, artificial peace, and my friends were calling to me
down speaking-tubes to know whether I had come across any new
ideas lately."
Here his story ended. Discussion of it was impossible, and Vashti
turned to go.
"It will end in Homelessness," she said quietly.
"I wish it would," retorted Kuno.
"The Machine has been most merciful."
"I prefer the mercy of God."
"By that superstitious phrase, do you mean that you could live in the
outer air?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever seen, round the vomitories, the bones of those who
were extruded after the Great Rebellion?"
"Yes."
"They were left where they perished for our edification. A few
crawled away, but they perished, too—who can doubt it? And so with
the Homeless of our own day. The surface of the earth supports life
no longer."
"Indeed."
"Ferns and a little grass may survive, but all higher forms have
perished. Has any air-ship detected them?"
"No."
"Has any lecturer dealt with them?"
"No."
"Then why this obstinacy?"
"Because I have seen them," he exploded.
"Seen what?"
"Because I have seen her in the twilight—because she came to my
help when I called—because she, too, was entangled by the worms,
and, luckier than I, was killed by one of them piercing her throat."
He was mad. Vashti departed, nor, in the troubles that followed, did
she ever see his face again.
Part III
THE HOMELESS
During the years that followed Kuno's escapade, two important
developments took place in the Machine. On the surface they were
revolutionary, but in either case men's minds had been prepared
beforehand, and they did but express tendencies that were latent
already.
The first of these was the abolition of respirators.
Advanced thinkers, like Vashti, had always held it foolish to visit the
surface of the earth. Air-ships might be necessary, but what was the
good of going out for mere curiosity and crawling along for a mile or
two in a terrestrial motor? The habit was vulgar and perhaps faintly
improper: it was unproductive of ideas, and had no connection with
the habits that really mattered. So respirators were abolished, and
with them, of course, the terrestrial motors, and except for a few
lecturers, who complained that they were debarred access to their
subject-matter, the development was accepted quietly. Those who
still wanted to know what the earth was like had after all only to listen
to some gramophone, or to look into some cinematophote. And even
the lecturers acquiesced when they found that a lecture on the sea
was none the less stimulating when compiled out of other lectures
that had already been delivered on the same subject. "Beware of
first-hand ideas!" exclaimed one of the most advanced of them.
"First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical
impressions produced by love and fear, and on this gross foundation
who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if
possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that
disturbing element—direct observation. Do not learn anything about
this subject of mine—the French Revolution. Learn instead what I
think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-
Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought Lafcadio Hearn thought Carlyle
thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution. Through the
medium of these eight great minds, the blood that was shed at Paris
and the windows that were broken at Versailles will be clarified to an
idea which you may employ most profitably in your daily lives. But be
sure that the intermediates are many and varied, for in history one
authority exists to counteract another. Urizen must counteract the
scepticism of Ho-Yung and Enicharmon, I must myself counteract
the impetuosity of Gutch. You who listen to me are in a better
position to judge about the French Revolution than I am. Your
descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will
learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be
added to the chain. And in time"—his voice rose—"there will come a
generation that has got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a
generation absolutely colourless, a generation
'seraphically free
From taint of personality,'
which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they
would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had
it taken place in the days of the Machine."
Tremendous applause greeted this lecture, which did but voice a
feeling already latent in the minds of men—a feeling that terrestrial
facts must be ignored, and that the abolition of respirators was a
positive gain. It was even suggested that air-ships should be
abolished too. This was not done, because air-ships had somehow
worked themselves into the Machine's system. But year by year they
were used less, and mentioned less by thoughtful men.
The second great development was the re-establishment of religion.
This, too, had been voiced in the celebrated lecture. No one could
mistake the reverent tone in which the peroration had concluded,
and it awakened a responsive echo in the heart of each. Those who
had long worshipped silently, now began to talk. They described the
strange feeling of peace that came over them when they handled the
Book of the Machine, the pleasure that it was to repeat certain
numerals out of it, however little meaning those numerals conveyed
to the outward ear, the ecstasy of touching a button, however
unimportant, or of ringing an electric bell, however superfluously.
"The Machine," they exclaimed, "feeds us and clothes us and
houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see
one another, in it we have our being. The Machine is the friend of
ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent,
eternal; blessed is the Machine." And before long this allocution was
printed on the first page of the Book, and in subsequent editions the
ritual swelled into a complicated system of praise and prayer. The
word "religion" was sedulously avoided, and in theory the Machine
was still the creation and the implement of man. But in practice all,
save a few retrogrades, worshipped it as divine. Nor was it
worshipped in unity. One believer would be chiefly impressed by the
blue optic plates, through which he saw other believers; another by
the mending apparatus, which sinful Kuno had compared to worms;
another by the lifts, another by the Book. And each would pray to this
or to that, and ask it to intercede for him with the Machine as a
whole. Persecution—that also was present. It did not break out, for
reasons that will be set forward shortly. But it was latent, and all who
did not accept the minimum known as "undenominational
Mechanism" lived in danger of Homelessness, which means death,
as we know.
To attribute these two great developments to the Central Committee,
is to take a very narrow view of civilisation. The Central Committee
announced the developments, it is true, but they were no more the
cause of them than were the kings of the imperialistic period the
cause of war. Rather did they yield to some invincible pressure,
which came no one knew whither, and which, when gratified, was
succeeded by some new pressure equally invincible. To such a state
of affairs it is convenient to give the name of progress. No one
confessed the Machine was out of hand. Year by year it was served
with increased efficiency and decreased intelligence. The better a
man knew his own duties upon it, the less he understood the duties
of his neighbour, and in all the world there was not one who
understood the monster as a whole. Those master brains had
perished. They had left full directions, it is true, and their successors
had each of them mastered a portion of those directions. But
Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had
exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it
was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the
progress of the Machine.
As for Vashti, her life went peacefully forward until the final disaster.
She made her room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room
light. She lectured and attended lectures. She exchanged ideas with
her innumerable friends and believed she was growing more
spiritual. At times a friend was granted Euthanasia, and left his or her
room for the homelessness that is beyond all human conception.
Vashti did not much mind. After an unsuccessful lecture, she would
sometimes ask for Euthanasia herself. But the death-rate was not
permitted to exceed the birth-rate, and the Machine had hitherto
refused it to her.
The troubles began quietly, long before she was conscious of them.
One day she was astonished at receiving a message from her son.
They never communicated, having nothing in common, and she had
only heard indirectly that he was still alive, and had been transferred
from the northern hemisphere, where he had behaved so
mischievously, to the southern—indeed, to a room not far from her
own.
"Does he want me to visit him?" she thought. "Never again, never.
And I have not the time."
No, it was madness of another kind.
He refused to visualize his face upon the blue plate, and speaking
out of the darkness with solemnity said:
"The Machine stops."
"What do you say?"
"The Machine is stopping, I know it, I know the signs."
She burst into a peal of laughter. He heard her and was angry, and
they spoke no more.
"Can you imagine anything more absurd?" she cried to a friend. "A
man who was my son believes that the Machine is stopping. It would
be impious if it was not mad."
"The Machine is stopping?" her friend replied. "What does that
mean? The phrase conveys nothing to me."
"Nor to me."
"He does not refer, I suppose, to the trouble there has been lately
with the music?"
"Oh no, of course not. Let us talk about music."
"Have you complained to the authorities?"
"Yes, and they say it wants mending, and referred me to the
Committee of the Mending Apparatus. I complained of those curious
gasping sighs that disfigure the symphonies of the Brisbane school.
They sound like some one in pain. The Committee of the Mending
Apparatus say that it shall be remedied shortly."
Obscurely worried, she resumed her life. For one thing, the defect in
the music irritated her. For another thing, she could not forget Kuno's
speech. If he had known that the music was out of repair—he could
not know it, for he detested music—if he had known that it was
wrong, "the Machine stops" was exactly the venomous sort of
remark he would have made. Of course he had made it at a venture,
but the coincidence annoyed her, and she spoke with some
petulance to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus.
They replied, as before, that the defect would be set right shortly.
"Shortly! At once!" she retorted. "Why should I be worried by
imperfect music? Things are always put right at once. If you do not
mend it at once, I shall complain to the Central Committee."
"No personal complaints are received by the Central Committee," the
Committee of the Mending Apparatus replied.
"Through whom am I to make my complaint, then?"
"Through us."
"I complain then."
"Your complaint shall be forwarded in its turn."
"Have others complained?"
This question was unmechanical, and the Committee of the Mending
Apparatus refused to answer it.
"It is too bad!" she exclaimed to another of her friends. "There never
was such an unfortunate woman as myself. I can never be sure of
my music now. It gets worse and worse each time I summon it."
"I too have my troubles," the friend replied. "Sometimes my ideas are
interrupted by a slight jarring noise."
"What is it?"
"I do not know whether it is inside my head, or inside the wall."
"Complain, in either case."
"I have complained, and my complaint will be forwarded in its turn to
the Central Committee."
Time passed, and they resented the defects no longer. The defects
had not been remedied, but the human tissues in that latter day had
become so subservient, that they readily adapted themselves to
every caprice of the Machine. The sigh at the crisis of the Brisbane
symphony no longer irritated Vashti; she accepted it as part of the
melody. The jarring noise, whether in the head or in the wall, was no
longer resented by her friend. And so with the mouldy artificial fruit,
so with the bath water that began to stink, so with the defective
rhymes that the poetry machine had taken to emit. All were bitterly
complained of at first, and then acquiesced in and forgotten. Things
went from bad to worse unchallenged.
It was otherwise with the failure of the sleeping apparatus. That was
a more serious stoppage. There came a day when over the whole
world—in Sumatra, in Wessex, in the innumerable cities of Courland
and Brazil—the beds, when summoned by their tired owners, failed
to appear. It may seem a ludicrous matter, but from it we may date
the collapse of humanity. The Committee responsible for the failure
was assailed by complainants, whom it referred, as usual, to the
Committee of the Mending Apparatus, who in its turn assured them
that their complaints would be forwarded to the Central Committee.
But the discontent grew, for mankind was not yet sufficiently
adaptable to do without sleeping.
"Some one is meddling with the Machine——" they began.
"Some one is trying to make himself king, to reintroduce the personal
element."
"Punish that man with Homelessness."
"To the rescue! Avenge the Machine! Avenge the Machine!"
"War! Kill the man!"
But the Committee of the Mending Apparatus now came forward,
and allayed the panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the
Mending Apparatus was itself in need of repair.
The effect of this frank confession was admirable.
"Of course," said a famous lecturer—he of the French Revolution,
who gilded each new decay with splendour—"of course we shall not
press our complaints now. The Mending Apparatus has treated us so
well in the past that we all sympathize with it, and will wait patiently
for its recovery. In its own good time it will resume its duties.
Meanwhile let us do without our beds, our tabloids, our other little
wants. Such, I feel sure, would be the wish of the Machine."
Thousands of miles away his audience applauded. The Machine still
linked them. Under the seas, beneath the roots of the mountains, ran
the wires through which they saw and heard, the enormous eyes and
ears that were their heritage, and the hum of many workings clothed
their thoughts in one garment of subserviency. Only the old and the
sick remained ungrateful, for it was rumoured that Euthanasia, too,
was out of order, and that pain had reappeared among men.
It became difficult to read. A blight entered the atmosphere and
dulled its luminosity. At times Vashti could scarcely see across her
room. The air, too, was foul. Loud were the complaints, impotent the
remedies, heroic the tone of the lecturer as he cried: "Courage,
courage! What matter so long as the Machine goes on? To it the
darkness and the light are one." And though things improved again
after a time, the old brilliancy was never recaptured, and humanity
never recovered from its entrance into twilight. There was an
hysterical talk of "measures," of "provisional dictatorship," and the
inhabitants of Sumatra were asked to familiarize themselves with the
workings of the central power station, the said power station being
situated in France. But for the most part panic reigned, and men
spent their strength praying to their Books, tangible proofs of the
Machine's omnipotence. There were gradations of terror—at times
came rumours of hope—the Mending Apparatus was almost mended
—the enemies of the Machine had been got under—new "nerve-
centres" were evolving which would do the work even more
magnificently than before. But there came a day when, without the
slightest warning, without any previous hint of feebleness, the entire
communication-system broke down, all over the world, and the
world, as they understood it, ended.
Vashti was lecturing at the time and her earlier remarks had been
punctuated with applause. As she proceeded the audience became
silent, and at the conclusion there was no sound. Somewhat
displeased, she called to a friend who was a specialist in sympathy.
No sound: doubtless the friend was sleeping. And so with the next
friend whom she tried to summon, and so with the next, until she
remembered Kuno's cryptic remark, "The Machine stops."
The phrase still conveyed nothing. If Eternity was stopping it would
of course be set going shortly.
For example, there was still a little light and air—the atmosphere had
improved a few hours previously. There was still the Book, and while
there was the Book there was security.
Then she broke down, for with the cessation of activity came an
unexpected terror—silence.
She had never known silence, and the coming of it nearly killed her
—it did kill many thousands of people outright. Ever since her birth
she had been surrounded by the steady hum. It was to the ear what
artificial air was to the lungs, and agonizing pains shot across her
head. And scarcely knowing what she did, she stumbled forward and
pressed the unfamiliar button, the one that opened the door of her
cell.
Now the door of the cell worked on a simple hinge of its own. It was
not connected with the central power station, dying far away in
France. It opened, rousing immoderate hopes in Vashti, for she

Ebook Download Sensation and Perception 11th Edition E. Bruce Goldstein - Ebook PDF All Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ebook Download Sensation and Perception 11th Edition E. Bruce Goldstein - Ebook PDF All Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ebook Download Sensation and Perception 11th Edition E. Bruce Goldstein - Ebook PDF All Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sensation and Perception 11th Edition

E. Bruce Goldstein - eBook PDF

(Original PDF) Sensation and Perception 10th Edition by

(eBook PDF) Sensation and Perception 6th Edition

Sensation and Perception Second Edition (eBook PDF)

Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2E 2nd Edition E. Bruce Goldstein

(eBook PDF) Sensation & Perception 5th Edition by

Health Psychology 11th Edition Shelley E. Taylor -

Microbiology: Practical Applications and Infection

Sensation and Perception

Australia ● Brazil ● Canada ● Mexico ● Singapore ● United Kingdom ● United States

Marketing Manager: Tricia Salata Student Edition:

To learn more about Cengage platforms and services, register or access

Printed in the United States of America

To Zack, for supporting me through the

And to my mother, Debbie, for being my

life-long role model and demonstrating

E. BRUCE GOLDSTEIN is Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience,

LAURA CACCIAMANI is Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

2 Basic Principles of Sensory Physiology 21

3 The Eye and Retina 39

4 The Visual Cortex and Beyond 67

5 Perceiving Objects and Scenes 89

6 Visual Attention 123

7 Taking Action 149

8 Perceiving Motion 175

9 Perceiving Color 197

10 Perceiving Depth and Size 229

12 Hearing in the Environment 291

13 Perceiving Music 311

14 Perceiving Speech 335

15 The Cutaneous Senses 357

16 The Chemical Senses 389

C The Signal Detection Approach 420

Introduction to Perception 3 Basic Principles of Sensory

1.1 Why Read This Book? 5

The Eye and Retina 39 The Visual Cortex and Beyond 67

KEY TERMS 64 TEST YOuRSELF 4.2 87

Perceiving Objects and Scenes 89 Visual Attention 123

DEMONSTRATION | Perceptual Puzzles in a Scene 89 6.1 What Is Attention? 124

TEST YOuRSELF 5.3 120 DEMONSTRATION | Change Detection 137

Perceiving Motion 175

9.1 Functions of Color Perception 198

Perceiving Depth and Size 229

11.1 Physical Aspects of Sound 264

10.4 Binocular Depth Information 236 The Outer Ear 272

The Pathway to the Brain 282

12.1 Sound Source Localization 292 13.6 Creating Emotions 321

Times 300 Evidence for Separate Mechanisms 327

Architectural Acoustics 301 Developmental Dimension: How Infants Respond to

The Ventriloquism Effect 306 TEST YOuRSELF 13.2 331

Speech 353 The “Pain” of Social Rejection 380

The Cutaneous Senses 357 Chapter 16

The Chemical Senses 389

Perception by the Skin and Hands

Determining the Threshold 14 Neural Mind Reading 114

Perceiving a Picture 10 Perceiving Lightness at a Corner 222