General Psychology Handouts 1st Sem AY 17-18

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

SENSATION
- the process in which the information about the world coming from the senses reach the brain
- occurs when specialized neurons called receptors in the sense organs – the eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue –
are activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neural signals to the brain

Transduction – converting outside stimuli into neural activity

Sensory Receptors/ Receptor cells

- specialized forms of neurons
- do not receive neurotransmitters but instead are stimulated by different kinds of energy

Stimulus Sense Organ Receptor Cells Sense

Light waves Eye Rods and cones Sight
Vibrations Ears Cilia in the Organ of Corti Hearing
Chemical substances (gas) Nose Cilia in the Olfactory Bulb Smell
Chemical substances (solid/ liquid) Tongue Receptor Cells in the Taste buds Taste
Temperature and Pain Free Nerve Endings
Skin Touch
Pressure Pacinian Corpuscles

Stimulus Sense Organ Sensory Receptors Brain

VISION
1. The image of an object is reflected to the eyes in the form of light waves.
2. The iris controls the amount of light waves that goes through the pupil, the whole in the middle of the eye.
3. The light waves (or the image) pass through the lens of the eye, which adjusts according to the distance of
the image from the eye, allowing the eyes to focus on the image.
4. The light waves then fall into the retina, where the receptor cells, the cones and rods, are most
concentrated. These receptor cells have long axons, forming the optic nerve, that extends to the brain.
5. Once the light waves reach the cones and rods, they are converted to neural impulses and these neural
impulses are what is delivered to the brain.

AUDITION
1. The sound waves vibrations that are produced by objects in the environment are taken in by the pinna, or
the outer ear. The pinna serves as a funnel which collects and regulates the amount of vibrations that will
enter the ears.
2. When soundwaves enter the ear, it causes the inner parts of the ear to vibrate. When the vibrations reach
the middle ear, it causes the vibration of the tympanic membrane or the eardrum.
3. The eardrum then triggers the vibration of three bones in the middle ear: the malleus, incus and stapes.
When the malleus, incus and stapes vibrates, they amplify the vibrations and send the it to the inner ear. The
inner ear is composed of the oval window, cochlea, basilar membrane and Organ of Corti (which contains
the receptors.)
4. When the stapes sends the vibrations to the oval window, the oval window triggers the vibration of the
cochlea, a snail-shaped structure filled with fluid. When the fluid vibrates, it causes the basilar membrane to
vibrate. These vibrations cause the Organ of Corti to vibrate which contains the cilia or the receptor cells of
the ears, it is only then that the vibrations are converted to a neural impulse. The neural impulses are sent via
the auditory nerve which contains all the axon of the cilia in the Organ of Corti.

GUSTATION
1. When the food that we eat is chewed in the mouth, the chemical substances in the food are mixed with the
saliva.
2. The “taste” (i.e., sweet, sour, etc) that we experience is actually a combination of the molecules from the
food that triggers specific receptors in the tongue. Beneath the rough surface of the tongue are bumps
called the papillae and the taste buds. The taste buds contain at least 20 receptor cells. Unlike the other
senses, the gustatory and the olfactory senses receive stimuli in a fit and lock manner. The sweet molecules
will only trigger sweet receptors, the sour molecules will only trigger sour receptors and etc.
3. Once the taste receptors receive the molecules that fit, the chemical substance is then converted to a neural
impulse and is sent to the brain.
5 basic tastes: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Umami (meaty taste)
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 General Psychology Handouts 1st Sem AY 17-18

OLFACTION
1. The olfactory sense function mostly in the same way as the gustatory sense. Chemical substances in the form
of gas molecules fit into “smell” specific receptors, called cilia, in the nose. When these chemical substances
stimulate the receptors send the neural impulse to the olfactory bulb which then sends it to the brain.
Note: The nose hairs that we see inside our nose are not the smell specific receptors. The smell receptors are
found lined in the nasal cavity along our sinus. The nose hairs we see functions as filters for dust and other
particles in the air that enter our nose.

SOMESTHETIC SENSE
1. The Somesthetic sense responds to three different stimulations: temperature, pain and pressure.
2. The receptors for temperature and pain are the same and are found just beneath the surface of the skin.
These receptors called the free nerve endings respond sensitively to temperature and pain.
3. The receptors for pain called Pacinian Corpuscles, on the other hand are found on the second layer of the
skin. Hair found in our skin helps in the detection of pressure as well.

PERCEPTION
- the method by which the brain takes all the sensations people experience at any given moment
- allows people to interpret the sensations they experienced in a meaningful manner
- very subjective, meaning it differs from one person to another

The Constancies
- even if perception differs from one person to another, there are certain properties of our perceptual
experience that remains stable or is unchanging

1. Size Constancy – the tendency to interpret an object as always being the same size, regardless of its
distance from the viewer
2. Shape constancy – the tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant, even when its
shape changes on the retina (the way we see it)
3. Brightness constancy – the tendency to perceive apparent brightness of an object as the same even
when the light conditions change

Rules of Organization
Gestalt Principles of Perception
1. Figure-ground relationship – the tendency to perceive objects or figures as existing on a background
2. Proximity – tendency – the tendency to perceive objects that are close to one another as part of the
same grouping
3. Similarity – tendency to perceive things that look similar as being part of the same group
4. Closure – tendency to complete figures that are incomplete
5. Continuity – tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than
with a complex, broken up pattern
6. Contiguity – tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related
7. Common region – tendency to perceive objects that are in common area or region as being in a group

Depth Perception
- capability to see the world in three dimensions
Depth Cues:
1. Monocular Cues – only need one eye to perceive depth, also known as pictorial depth cues
a. Linear perspective – tendency for parallel pathways to converge when seen at a distance
b. Relative size – tendency of objects that are far to look smaller and near objects as bigger
c. Overlap – the understanding that a blocked object is behind and therefore farther
d. Aerial perspective – the tendency of a scene to look hazy when it is far from sight
e. Texture gradient – the farther the object, we see the texture become smaller and finer
f. Motion parallax – when we are in a moving vehicle, we see nearer object zip by fast, while
we see father objects as moving slower
g. Accommodation – the tendency of the eyes’ lenses to change shape depending on the
distance of the object seen
2. Binocular Cues – need both eyes to perceive depth
a. Convergence – rotation of the two eyes in their sockets to focus on a single object
b. Binocular disparity – because the eyes are a few inches apart, they don’t see exactly the
same image
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 General Psychology Handouts 1st Sem AY 17-18

Perceptual Illusions

- the perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual
nature.
- Due to the arrangement of images, effect of colors, impact of light source or other variable, a wide range of
misleading visual effects can be seen.

List of Common Perceptual Illusions:

1. The Herman Grid
2. Muller-Lyer Illusion
3. The Moon Illusion
4. Illusions of Motion
5. The Ames Room Illusion
6. Impossible Objects
 The Penrose Triangle
 The Penrose Stairs (MC Escher’s painting)
 The Devil’s Trident