Unit-2: Sensation & Perception

Varun Muthuchamy, M.Phil. in Clinical psychology (NIMHANS)

Assistant Professor, PSG College of Arts & Science
Coimbatore, India
Background
• Careful psychological research conducted over the past hundred
years has shown that we do not understand the external world in
a simple, automatic way.
• Rather, we actively construct our interpretation of sensory
information through several complex processes.
• Physical environment contains a number of forms of energy
(Stimuli) that impinge on the individual.
• Human beings have developed both the structures (Sense
organs) and responses (Sensation) that utilize these forms of
energy.
Background
• Sensation is an important concept of psychology and it is the first
stage of consciousness.
• Sensation involves stimulus, sense organs and transduction.
STIMULUS SENSE ORGANS SENSATION
Light Eyes Vision
Sound Ear Audition
Chemical Substance (Volatile) Nose Olfaction (Smell)
Chemical Substance Tongue Gustation (Taste)
Mechanical and Thermal Skin Somesthesis
Movement Joints and tendons Kinesthetic
Rotation, Motion, Movement Semi-circular Vestibular
canals
Definition
• Sensation is the immediate and direct experience or response
produced by the stimulus on the sense organs.
• Sensation is the process of receiving, translating and transmitting
message from the outside world to the brain.
• Sensation is the process of receiving the information (Stimuli)
from the environment and is studied by specialist in
psychophysics.
Sequences in sensation
• Stimulus
• Organ
• Receptor
• Afferent Nerve
• Sensory region in brain
Psychophysics
• Psychophysics is the study of how physical stimuli are translated
into psychological experience and it is the science that
experimentally investigates the relationship between the
physical event and the corresponding psychological event.
• Psychophysics played a central role in the development of the
field of psychology and many of the first psychologists studied
issues related to psychophysics.
• Gustav Fechner, who coined the term psychophysics, he worked
in Leipzig university where Wilhelm Wundt later founded the
first formal laboratory.
Sensory Threshold
• Fechner wanted to know: for any given sense, what is the
weakest detectable stimulus? For example, what is the minimum
amount of light needed for a person to see that there is light?
• A threshold is a dividing point between energy levels that do not
have a detectable effect. Threshold is also known as limen (German
for threshold) and it refers to limits of sensation.
• There are two types of threshold:
– Absolute Threshold
– Differential Threshold
Threshold- Absolute Threshold
• It is the transition point below which no sensation occurs and
above which definitely we have sensation. Absolute limen is an
index of sensitivity of the sense organ.
• The least amount of energy that can be detected as a stimulation
of 50 percent of the time.
• Researchers measures absolute thresholds by asking vigilant
observers to performs detection tasks, such as trying to see a
dim light in a dark room or trying to hear a soft sound in a quiet
SENSORY MODELIDITY Absolute threshold
room. Vision
Hearing
Candle flames seen at 30 miles on a clear dark night
Tick of a watch under quite condition at 20 feet
Taste One teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water
Smell One drop of perfume diffused into three room apartment
Touch A bee’s wing falling on your cheek from one centimeter above
Threshold- Differential Threshold
• It can be defined as the stimulus change required to produce the
‘just noticeable difference (JND)’. The j.n.d is the smallest
detectable difference between two stimuli.
• The minimum difference between two stimuli required for
detecting fifty percent of the time. We experience the difference
threshold as a just noticeable difference.
Signal Detection Theory
• Signal detection theory (SDT) is an out growth of psychophysics
and has its origin in electrical engineering.
• It is also known as “sensory decision theory”.
• The key point is that signal-detection theory replaces Fechner’s
sharp threshold with the concept of “detectability”.
• Classical psychophysics assumes that all individuals are created
equal and ignore psychological variables.
Signal Detection Theory
• Our ability to detect and identify a stimulus is not just a function
of properties of the particular stimulus; it is also affected by
psychological factors like motivation, expectation, motivation
and noise, relating to the person making the judgment.
Expectation Motivation Noise
You are in an experiment where you Psychologists have reformulated the
You are eagerly awaiting the must detect a weak light. In I phase, you concept of absolute threshold to take
delivery of a pizza in a loud party. In get Rs.10 when you are correct in saying into account, many factors that affect the
this situation, you may want to “yes a light was there”. In II phase, you detection of minimal stimuli. As a result,
get Rs.10 when you are correct in saying, the signal detection theory abandons the
detect a signal (door bell) in the
“no, there was not any light”. In each idea that there is a single true absolute
midst of background noise and your phases, you are penalized Rs.5, any time threshold for a stimulus. Instead it
criteria for “hearing” the door bell you are incorrect. Can you see how this adopts the notion that the stimulus, here
will change as the expected time of reward structure would create a shift in called a signal, must be detected in the
delivery approaches. response bias from phase one to phase face of noise, which can interfere with
two? detection of the signal.
Adaptation
• Meaning: It describes the decrease in the response of the sensory
receptors when they are exposed to continuous stimulation.
• This occurs in all of the sensory organs but some adapt more
quickly than the others.
• Our receptors for smell are the quickest to adapt.
• Most of the other senses adapt fairly quickly to constant
stimulation.
• The fact is that our sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus tends to
decrease over the time.
Adaptation
• Adaptation is nearly complete for the smell. Taste adaptation is
usually half complete. Adaptation is moderately complete for
temperature. Some adaptation occurs in vision and hearing and
a very little adaptation occurs for pressure, pain, kinesthesis and
vestibular sense.
• Thus sensory adaptation is the reduced sensitivity to unchanging
stimuli over time.
• Visual adaptation: There are two types of visual adaptation- dark
adaptation and light adaptation.
SENSORY PROCESSES
VISION
Vision
• Humans are visual animals and the first and the most important
sensation is Vision. For the vision light is the stimulus (400 to 700
nm), and eyes are the sense organs. The eye balls have the retina
and retina contains the receptors cells, rods and cones.
• Light is a form of energy known as electromagnetic radiation.
Most electromagnetic radiation—
including x-rays, radio
waves, television signals,
and radar is invisible to the
human eye.
Physical Properties of light
• Hue : It refers to the basic color categories of red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. As we have seen,
various hues (or color sensations) correspond to light wave
length. White light, in contrast, is a mixture of many
wavelengths.
• Saturation: Hues produced by a narrow band of
wavelength are said to be very “saturated” or pure. An
intense fire engine red is more saturated than a muddy
brick red.
• Brightness: A third dimension of vision “brightness”
corresponds roughly to the physical amplitude of light
waves. The brightness is related to the amount of intensity
of light.
Anatomy of Eye
• Cornea: The curved, transparent, protective layer
through which light rays enter the eye.
• Pupil: An opening in the eye, just behind the
cornea, through which light passes.
• Iris: The colorful part of the eye, which constricts
or relaxes to adjust the amount of light entering
the eye.
• Lens: The part of the eye behind the pupil that
bends light rays, focusing them on the retina.
• Retina: The surface at the back of the eye onto
which the lens focuses light rays.
Receptors
• Retina: It is made up of rods and cones – the photo receptive cells. These
cells are responsible for changing light energy into chemical and electrical
impulses which then travel over the optic nerve to the brain.
• Rods and cones can be compared to black-and-white and color film. Rods
and cones differ in their distribution across the retina.
• The cones are heavily concentrated in the fovea-center for clear vision.
• One area of the retina contains neither rods nor cones that is insensitive
Point of difference: Rods Cones
to light and known as blind spot How many? 120-125 million 7-8 million
from which the nerves exists the eyeConcentrated where? Periphery of retina Center(fovea) of retina
How sensitive? High sensitivity Low sensitivity
Sensitivity to color? No Yes
Pigment Rhodopsin Iodopsin
Receptors
• Bipolar cells receive information
directly from the rods and cones
and communicate that information
to the ganglion cells.
• The ganglion cells collect and
summarize visual information,
which is then moved out
the back of the eyeball and sent to
the brain through a bundle of
ganglion axons called the optic
nerve .
Visual Pathway
• The ganglion cells send action potentials
out of the eye, at a point where a blind
spot is created.
• Axons of ganglion cells leave the eye as
a bundle of fibers called the optic nerve;
half of these fibers cross over (creating the
optic chiasm) and terminate in the lateral
geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus.
• Neurons in the LGN send visual information
on to the primary visual cortex.
Theories of Color Vision
• In the study of vision, one of the most basic and intriguing
mysteries is how we see the world in color and we can
discriminate some 7 million different color variations.
• How do we see colors or how cones produce color sensation?
• The following three theories offer explanations.
Duplicity Theory
• The theory was put forth by Von Kries in 19th century. This
theory assumes that there are two types of receptors rods and
cons.
• The rods are assumed to function in night vision at low
illuminations and see only shades of black and white, more
numerous in the periphery of the eye and are specialized for
intensity vision.
• Thus rods are more sensitive than cones and are used when
there is little light.
Duplicity Theory
• The cons are regarded as day light receptors and operating when
illumination is high.
• The cons see colour and are most numerous in the central part
of the eye.
• Thus, according to duplicity theory, the cons are chromatic
(color) and phototopic (day light) receptors. The rods are
achromatic and scoptopic (night) receptors.
• The cones are specialized for space perception and visual acuity
and the rods for intensity vision.
Trichromatic Theory
• It is also known as Young-Helmholtz theory, because it was
proposed by Thomas Young and later modified by Hermann
Helmholtz. They demonstrated that they could match any color
by mixing pure lights of only three wavelengths.
• According to this theory, there are only three kinds of cons in the
human eye, one is more sensitive in the blue, another more
sensitive in the green, and third more sensitive in the red region
of the spectrum.
Trichromatic Theory
• When all the three types of cones are stimulated equally, a
sensation of white results.
• The other color sensations result from a combined stimulations
of the cones in different proportions.
• Thus the trichromatic theory states that the color vision is
produced by the combination of three basic systems – a red
system, a green system, and a blue system.
Opponent Process Theory
• This theory of color vision was formulated by
Herring.
• According to this theory, the color-sensitive
visual elements in the eye are grouped into
three pairs, and the members of each pair
oppose, or inhibit, each other.
• The three pairs are a red-green element, a
blue-yellow element, and a black-white
element. Each element signals one color or
the other—red or green.
Opponent Process Theory
• Thus a yellow receptor would oppose the influence of the blue
receptors and red would oppose the influence of green
receptors.
• Coding one color in a pair (red for example) block the opposite
message (green). So a reddish green is impossible, but a
yellowish red (orange) can occur.
• Negative Aftereffect.
• Complementary colors.
Basic function of Visual System
• Nearsightedness: A condition in which
the visual image entering our eye is
focused slightly in front of our retina
rather than directly on it. Therefore
near objects can be seen clearly, while
distant objects appear fuzzy or
blurred.
• Farsightedness: A condition in which the
visual image entering our eye is focused
behind rather than directly on the retina.
Therefore close objects appear out of
focus, while distant objects are in clear
focus.
Basic function of Visual System

Eye movement
Version
Movement Vergence Movement

Involuntary Saccadic Pursuit

Movements Movements Movements
AUDITORY
Auditory
• Hearing is technically known as audition and the stimulus for
hearing is sound wave .-N

• Sound is the movement of air molecules brought about by a

source of vibration.
• Any vibrating object can produce sound and the audible
spectrum of 20 to 20,000 HZ.
• For audition ears are the sensory organ and organ of corti in the
ear contains hair cells which has the receptor cells.
Physical Properties of Sound
• Amplitude: The difference between the peak and
the baseline of a waveform. Loudness is
determined by the amplitude of the sound wave.
Waves with greater amplitude produce sensations
of louder sounds.
• Frequency: The distance from one peak to the
next in a waveform. Frequency is denoted by CPS
(Cycles per Second) or Hz (Hertz). Pitch or how
high or low a tone sounds, depends on the
frequency of sound waves. High-frequency waves
are sensed as sounds of high pitch.
• Wavelength: The distance from one peak to the
next in a waveform.
Anatomy of Ear
• Outer ears: This contains the pinna,
auditory canal and ear drum or
tympanic membrane. The ear drum
vibrates to the sound wave.
• Middle ear: Middle ear is a small cavity; vibrations from the ear
drum are passed on to oval window through the three ossicles
(malleus, incus, stapes) smallest bones of the body and ear.
• Inner ear: This contains cochlea the spiral structure and it is the
primary organ for hearing. It is filled with fluid. It contains the
basilar membrane, organ of corti and hair cell.
 Receptors- transduction
• The basilar membrane forms the floor of this
long tube. Whenever a sound wave passes
through the fluid in the tube, it moves the
basilar membrane, and this movement bends
hair cells of the organ of Corti, a group of cells
that rests on the membrane.
• These hair cells connect with fibers from the auditory nerve, a
bundle of axons that goes into the brain.
• When the hair cells bend, they stimulate neurons in the auditory
nerve to fire in a pattern that sends the nerve impulse to the brain.
Auditory Pathway
Theories of Audition- Place Theory
• Place theory is based on the fact that the
basillar membranes move when sound waves
are conducted through the inner ear.
• Different frequencies produced their most
movement at a particular places along the
basilar membrane.
• Place theory holds that perception of pitch
corresponds to the vibration of different
places along the basilar membrane.
Theories of Audition- Frequency Theory
• It suggests that the entire basilar membrane acts as a
microphone, vibrating as a whole in response to a sound.
• According to this explanation, the nerve receptors send out
signals that are tied directly to the frequency of the sounds with
the number of nerve impulses generated by the hair cells. Thus,
the higher the pitch of a sound, the greater the number of nerve
impulses that are transmitted up the auditory nerve to the brain.
• (i.e.) A sound wave with a frequency of 100 hertz will set the
basilar membrane vibrating 100 times per second.
Theories of Audition- Frequency Theory
• One problem with the theory is that individual neurons cannot fire
rapidly for high pitched sounds, because none of them can fire
more than 1000 times per second.
• This limitation makes it possible for one neuron to distinguish
sounds above 1000 hertz –which , of course , your auditory system
can do quite well.
• This limitation might be overcome by the
volley principle, which suggests that several
neurons in a combined action or volley, fire
at the frequency that matches a stimulus
tone of 2000 hertz, 3000 hertz and so on.
Theories- Summary
• Neither place theory nor frequency theory provides the full
explanation for hearing.
• Place theory provides a better explanation for the sensing of
high-frequency sounds, whereas frequency theory explains what
happens when low-frequency sounds are encountered.
• Medium-frequency sounds incorporate both processes.
• Place- High frequency.
• Frequency- Low frequency.
SOMESTHESIS
Somesthesis
• The term somesthesis (greek: body perception) refers to various
sensations of the skin.
• It is also known as cutaneous or tactual sensation.
• It includes sensation like touch, pressure, pain, cold, warmth,
itching and vibration.
• In fact, all our skin senses plays a critical role in survival, making
us aware of potential danger to our bodies.
• Most of these senses operate through nerve receptor cells
located at various depths throughout the skin, distributed
unevenly throughout the body.
Physical properties
• Temperature (Cold/ Warmth)
• Pressure (Vibration/Touch/Pain)
• Chemical (Itching)
Anatomy of Skin
• The receptor organ is the skin and it is the largest sense organ.
• A 6 feet tall person has about 21 square feet of skin.
• The skin consists of three layers.
• Epidermis: This is the outer most layers. It is made up dead cells
because living cells cannot live in exposure to air, water
and temperature. Epidermis
• Dermis: Dermis is the middle layer.
Dermis
• Hypodermis: It is the inner layer and it is
made up of adipose tissue and it is thicker Hypodermis

and therefore softer in women than in men.

Receptors
• Pacinian corpuscles – Deep pressure
• Meissner corpuscles – Touch
• Ruffini’s cylinder – Pressure & Warmth
• Free nerve ending/ Nociceptor – Pain and
temperature change
Pain (Nociceptive sense)
• The sensation of pain (nociception) is crucial to survival and it is
marvelous warning system.
• The receptors for pain are mostly free nerve endings in the skin.
Likely other skin senses pain receptors also vary in their
distributions.
• An injury of intense stimulation of Types of Pain
sensory receptors induce pain. So Somatic
bright lights, loud noises, hot spices, Visceral pain pain
as well as cuts, burns and bruises are Pain originating in the internal It is the pain from the skin,
organs. It is often felt on the muscles, joints and tendons and
painful. surface of the body at a site some
distance from the point of origin.
becomes the body’s warning
system.
Pathway
• _
Gate Control theory of Pain
• The most influential theory of pain is the “gate control theory”
formulated by psychologist Ronald Melzack and biologist Patrick
Wall.
• According to this theory, the spinal cord contains a neurological
“gate” that either blocks or allows pain signals to pass on to the
brain.
• The gate is not an actual structure but rather a pattern of neural
activity.
• The spinal cord contains small nerve fibers that conduct most
pain signals and large fibers, that conduct most other sensory
signal.
Gate Control theory of Pain
• When tissue is injured the small fibers
activate and open the neural gate and you
feel pain.
• Large fiber activity closes the pain gate and
turning the pain off. Thus, one way to reduce
pain is to stimulate “gate closing” activity of
the large nerve fibers.
• Rubbing the area around your stubbed toe
and placing ice activate the large fibers and
close the gate.
Gate Control theory of Pain
• The theory also suggests that thoughts and feelings can influence
the perception of pain.
• When we dwell on our pain, focusing on it and talking about it
constantly we often intensify our experience of pain Conversely
when we are distracted from our pain, we may not feel it.
• For example: Athletes are able to finish a performance, despite
sprained ankles or even broken bones.
GUSTATION
Gustation
• Taste is technically known as the gustation.
• The stimulus is the chemical substance that must be soluble in
water.
• Tongue is the receptor organ for the taste, it contains taste
buds.
• Taste buds are distributed according to the four basic
qualities: bitter, sour, salt, sweet.
• Today, many researchers include a fifth taste, Umami
(monosodium glutamate)
Sensation

Papillae
• The taste buds are bunched together in lumps
on the tongue called papillae (Greek: pimples)
that can be easily seen on the tongue.
• The taste bud contains the taste cells and from
each cell starts the nerve fiber.
• The chemical substance in the saliva enters
through the taste pores and stimulates taste
cells.
• The taste cells are replaced by new cells about
every 10 days.
OLFACTION
Olfaction
• Smell is technically known as the olfaction. The stimulus is the
chemical substance but it should be volatile in nature.
• Similar to taste, we seem to be able to smell only a seven
primary odors:
– Resinous – Etheral (pears); – Putrid (rotten
(camphor) – Musky (musk oil); eggs).
– Floral (roses) – Acrid (vinegar) and
– Minty
(peppermint)
• For most animals, smell is important for both survival and
communication.
Sensation
• The olfactory organs in dogs are much larger than those in humans.
• In many animals, smell provides the dominant means of
communication. for example, Some animal release chemicals called
pheromones, which cause specific and predictable reactions in
other animals.
• The pheromone bombykol is released by the female silkworm moth
to attract a male and trigger the behavior necessary for mating.
• Honeybees are capable of releasing an alarm pheromone that
signals other bees to attack objects in the vicinity of their hive.
Receptor
• The receptor organ for the smell is the
nose.
• The upper most layer of the nasal cavity
has the brownish mucous membrane called 3
as olfactory epithelium.
1
• It has many small hair cells called olfactory 2
cells.
• The nerve fibers from the olfactory cells
enters into the brain through olfactory
bulb.
KINESTHETIC
Kinesthetic
• This is the sense of the movement.
• Even after closing our eyes we can sense the movement of our
body parts and it is because of kinesthetic sense or kinesthesis.
• It is the sense that tells you where the parts of your body are
with respect to one another.
• Meaning:
– Kinesthetic is the sensory organ that monitors the positions of
the various parts of the body.
– The sense of body position and movement of body parts.
Kinesthetic
• The receptor cells are the nerve endings embedded in the muscles,
tendons and joints.
• Specialized nerve endings called stretch receptors are attached to
muscle fibers, and different nerve endings called golgi tendon
organs are attached to the tendons which connects the muscles to
bones.
• Receptors in muscle fibers and tendons send information to the
brain about the stretching of muscles.
Kinesthetic
• When the position of your bones changes, as when you move
your arms and legs, receptors in the joints transduce this
mechanical energy into neural activity, providing information
about both the rate of change and the angle of the bones.
VESTIBULAR
Vestibular
• This is the sense of equilibrium or body balance.
• It gives us information about body position, movement, and
acceleration—factors critical for maintaining our sense of
balance.
• We usually become aware of our vestibular sense after activities
that make us feel dizzy, like amusement park rides that involve
rapid acceleration or spinning motions.
• The stimuli for vestibular sense include movements such as
spinning, falling and tilting the body or head.
Vestibular
• The sensory organs for the
vestibular sense are located in the
inner ear.
• The receptors are located in the
semi circular canals that are
located above the cochlea of the
inner ear.
• It is filled with the fluid
endolymph and it also has the
nerve fibers.
Vestibular
• If you have been twirling around and
come to an abrupt halt, the fluid in your
semicircular canals does not immediately
return to its neutral state.
• The after effect fools your dizzy brain with
the sensation that you are still spinning.
• This sense is more important for balancing act as in circus or
space ship.
• Problem with the semicircular canal will lead to motion sickness
or sea sickness and the symptoms include dizziness and nausea.
PERCEPTION
Sensation
• This is the concept related to sensation. Sensation refers to the initial
detection of the stimulus.
• Perception is interpretation of the things we sense.
• The term perception involves higher order cognition in the
interpretation of sensory information.
• Definition:-
– Perception is the organization of sensory information into
meaningful experiences.
– Perception can be defined as the cognitive process of selecting
(attention), organizing and interpretation of stimulus (sensation).
Nature of perception
• For perception stimulus is required
• Perception is selective
• Perception is subjective because different individual gives
different meaning to the same stimulus (object, person or
the event)
• Perception influences our emotions and behavior.
Attention-Focus
• Environment of an individual bombards them with unlimited
sensory inputs.
• We cannot absorb all of the available sensory information. But, we
selectively attend to certain aspects of our environment while
neglecting others to the background.
• Selective attention has obvious advantages, since it allows us to
maximize information gained from the object of our focus while
reducing sensory interference from other irrelevant sources
• Studies have shown that people can focus so intently on one task
that they fail to notice other events occurring simultaneously—
even very salient ones
Attention-Focus
• Although we control the focus of our attention, at least to some
extent, certain characteristics of stimuli can cause our attention
to shift suddenly.
• Features such as contrast, novelty, stimulus intensity, color, and
sudden change tend to attract our attention.
• This ability to shift the attention has a crucial survival value.
• Sudden movement, loud noise, noxious odors, somesthesis in
ear.
Principles
• Rather than passively responding to the external stimuli
we have the tendency to actively attempt to organize and
make sense of those stimulus.
• Perception is a constructive process by which we go
beyond the stimuli that are presented to us and attempt
to construct a meaningful situation.
• Some of the most basic perceptual processes can be
described by a series of principles that focus on the
ways we organize bits and pieces of information into
meaningful wholes known as Gestalt Principles.
Gestalt Principles Law of similarity

• The following are the important and most studied

Law of proximity
Figure & Ground
organizing principles: Law of Closure
Perceptual Grouping
Law of Continuation

Principles
Law of Simplicity

Law of Common fate

Color Constancy

Perceptual Constancy Size Constancy

Context in form perception Shape Constancy

Figure & Ground
• One of the primary process in perception is to perceive an object
(figure) distinct from its surrounding (ground).
• As you see this slide, the words are the figure and slide becomes
the background.
• The Perceptual process is not only an active process but a
categorical one as well.
• People usually organize sensory stimulation into one
perceptual category or another, but rarely into both or
into something in between.
Perceptual Grouping
• It is tendency to group the
incoming stimuli into same pattern.
• It is based upon the innate Gestalt
Principle.
• The principle of perceptual
grouping refers to the tendency to
perceive stimuli as meaningful wholes or patterns.
• The principles of perceptual grouping were studied extensively by
proponents of Gestalt psychology, such as Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohle
and Max Wertheimer.
Law of
Similarity
Stimuli which are
similar in nature will
be perceived as a
group.
Law of
Proximity
The closer objects are
to one another, the
more likely they are to
be perceived as a
group.
Law of Closure
The tendency to fill in
the missing contours
to form a complete
object
Law of
Continuity
Sensations that
appear to create a
continuous form are
perceived as a group.
Law of
Simplicity
Tendency to organize
complex forms in the
simplest way possible
Law of
Common fate
Tendency to group
together objects that
appear to be moving
in the same direction
Perceptual Constancy
• We have learned to perceive certain objects in the same way
regardless of changing conditions and in perpetual constancy the
individual gives the same meaning despite the variation in the
sensation.
• There are three types of perceptual constancy.
• They are:
– Color constancy
– Size constancy
– Shape constancy
Color Constancy
• In color constancy the individual gives the same meaning to a
familiar stimulus despite the variations in the sensation i.e. color
of the retinal image.
• For e.g. when the individual looks at the milk under different
color lights, the color of the retinal image varies but the
individual will constantly say that the color of
the milk is white.
• Color constancy is also known as “brightness
constancy”
Size Constancy
• In this the size of the familiar stimulus
is perceived as the same despite the
variation in the size of the retinal
image.
• For e.g. When we stand in front of a
pillar the size of the retinal image will
be big and if we see it from a long
distance the size of the retinal image
is small, even though it looks small we
tend to say pillar is huge because we
knew that a pillar is huge.
Shape Constancy
• In this the shape of the familiar object is perceived as the same
despite the variation in the shape of the stimulus in retinal
image.
• For e.g. when we look at the pencil it is cylindrical in shape but
when we look at the pencil in different angle the
shape of the retinal image varies
but we know that the pencil is cylindrical.
Context in Form Perception
Context in Form Perception
• The setting in which an object appears is its context.
• Our perceptions are highly influenced by context.
• 13 are identical, but you probably read one as a letter
and the other as a number because of the context in which
each appeared.
ILLUSION
Illusion
• Illusions are perceptions that are misrepresentations of
reality. It can happen in all the modality but most widely
studies illusion in visual illusion.
• A physical stimulus that consistently produces errors in
perception.
• Misinterpretation of the stimulus.
– e.g.: Some times we may mistake a rope for a snake
and vice versa, Mirages, Converging railway tracks at
the distance.
Illusion
• Variants of Visual illusion
– Horizontal Vertical Illusion
– Muller Lyer Illusion
– Ponzo Illusion
– Zollner Illusion
– Ebbinghaus Illusion
Horizontal-vertical illusion
Sensation
• The horizontal–vertical illusion stems from our tendency
to perceive objects higher in our visual field as more
distant.
• This illusion helps explain why the St. Louis Gateway
falsely appears taller than it is wide (its height and width
are actually equal).
Muller-Lyer Illusion
Ponzo Ebbinghaus Zollner
Illusion Illusion Illusion
Sensation
• Extra Sensory Perception (ESP)
• Depth Perception
• Subliminal Perception
• Motion Perception
• Pattern Perception
• Perceptual Defense
• Bottom-up Processing
• Top-down Processing
Attention- Meaning
• Attention is the means by which we actively process a limited
amount of information from the enormous amount of
information available through our senses, our stored memories,
and our other cognitive processes.
• It includes both conscious and unconscious processes
• Attention allows us to use our limited mental resources
judiciously.
• By dimming the lights on many stimuli from outside (sensations)
and inside (thoughts and memories), we can highlight the stimuli
that interest us.
Attention- Process
Information

Sensation Conscious
A
Processes c
t
Memory Attention
i
Automatic o
Thoughts Process
n
Types of Attention
• Vigilance
• Search
• Selective Attention
• Divided Attention
• Sustained Attention
Type Description Example
Vigilance It refers to a person’s ability to attend to a field of Sonar reading, Smell of leaking
stimulation over a prolonged period, during which gas or smoke.
(Cautious about the incoming
the person seeks to detect the appearance of a stimuli)
particular target stimulus of interest.
Search It refers to a scan of the environment for particular If we detect smoke or gas leak,
features—actively looking for something when you we engage in active search of
the source of it to put it of.
are not sure where it will appear.
Selective It refers to an ability to focus on a particular salient Listening to lecture by ignoring
Attention stimuli by simultaneously inhibiting the focus your disturbing friend.
towards unwanted stimuli.
Divided It refers to focusing attention on more than one Talking over phone while driving
Attention stimuli at a time.
Sustained It refers to the ability to focus on one specific task for Reading a book, Listening to the
Attention a continuous amount of time without being lecture till the end.
Continuous selective attention
distracted.
Importance of Attention
• Attention has a survival value of detecting and responding to
threatful stimulus.
• Attention is one of the primary and most important psychological
process.
• It provides the base for further higher order cognitive processes
like perception, learning and memory. Without which those
higher order cognitive processes doesn’t exists.
• It helps in monitoring our interaction with the environment
Importance of Attention
• It assists us in linking our past (memories) and our present
(sensations) to give us a sense of continuity of experience.
• It helps us in controlling and planning for our future actions.
Broadbent Theory of Attention- Early Filter
• This theory states that the information from multiple sensory
organs are filtered the sensory filter level even before it reaches
perceptual processors.
• The filter permits only one channel of sensory information to
proceed and reach the processes of perception. We thereby
assign meaning to our sensations.
• Other stimuli will be filtered out at the
sensory level and may never reach the
level of perception.
Treisman’s Theory of Attention- (Attenuation)
• Sometimes the unattended messages pass through the filter.
• Shadowing experiment (Participants picked few words/
messages from the unattended ear).
• Treisman also observed that some fluently bilingual participants
noticed the identity of messages if the unattended message was
a translated version of the attended one.
• This theory states that, instead of blocking out sensory
information in the sensory filter level, we tend to attenuates
(weakens) the strength of irrelevant stimuli.
Treisman’s Theory of Attention- (Attenuation)
• If previously considered salient stimuli doesn’t produce much meaning
in the perception or if the attuned stimuli carries some very important
piece of information, the attuned stimuli will be pass on to the
perceptual level.
• In a next step, we perceptually analyze the meaning of the stimuli and
their relevance to us, so that even a message from the unattended ear
that is supposedly irrelevant can come into consciousness and
influence our subsequent actions if it has some
meaning for us.
Deutsch’s Theory of Attention- Later Filter
• This theory suggested that stimuli are filtered out only after they
have been analyzed for both their physical properties and their
meaning.
• This later filtering would allow people to recognize information
entering the unattended ear.
• Note that proponents of both the early and the late-filtering propose
that there is an attentional filter through which
only a single source of information
can pass.
Synthesized model
• A Synthesis of Early-Filter and Late-Filter Models have data to support
them. So In 1967, Ulric Neisser in 1967, synthesized those models and
proposed that there are two processes governing attention:
• Pre-attentive processes: These automatic processes are rapid and occur
in parallel. They can be used to notice only physical sensory
characteristics of the unattended message. But they do not decode
meaning or relationships.
• Attentive, Controlled processes: These processes occur later. They are
executed serially and consume time and attentional resources, such as
working memory. They also can be used to observe relationships among
features. They serve to synthesize fragments into a mental
representation of an object.