Section 4: Sensation and Perception
Table of Contents
This section covers the following topics
The processes and theories about vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste
The thresholds that are necessary for a person to perceive something
The principles of perception, including Gestalt rules
Section Summary
Sensation involves all five senses: seeing, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Each of these senses has a specific biological process that allows the information from the senses to reach the brain. Not everything is known about these processes, however, and there are theories that explain exactly how this happens. All sensory information does not reach the brain with the same intensity, and perception studies how people discern between sensations, and why certain sensations do not reach the brain.
Introduction
Sensation and perception are two key areas of study in psychology. Sensation refers to the immediate inputs that we receive from our senses. Perception takes sensations one step further and is the process in which the brain organizes and interprets these sensations.
In sensation, the sensory organs receive stimuli (such as a person viewing a television screen). The signals from the senses are converted into neural impulses through the process of transduction. These neural impulses then travel to the thalamus and to different parts of the brain (with the exception of the sense of smell).
When a person is repeatedly exposed to a certain stimuli, they become less responsive to it—they get used to the stimuli. This is known as sensory adaption. Another similar process is sensory habituation, where our perception of sensations depends on how much we are focused on them. For example, if I choose to focus on how my feet feel in my socks, I will become more aware of that sensation. The cocktail-party phenomenon occurs when our attention switches to someone across the room. For example, when a person hears his or her name shouted across a room,... Sign up to continue reading Section 4: Sensation and Perception >
