Sensation, Perception, and Behavior PDF

SENSATION, PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOR Sensation, Reality and Perceiving the World  Definitions The topics deal with the way we receive information from our environment (sensation) and the way we interpret that information (perception). Psychophy...

SENSATION, PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOR Sensation, Reality and Perceiving the World  Definitions The topics deal with the way we receive information from our environment (sensation) and the way we interpret that information (perception). Psychophysics: The study of the relationship between the physical aspects of stimuli and our psychological experience of them. Sensation: The activation of the sense organs by a source of Physical energy. There is an awareness of the stimuli (smell, taste, pictures, heat, pressure, pain etc). Perception: The processes of sorting out, interpretation, analysis and integration of the sensed stimuli. By the sense organs and the brain. Perception is interpreting and making sense out of the information that we receive through our senses.  Concepts related to sensation Absolute threshold: The smallest amount of stimulus that must be present for it to be detected. Difference threshold: (just noticeable difference) the smallest level of change (added or reduced) stimulus required to sense the occurrence of change in stimulation. Weber’s Law: says that the just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the intensity of an initial stimulus. Adaptation: adjustment in sensory capacity. It happen when we become familiar to a stimulus. You become less sensitive to sensory stimuli.  Gestalt Laws of perception The Gestalt psychologists (Wertheimer, Koffka, and Kohler) discovered many other ways in which what we perceive is already organized. The Gestalt theory is that we organize bits and pieces of information into meaningful wholes. we often experience things that are not a part of our simple sensations. e.g. The phi phenomenon is the basic principle of motion pictures and television! Wertheimer explained that We are built to experience the structured whole as well as the individual sensations. We even add structure to events which do not have gestalt structural qualities. Insight learning. This usually happens as a result of the recognition of a gestalt or organizing principle  The process of Perceiving 1-1Figure /Ground Things are seen as standing out from their background. we perceive: - one aspect of an event as the figure and the other as the ground  The process of Perceiving 1-2 Gestalt laws: These represent the organizing principles that form the structure of perception. The most general is called the law of pragnanz. Pragnanz is fulness of meaning. It appears in things like regularity, orderliness, simplicity, and symmetry.  Laws of Perception Closure: This law says that, if something is missing in an otherwise complete figure, we will tend to add it. Similarity: The law of says that we will tend to group similar items together. Proximity: Things that are close together as seen as belonging together. Symmetry: Elements that are symmetrical to each other tend to be perceived as a unified group. Continuity: Tendency to create continuous patterns and perceive connected objects as uninterrupted. Common path: We group elements that move in the same direction.  Two theories: processing information Two theories of processing are advanced: 1- Top down : Perception is guided by higher level knowledge, experience, expectations, and motivations. 2- Bottom-up: the progression of recognizing and processing information from individual components of a stimuli and moving to the perception of the whole.  Related concepts Perceptual Constancy: The perception of thing as unvarying despite the change of appearance. Depth of Perception: Ability to view the world in three dimensions. Motion perception: perceived because of movement of picture in retina and the movement of the head. Perceptual illusions: (Deception of perception) Physical stimuli that consistently produce errors in perception.