Isaiah Houssou

Mr. Gianelli
AP Psychology
1 December 2022
Precis of Chapter 5
Sensory Processes
Senses are any of the media through which one gathers information about the external
environment or about the state of one's body in relation to the environment.

Sensation
Sensation is the stimulus detection process by which our sense organs respond to and translate
environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain.

Theories and principles of psychophysics (studies relations between physical characteristics of

stimuli and sensory capabilities:
●​ The Absolute Threshold: The absolute threshold is the lowest intensity at which a
stimulus can be detected 50 percent of the time. The lower the threshold, the higher the
sensitivity.
●​ Signal Detection Theory - Signal detection theory is concerned with factors that influence
sensory judgements.
○​ Decision Criterion - A standard of how certain people must be that a stimulus is
present before they say they detect it.
●​ Subliminal Stimuli - A stimulus that is so weak or brief that it is received by the senses
but not perceived consciously.
●​ Difference Threshold (just noticeable difference)- The difference threshold is defined as
the smallest difference between two stimuli that people can perceive 50 percent of the
time
○​ Weber’s Law - The difference threshold is directly proportional to the magnitude
of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made. The constant of
proportionality in this relation is known as the Weber fraction.
●​ Sensory Adaptation - The diminishing sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus

The Sensory Systems

There are many different systems in the body that handle different stimuli such as vision,
audition, taste, smell, and bodily senses.

Transduction
Transduction is the process whereby the characteristics of a stimulus are converted into nerve
impulses.

The sensory systems:

●​ Vision - The detection of electromagnetic radiation.
○​ The Eye - The structure that captures and converts light into neural
impulses.
■​ The Cornea - The cornea is a transparent protective structure at the
front of the eye
 ■​ The Pupil - Sitting behind the cornea, the pupil is an adjustable
opening that dilates or constricts to control the amount of light that
enters. The pupil is controlled by the iris.
■​ The Iris - The group of muscle fibers surrounding the pupil that
controls its size. In bright light, the iris constricts the pupil but in
dim light, the iris dilates the pupil.
■​ The Lens - The lens is an elastic structure that becomes thinner to
focus on distant objects and thicker to focus on nearby objects. The
lens focuses the visual image on the retina.
■​ The Retina - The retina is a multilayered light-sensitive tissue at
the rear of the fluid-filled eyeball.
●​ Photoreceptors - Contained in the retina and are built to
detect light. Made up of rods and cones.
○​ Rods - Rods, which function best in dim light, are
primarily black-and-white brightness receptors.
○​ Cones - The cones focus on color detection,
function best in bright illumination.
●​ The Fovea - The fovea is a small area in the center of the
retina that contains no rods but many densely packed cones.
○​ Visual Acuity - Ability to see fine detail. This is the
greatest in the fovea.
●​ Bipolar Cells - Have synaptic connections with the rods
and cones.
●​ Ganglion Cells - Have synaptic connections with the
bipolar cells.
○​ Axons of ganglion cells form the optic nerve.
○​ The blind spot is formed by the axons of ganglion
cells leaving the eye.
■​ Visual Transduction - Visual transduction is the conversion of light
waves into nerve impulses by rods and cones through protein
molecules called photopigments. The absorption of light by
photopigments produces a chemical reaction that changes the rate
of neurotransmitter release at the receptor’s synapse.
○​ Dark Adaptation - Dark adaptation is the progressive improvement in
brightness sensitivity that occurs over time under conditions of low
illumination.
○​ Color Vision - Color vision is the ability to see differences in wavelengths
in electromagnetic radiation.
■​ Color Transduction - The transformation of visual stimuli into
neural impulses. There are three primary theories that explain it.
●​ Trichromatic Theory - The trichromatic theory states that
any color in the visible spectrum can be produced by some
combination of blue, green, and red. In the retina, there are
three types of color receptors, and they send messages to
the brain based on the intensity of the light. Maximum
activation creates white.
 ●​ Opponent-Process Theory - Opponent-process theory
proposes that each of the three cone types responds to
different wavelengths. One responds to blue or yellow, one
to red or green, and one to black and white. The seeing of
afterimages supports this idea as each receptor experiences
a rebound reaction where each color is replaced with its
opposite.
●​ Dual-Process Theory - Dual-process theory combines both
of these theories to account for color transduction. All
cones roughly respond to red, green, and blue and different
ratios of activity can produce a pattern of neural activity
that corresponds to a color. Opponent-process is also
partially correct as the ganglion cells respond in an
opponent-process fashion.
■​ Color-Deficient Vision - Also known as color blindness, this is
caused by a lack of sensitivity in the blue-yellow system, the
red-green system, or both. Deficiency is one creates dichromats,
while a deficiency in both creates a monochromat. Normal vision
is trichromacy.
●​ Audition - Audition is the response to auditory stimuli, or sound waves.
○​ Frequency - Frequency is the number of sound waves, or cycles, per
second, and it accounts for pitch.
○​ Amplitude is the vertical size of sound waves. It is expressed in dB.
Amplitude accounts for loudness.
○​ The Ear - The ear is the organ that converts sound to neural impulses.
■​ The Eardrum - The eardrum is where sound waves travel, and it
responds to the sound waves.
■​ Ossicles (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) - These small bones amplify
the sound waves more than 30 times. The hammer is attached to
the eardrum and the stirrup is attached to the oval window.
■​ Cochlea - The cochlea is a coiled, snail shaped, 3.5 cm long tube
that is filled with fluid and contains the basilar membrane.
■​ Basilar Membrane - A short tissue that runs the length of the
cochlea.
●​ Organ of Corti - The organ of Corti contains thousands of
tiny hair cells that are the actual sound receptors. It resides
on the basilar membrane. The tips of the hair cells are
attached to the tectorial membrane that overhangs the
tectorial membrane.The hair cells synapse with the neurons
of the auditory nerve, which in turn send impulses via an
auditory relay station in the thalamus to the temporal lobe's
auditory cortex. The bending of hair cells caused by
pressure created by the ossicles signals the release of
neurotransmitters into the synaptic space between hair cells
and neurons of the auditory nerve.
■​ Coding of Pitch - This is how frequency is coded by the ear.
 ●​ Frequency Theory of Pitch - This theory states that nerve
impulses sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound
wave. For example, a 30-hertz wave would lead to 30
volleys of nerve impulses per second.
●​ Place Theory of Pitch - This states that the specific point in
the cochlea where fluid waves peak and most strongly
bends the hair cells.
○​ Sound Localization - How we and other animals can tell the location of a
sound source.
○​ Hearing Loss - The inability or decrease in ability to respond to sound.
■​ Conduction Deafness - Involves problems with the mechanical
system that transmits sound waves to the cochlea.
■​ Nerve Deafness - Caused by damaged receptors within the inner
ear or damage to the auditory nerve itself.
●​ Gustation - Gustation is the ability to taste.
○​ Taste buds - Taste buds are chemical receptors concentrated along the tip,
edges , and back surface of the tongue. Each responds to one or two basic
tastes but weakly to the others as well. Another taste sensation, umami,
increases the intensity of other taste qualities.
●​ Olfaction - The sense of smell.
○​ Olfactory Receptors - Olfactory receptors are long cells that project
through the lining of the upper part of the nasal cavity and into the mucus
membrane.
○​ Olfactory Bulb - The olfactory bulb is a forebrain structure immediately
above the nasal cavity.
○​ Pheromones - Pheromones are chemical signals found in natural body
scents that may affect human behavior in subtle ways.
●​ Skin and Body Senses
○​ The Tactile Senses - Senses relating to feel, such as temperature, touch,
and pain. These sensations are conveyed by receptors in the skin and
internal organs.
■​ The Skin - The skin is a multilayered, elastic structure that is the
largest organ in the body.
○​ Kinesthesis - Feedback relating to muscles' and joints' position and
movements.
○​ Vestibular Sense - The sense of body orientation, or equilibrium.

Perception
Perception is the ability to convert input from sensory organs into conscious experience.
●​ Bottom-Up Processing - This system takes in individual elements of the stimulus and
then combines them into a unified perception.
○​ Perceptual Schema: A mental representation or image containing the critical and
distinctive features of an object, person, or event.
○​ Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization: Gestalt, meaning “whole” in
German, represents how we organize our perceptual field into a meaningful
whole.
 ■​ Figure-Ground Relations: The tendency to organize stimuli into a
foreground figure and a background.
■​ Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization:
●​ Similarity: Similar items are viewed as belonging together
●​ Proximity: Objects close together are perceived as being in the
same configuration.
●​ Closure: The mind tends to close the open edges or fill the gaps in
an incomplete figure.
●​ Continuity: The mind connects multiple different items into one,
continuous line or pattern.
●​ Top-Down Processing - Sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge,
concepts, ideas, and expectations.
○​ Perceptual Constancies: Allow us to recognize familiar stimuli under varying
conditions.
○​ Perceptual Sets: A readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way.
○​ Illusions: Compelling but incorrect perceptions.
●​ Attention - Attention is the ability to focus on a certain sensory input. It involves two
processes of selection:
○​ Focusing on certain stimuli.
■​ Environmental and Personal Factors in Attention: Attention is affected by
the nature of the stimulus and by personal factors. Some of these
characteristics include intensity, novelty, movement, contrast, and
repetition.
○​ Filtering out other incoming information.
■​ Inattentional Blindness: the failure of unattended stimuli to register in
consciousness.

Depth, Distance, and Motion

Depth and Distance Perception
The mind determines distance to an object using many different monocular (one‐eyed) and
binocular (two‐eyed) cues:
●​ Monocular Cues
○​ Patterns of light and shadow
○​ Linear perspective
○​ Height in the horizontal plane
○​ Texture
○​ Clarity
●​ Binocular Cues
○​ Binocular disparity (differences in image between eyes)
○​ Convergence (muscle feedback of turning eyes to view close/far objects)

Movement
Movement perception is caused by the movement of the stimulus across the retina.
Stroboscopic movement​
Illusory movement caused by flashing a light in one place then flashing a different light a few
milliseconds later.

Experience, Critical Periods, and Perceptual Development

Cross-Cultural Research on Perception
Differences in culture can cause differences in perception.

Critical Periods
Times where certain kinds of experience must occur if perceptual abilities and the brain
mechanisms that underlie them are to develop normally.

Restored Sensory Capacity

When senses like vision are restored after a lifetime of blindness, patients are often unable to
deal with new conditions because of a lack of development in the critical period as well as
important perceptual tools like perceptual sets and constancies.