Sensation

Chapter 3.1

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Main topics
• Meaning of Perception
• Process of Perception
• Factors Affecting Perception
• Perceptual organization (gestalt
principles)
• Illusion – meaning, causes and
types
• Kelly’s attribution theory
• Errors or biases in
attribution/shortcuts in judging
others
• Specific applications in
organization

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Sensory Experiences

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Vestibular, Kinesthetic and Visceral
Sensory Experience

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Sensory Experience

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Difference between sensation and perception
Sensation Perception
• Primary and first process in • Complex mental process
acquiring knowledge • Meaningful interpretation
• It has no meaning • Brain is more active and
• Sense organs work as receptors symbolic process involved
• Past experience not involved • Past experience needed
• Immediate knowledge • Immediate knowledge
explained

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Group Division on Presentation
Perception Meaning and Process
• Definition: Perception is the process by
which the sensations experienced at
any given moment are interpreted and
organized in some meaningful pattern.
• Stimuli activate sensory receptors
• Sensory receptors translate information
into nerve impulses
• Specialized neurons analyze stimuli
features
• Stimulus pieces are reconstructed and
compared to stimuli in memory
Processes in Perception
• Receptor Process
• Symbolic Process
• Affective Process
• Unification Process
• Bottom up process
• Top Down Process
Factors Influencing Perception
Factors Influencing Perception: Perceiver
• When you look at a target, your
interpretation of what you see
is influenced by your personal
characteristics—attitudes,
personality, motives, interests,
past experiences, and
expectations.
• For instance, if you expect
police officers to be
authoritative or young people
to be lazy, you may perceive
them as such, regardless of
their actual traits.
Factors Influencing Perception: Target
• Because we don’t look at targets in
isolation, the relationship of a target to its
background influences perception, as
does our tendency to group close things
and similar things together.
• Loud people are more likely to be noticed
in a group than quiet ones. So, too, are
extremely attractive or unattractive
individuals.
• We often perceive women, men, Whites,
African Americans, Asians, or members of
any other group that has clearly
distinguishable characteristics as alike in
other, unrelated ways as well.
Factors Influencing Perception: Situation
• Context matters too (Time and
Social Setting). The time at
which we see an object or event
can influence our attention, as
can location, light, heat, or
situational factors.
• For example, when you see a
friend drinking in the morning
or in the night, you perceive it
differently. When a person
wearing an informal dress is
expected in such a way at party
than office hours.
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What do you see?

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005

Perceptual Organization/Gestalt Principles/Laws
• First studied by Gestalt psychologists
• The process by which we structure
the input from our sensory
receptors is called perceptual
organization
• Figure-ground: what we see as
figure (object) and what we
perceive a ground (context).
• Similarity: Objects that have similar
characteristics are perceived as a
unit.
• Proximity: Objects close together in
space or time perceived as belonging
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Gestalt principles of perceptual organization
• Continuity: perceive figures or
objects as belonging together if
they appear to form a
continuous pattern.
• Closure: We perceive figures
with gaps in them to be
complete.
• Contiguity: tendency to perceive
two things that happen close
together in time

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Perceptual constancy

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Depth Perception
Factors Affecting Monocular Depth
Perception:
• Interposition
• Relative Size
• Height in the Visual Field
• Textural Gradient
• Linear Perspective
• Reduced Clarity
• Light and Shadow

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Error in Perception: Illusion
• Illusion is a false perception of
actual stimuli involving a
misperception of size, shape,
or the relationship of one
element to another
• An illusion is a perception that
does not correspond to
• Though illusions distort reality,
they are generally shared by
most people.
• An illusion is a distortion of the
senses, which can reveal how
the human brain normally
organizes and interprets
sensory stimulation.
Difference between Illusion, Delusion and
Hallucination
• Illusion: presence of stimulus, meaning
is distorted i.e. rope as a snake
• Hallucination: false perception in
absence of stimulus i.e. God is talking
to you even though no image or
stimulus around you, can also be
caused by drugs or hallucinogens
• Delusion: mistaken belief, may be
related to abnormality if persists for a
longer period i.e. some people are
conspiring against me

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Types of Illusions
• Optical illusions- which may be seen when an image
is constructed in such a way that it relays misleading
information to the brain.
• Auditory illusions- which occur when a person hears
sounds that are not actually being made or sounds
that are distortions of the actual tones.
• Tactile illusions- which cause the brain to perceive
touch stimuli that is not actually present, or that is
not present in the way the brain perceives it.
• Smell and taste illusions- which are not as common
as other types of illusions. However, certain people
may perceive smells differently than others do,
especially when given conflicting information about
the stimuli producing the smell. Similar phenomena
can occur with taste.
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Causes of illusions
• Illusion, hallucination and delusion can be due to drug,
substance use, psychiatric illness, physical
environment or physiological
• They can occur for many reasons, such as the effect of
light on an object, insufficient sensory information
about an object, or errors in an individual’s processing
of sensory details.
• The refraction of light can cause rainbows and
mirages, two illusions that are dependent on the
atmosphere.
• Certain illusions i.e. hallucinations can be signs of a
psychiatric disturbance.
• One may experience a hallucination under conditions
of anxiety or fear or when he or she projects emotions
onto external objects or people.
• Like hallucinations, however, illusions are not
necessarily a sign of a psychiatric condition, and
anyone might experience them.
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Some of the popular illusions
• Illusion of figure ground
• Illusion of perspective
• Illusion of contrast
• Muler Lyer Illusion
• Herman Grid Illusion
• Moon illusion
• Ames room illusion
Figure Ground

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Müller-Lyer Illusion
Hermann Grid Illusion

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The Moon Illusion

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Ames room illusion

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Use of Subliminal Messages in Advertisement
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Extra Sensory Perception
Some examples of popular ESPs
• Telepathy: the ability to read another person's thoughts
• Clairvoyance: the ability to "see" events or objects happening
somewhere else
• Precognition: the ability to see the future
• Retrocognition: the ability to see into the distant past
Questions asked frequently
• Difference between sensation and perception
• Meaning and process of perception: Receptor Process, Symbolic Process,
Affective Process, Unification Process, Top Down and Bottom Processing
• Factors affecting Perception
• Perceptual organization meaning and principles of gestalt laws of
perceptual organization
• Meaning, types and causes of illusion
Thank you