SENSATION AND

PERCEPTION
Ms. Shivali Sharma
Sensation
• Sensation is the process by which we
receive information from the
environment.
• Sensation occurs when special
receptors in the sense organs—the
eyes, ears, nose, skin, and taste buds—
are activated, allowing various forms of
outside stimuli to become neural signals
in the brain.
• This process of converting outside
stimuli, such as light, into neural
activity is called transduction.
• The sensory receptors are specialized forms of neurons, the cells that make up
the nervous system. Instead of receiving neurotransmitters from other cells, these
receptor cells are stimulated by different kinds of energy—for example, the
receptors in the eyes are stimulated by light, whereas the receptors in the ears are
activated by vibrations.
• Nature’s sensory gifts suit each recipient’s needs. They enable each
organism to obtain essential information. Consider:
1. A frog, which feeds on flying insects, has eyes with receptor cells that fire only in
response to small, dark, moving objects. A frog could starve to death knee-deep in
motionless flies. But let one zoom by and the frog’s “bug detector” cells snap
awake.
2. A male silkworm moth has receptors so sensitive to the female sex-attractant
odour that a single female needs to release only a billionth of an ounce per second
to attract every male silkworm moth within a mile. That is why there continue to
be silkworms.
3. We are similarly equipped to detect the important features of our environment.
Our ears are most sensitive to sound frequencies that include human voice
consonants and a baby’s cry.
 Patters of
Receptor nerve
Physical Transduction Generator Nerve
Potentials activity in Sensation
Energy at receptor Potential Impulse
the nervous
system
Synesthesia
• Taria Camerino is a pastry chef who experiences music, colors, shapes, and
emotions as taste, Jamie Smith is a sommelier, or wine steward, who experiences
smells as colors and shapes, and James Wannerton is an information technology
consultant who experiences sounds, words, and colors as tastes and textures
(Carlsen, 2013, March 18).
• All three of these individuals have a condition known as synesthesia, which
literally means “joined sensation.” Recent studies suggest roughly 2%–4% of
the population may experience some form of synesthesia.
• While the causes of synesthesia are still being investigated, it appears in some
forms that signals that come from the sensory organs, such as the eyes or the ears,
go to places in the brain where they weren’t originally meant to be or are processed
differently. Overall, there is increased communication between sensory regions that
results in synesthetes experiencing the world differently than others.
Sensory Threshold
• Ernst Weber (1795–1878) did studies trying to determine the smallest difference
between two weights that could be detected. His research led to the formulation
known as Weber’s law of just noticeable differences (or the difference threshold).
• A difference threshold is the smallest difference between two stimuli that is
detectable 50 percent of the time, and Weber’s law simply means that whatever
the difference between stimuli might be, it is always a constant.
• Fechner expanded on Weber's work and introduced the concept of the absolute
threshold.
• The absolute threshold is the lowest level of stimulation that a person can
consciously detect 50 percent of the time the stimulation is present. It represents
the point at which a stimulus becomes consciously perceptible.
• Subliminal stimuli are those that are just strong enough to activate sensory
receptors but not strong enough for conscious awareness.
• The term "sublimin" means "below the threshold," signifying that these stimuli
are below the conscious perception threshold.
• Some people believe that subliminal stimuli can influence the unconscious mind and
behaviour through a process called subliminal perception.
• In 1957, James Vicary claimed to have demonstrated the power of subliminal
perception in advertising. He asserted that flashing messages like "Eat Popcorn" and
"Drink Coca-Cola" during a movie increased sales. However, Vicary later admitted
that he had never conducted a real study. Scientific evidence suggests that
subliminal perception does not work in advertising, as supported by multiple studies
and researchers.
• Some evidence suggests that subliminal perception does exist, particularly for stimuli that
are fearful or threatening.
• Researchers have used methods like event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to verify the existence of subliminal perception.
• These studies show that subliminal stimuli can influence automatic reactions, such as an
increase in facial tension, rather than direct voluntary behaviors.
HABITUATION
• Lower centers of the brain play a role in filtering sensory stimulation and deciding
what to "ignore" or prevent from gaining conscious attention. The brain is primarily
interested in changes in information rather than constant or unchanging stimuli.
• Habituation is a process by which the brain deals with unchanging information
from the environment. Even though people may physically hear constant
background noise, their attention is not directed toward it. For instance, people may
not consciously hear the noise of an air conditioner unless it suddenly stops.
• In habituation, sensory receptors continue to respond to the stimulation, but the
lower brain centers do not send signals to the cortex for conscious processing.
SENSORY ADAPTATION:
• Sensory adaptation is another process for effectively ignoring constant, unchanging
information from sensory receptors.
• In sensory adaptation, the receptor cells themselves become less responsive to
unchanging stimuli, and they stop sending signals to the brain.
• For example, when eating, the initial strong taste of food fades somewhat as one
continues to eat.
• Sensory adaptation applies to all of our senses.
The science of
Seeing
Three main aspects of our perception of light:
brightness, colour, and saturation.
Brightness:
Brightness is determined by the amplitude of the light wave.
Higher waves result in brighter light, while lower waves create
dimmer light.
Color (Hue):
Color (or hue) is primarily determined by the length of the
light wave.
Long wavelengths(Nm) are at the red end of the visible
spectrum, and shorter wavelengths are at the blue end.
Saturation:
Saturation refers to the purity of the perceived colour.
Highly saturated colours contain only a single wavelength.
Less-saturated colours can result from a mixture of
wavelengths, which reduces purity.
Mixing white paint with red paint results in a less-saturated
red color (pink).
Structure
of the Eye
1. Light enters the eye through the cornea, the clear, curved layer in front of the iris and
pupil. The cornea serves as a protective covering for the front of the eye and also helps
focus light on the retina at the back of the eye.
2. After passing through the cornea, light travels through the pupil (the black dot in the
middle of the eye).
3. The iris—the circular, coloured area of the eye that surrounds the pupil—controls the
amount of light that enters the eye. The iris allows more light into the eye (enlarging or
dilating the pupil) when the environment is dark and allows less light into the eye
(shrinking or constricting the pupil) when the environment is bright.
4. Behind the iris sits the lens. By changing its shape, the lens focuses light onto the
retina. Through the action of small muscles (called the ciliary muscles), the lens
becomes thicker to focus on nearby objects and thinner to focus on distant objects.
5. The retina contains the cells that sense light (photoreceptors) and the blood vessels
that nourish them. The most sensitive part of the retina is a small area called
the macula, which has millions of tightly packed photoreceptors (the type called
cones). The high density of cones in the macula makes the visual image detailed, just as
a high-resolution digital camera has more megapixels.
6. The photoreceptors in the retina convert the image into electrical signals,
which are carried to the brain by the optic nerve. There are two main types of
photoreceptors: cones and rods.
• Cones are responsible for sharp, detailed central vision and color vision and are clustered
mainly in the macula.
• Rods are responsible for night and peripheral vision. Rods are more numerous than cones
and much more sensitive to light, but they do not register color or contribute to detailed
central vision as the cones do.
How the eye works
• The areas of the retina can be divided into halves:
• Temporal retinas: The halves towards the
temples of the head.
• Nasal retinas: The halves towards the center or
nose.
• Information from the left visual field goes to the
right visual cortex, while information from the
right visual field goes to the left visual cortex.
• This is due to axons from the temporal halves of
each retina projecting to the same side of the
brain, while axons from the nasal halves cross
over to the opposite side of the brain.
• The optic chiasm is the point of crossover.
DARK ADAPTATION
• Rods are the cells that work well in low levels of light and allow the eyes to adapt
to low light.
• Dark adaptation occurs as the eye recovers its ability to see when
transitioning from a brightly lit state to a dark state.
• Brighter initial light conditions result in longer adaptation times for rods.
• The bright headlights of an oncoming car can temporarily impair night vision.
• Full dark adaptation, transitioning from constant light to darkness, takes about 30
minutes.
• Older individuals may experience slower dark adaptation, leading to night
blindness.
• Some research suggests that vitamin A supplements can alleviate this condition.
LIGHT ADAPTATION
• Going from a darkened room to a brightly lit one requires cones to adapt to the
increased light level.
• Cones adapt to increased light more quickly than rods adapt to darkness, taking
only a few seconds.
PERCEPTION OF COLOR
Trichromatic theory:
• The prefix "tri" means three, and the root "chroma" means
colour, so trichromatic means three colours.
• The trichromatic theory of colour vision is a theory that states
there are three different colour receptors in the retina. The
cones in the retina are what give colour vision.
• This theory says the cones are sensitive to three different
colours: green, blue, and red. When these colours are
combined, eyes can tell a difference between millions of
colours.
• For example, fast firing rates of red and green cones result in
the perception that yellow, red and blue cones produce
magenta, and blue and green cones produce cyan (blue-
CONE TYPES AND PEAK SENSITIVITIES:
• Paul K. Brown and George Wald identified three types of cones
in the retina, each sensitive to a specific range of wavelengths.
• The peak sensitivities of these cones roughly correspond to
specific colours:
1. short-wavelength cones (blue-violet, about 420 nm)
2. medium-wavelength cones (green, about 530 nm)
3. long-wavelength cones (green-yellow, about 560 nm).
• Interestingly, none of the cones have a peak sensitivity to the
wavelength of red light (around 630 nm).
• Each cone type responds to a range of wavelengths, not just its
peak sensitivity, and can contribute to colour perception
depending on the intensity of the light.
Opponent process theory
Afterimages occur when a visual sensation persists briefly
after removing the original stimulus.
• For example, staring at a colored flag and then looking at a
blank white surface may result in an afterimage with the
wrong colors (e.g., green for red, black for white, yellow for
blue).
The opponent process theory suggests that the way
humans perceive colors is controlled by three opposing
systems. We need four unique colors to characterize perception
of color: blue, yellow, red, and green. According to this theory,
there are three opposing channels in our vision. They are:
• blue versus yellow
• red versus green
• black versus white
Opponent process theory was given by Ewald hering.
Colour blindness
• Color blindness is often a misleading term, as most people with this condition can
perceive many colours. A more accurate term is “colour-deficient vision.“ It is
primarily caused by defective cones in the retina of the eye.
• There are three main types of colour-deficient vision: monochrome colour blindness
and two types of dichromatic vision.
Monochrome Color Blindness:
• Extremely rare condition.
• People with monochrome colour blindness lack functional cones or have cones that
don't work at all.
• They may have only one type of cone, resulting in a perception of the world in
shades of grey.
• Dichromatic Vision:
• Dichromatic vision occurs when an individual has one cone type that does not
function properly.
• Instead of the typical trichromatic vision based on three cones and colors,
dichromatic vision combines two cones and colors.
1. Red-Green Color Deficiency:
• Red-green color deficiency is due to the absence of functional red or green cones.
• Those with this condition often confuse reds and greens, mainly perceiving blues,
yellows, and shades of gray.
2. Blue-Yellow Color Deficiency:
• Blue-yellow color deficiency is less common and results from the lack of
functioning blue cones.
• Individuals with this condition primarily see reds, greens, and shades of gray.
Hearing sense
• Sound waves are simply the vibrations of the molecules of air that surround us.
Sound waves do have the same properties of light waves though—wavelength,
amplitude, and purity.
1. Wavelengths are interpreted by the brain as frequency or pitch (high, medium,
or low).
2. Amplitude is interpreted as volume, how soft or loud a sound is.
3. saturation or purity in light is called timbre in sound, a richness in the tone of the
sound.
• A person is limited in the range of frequencies he or she can hear. Frequency is
measured in cycles (waves) per second, or hertz (Hz).
• Human limits are between 20 and 20,000 Hz, with the most sensitivity from about
2000 to 4000 Hz, very important for conversational speech.
Structure
of the ear
Outer Ear (Pinna):
1. Visible, external part of the ear.
2. Acts as a concentrator, funneling sound waves
from the outside into the ear.
3. Serves as the entrance to the auditory canal (ear
canal) leading to the eardrum.
4. Sound waves hitting the eardrum initiate the
hearing process.
Middle Ear (Hammer, Anvil, Stirrup)
5. The middle ear contains three tiny bones: the
hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup
(stapes), collectively known as ossicles.
6. These bones amplify vibrations from the eardrum.
7. The stirrup, the last bone in the chain, causes the
oval window to vibrate.
• Inner Ear
1. The oval window's vibrations initiate a chain reaction within the
inner ear
2. The inner ear consists of a snail-shaped structure called the
cochlea, filled with fluid.
3. Vibrations in the cochlear fluid stimulate the basilar membrane.

• Basilar Membrane
1. The basilar membrane is where the organ of Corti is
situated.
2. The organ of Corti contains hair cells, which serve as
auditory receptors.
3. When the basilar membrane vibrates, it causes the hair
cells to brush against a membrane above them.
• Hair Cells and Auditory Reception
1. Hair cells are specialized receptor cells for hearing.
2. When bent against the other membrane by vibrations,
they send neural messages.
3. These neural messages travel through the auditory nerve
(containing axons of receptor neurons) to the brain.
• Auditory Processing in the Brain
1. The auditory cortex in the brain interprets the neural messages.
2. The transformation of sound vibrations into neural messages is known as
transduction.
3. Louder external sounds lead to stronger vibrations, stimulating more hair cells,
and the brain interprets this as increased loudness.
PERCEIVING PITCH:
Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of a sound.
Example: Low-pitched bass beats in music vs. very high-pitched child's scream.
Three primary theories explain how the brain processes pitch information.
1. Place Theory: Proposed by Hermann von Helmholtz (1863) and modified by
Georg von Békésy. Pitch depends on the location of stimulated hair cells on the organ
of Corti. High-pitched sounds stimulate hair cells near the oval window, low-pitched
sounds stimulate cells farther away.
2. Frequency Theory: Developed by Ernest Rutherford (1886). Pitch is linked to the
speed of basilar membrane vibration. Faster vibrations result in a higher pitch, slower
vibrations lead to lower pitch. Assumes all auditory neurons fire simultaneously.
3. The Volley Principle: Developed by Ernest Wever and Charles Bray. Explains
pitches from about 400 Hz to 4000 Hz. Auditory neurons take turns firing in groups in
a process known as volleying. For example, a 3000 Hz tone is perceived when three
groups of neurons take turns transmitting information, each responsible for a specific
frequency range (e.g., first 1000 Hz, next 1000 Hz, and so on).
Hearing impairments
1. Conduction hearing impairment: Conduction hearing impairment, or conductive
hearing loss, refers to problems with the mechanics of the outer or middle ear and
means that sound vibrations cannot be passed from the eardrum to the cochlea. The
cause might be a damaged eardrum or damage to the bones of the middle ear
(usually from an infection). In this kind of impairment, the causes can often be
treated, for example, hearing aids may be of some use in restoring hearing.
2. Nerve hearing impairment: In nerve hearing impairment, or sensorineural hearing
loss, the problem lies either in the inner ear or in the auditory pathways and cortical
areas of the brain. This is the most common type of permanent hearing loss. Normal
aging causes loss of hair cells in the cochlea, and exposure to loud noises can damage
hair cells. Tinnitus is a fancy word for an extremely annoying ringing in one’s ears,
and it can also be caused by infections or loud noises—including loud music in
headphones. Prolonged exposure to loud noises further leads to permanent damage
and hearing loss, so you mightwant to turn down that stereo or personal music player!
 Gustation: How we taste the
world
• Food preferences and aversions begin to form
very early in life.
• Taste is one of the earliest developed senses.
• Developing babies are exposed to substances in
the mother's inhalation and digestion, which
impart flavour to the amniotic fluid, affecting the
baby's taste preferences.
• Experiences with different flavors early in life
can influence food choices and nutritional status.
Taste Buds:
• Taste buds are the taste receptor cells found in the mouth.
• Most taste buds are on the tongue, with some on the roof of the mouth, cheeks,
under the tongue, and in the throat.
• People's sensitivity to tastes depends on the number of taste buds they have.
• "Supertasters" have more taste buds and require less seasoning in their food.
• Taste buds contain receptors that work like neurotransmitter receptors, receiving
molecules of substances to signal the brain and interpret taste.
Taste Bud Replacement:
• Taste receptors need to be replaced every 10 to 14 days.
• When the tongue is burned, damaged taste cells no longer work, but they get
replaced over time, restoring the sense of taste.
• The Five Basic Tastes:
• Traditionally, there were four primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.
• A fifth taste, umami, has been recognized, associated with a pleasant "brothy" taste found
in foods like chicken soup and soy products.
• Umami is linked to the presence of glutamate, also found in human breast milk and in the
seasoning MSG.
• Taste Processing:
• Taste sensations are processed all over the tongue, not in specific regions.
• Taste information is sent to the gustatory cortex, responsible for the conscious
perception of taste.
• The texture and "mouth-feel" of foods are processed in the somatosensory cortex.
• Taste sensations are influenced by culture, personal expectations, and past experiences.
• Taste areas in the cortex project to parts of the limbic system, which explains the role of
tastes in positive and negative reinforcement.
Individual Variations in Sweetness Perception:
• Individuals and groups can vary in their level of perceived
sweetness.
• Obese individuals tend to experience less sweetness.
• Foods high in both sweetness and fat are attractive to
obese individuals.
• Genetic variations, like supertasters, complicate the
comparison of food preferences.
• One approach is to have individuals rate taste using an
unrelated "standard" sensory experience of known
intensity.
Impact of Colds on Taste:
• During a cold, food tastes bland because individuals can
only taste the basic tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and
umami).
• The sense of smell is compromised due to a stuffy nose,
leading to muted taste variations.
Sense of smell
• The sense of smell is a chemical sense,
known as olfaction.
• Olfaction is the ability to detect odors.
• The outer part of the nose collects sensory
information similar to how the pinna and
ear canal collect sounds.
• Its purpose is to gather sensory information
and transmit it to the part of the body that
translates it into neural signals.
Olfactory Receptor Cells:
• Olfactory receptor cells are responsible for
transducing odors, converting them into signals that
the brain can interpret.
• These cells are located at the top of the nasal
passages.
• Each cavity contains approximately 10 million
olfactory receptors.
• Olfactory receptor cells have hair-like structures
called cilia, which contain receptor sites that send
signals to the brain when stimulated by odor
molecules.
Replacement of Olfactory Receptors:
• Olfactory receptors need to be replaced as they
naturally die off, approximately every 5 to 8 weeks.
• Unlike taste buds, there are many more types of
olfactory receptors, with at least 1,000 different
types.
Path of Olfactory Signals:
• Signals from olfactory receptors
take a unique path in the brain.
• Unlike other senses like vision,
hearing, taste, and touch, olfactory
signals do not pass through the
thalamus.
• The olfactory bulbs, located on each
side of the brain beneath the frontal
lobes, receive signals directly from
olfactory receptors.
• Olfactory information is then sent to
higher cortical areas, including the
primary olfactory cortex (piriform
cortex), the orbitofrontal cortex,
and the amygdala, which are
involved in processing emotions.
 Somesthetic sense
• The sense of touch encompasses several sensations
related to the body and its interactions with the
environment.
• These sensations are collectively known as somesthetic
senses.
• There are three somesthetic sense systems: skin senses
(touch, pressure, temperature, pain), kinesthetic
senses (body part location in relation to each other), and
vestibular senses (movement and body position).
Skin Senses:
• The skin is an organ covering the body, about 20 square
feet in size.
• Skin serves not only as a protective barrier but also as a
means to receive and transmit information to the central
nervous system, specifically to the somatosensory cortex.
• Special receptors in the skin collect information related to
light touch, deeper pressure, temperature, and pain.
Types of Sensory Receptors in the Skin:
• The skin has about half a dozen different types of sensory receptors.
• Receptors like Pacinian corpuscles detect changes in pressure.
• Nerve endings around hair follicles are sensitive to both pain and touch.
• Free nerve endings beneath the skin's surface respond to temperature changes, pressure, and
pain.
• Pain receptors are also present in internal organs and are called visceral pain receptors.
• Somatic pain is the body's warning system for damage, with sharp, fast signals as well as
slower, more general aches.
Pain Disorders:
• Congenital analgesia and congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) are rare
conditions where individuals cannot feel pain.
• Phantom limb pain occurs in individuals who have had limbs amputated, and they
experience various sensations in the missing limb.
Gate-control theory explains how pain signals pass through a "gate" in the spinal cord and
can be influenced by various factors, including non-pain signals, brain signals, and
psychological factors.
• Endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, can inhibit pain signals in the brain and spinal cord.
Gender and Pain Perception:
• Research indicates that women tend to feel pain more intensely and report pain more
frequently than men.
• Men may cope better with pain, possibly due to a stronger belief in their ability to
control their pain.
• The kinesthetic sense involves receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints that provide
information about body movement and body part location.
Vestibular Senses:
• The vestibular sense is related to balance and body position.
• Vestibular organs are located in the innermost chamber of the ear and consist of
otolith organs and semicircular canals.
• The otolith organs detect movement in different directions based on vibrations
caused by tiny crystals in a gelatin-like fluid.
• The semicircular canals, filled with fluid, detect rotation in different planes of motion.
Motion Sickness:
• Motion sickness occurs when there is a conflict between visual information and
information from the vestibular organs.
• The sensory conflict theory explains motion sickness, where the eyes and body's
sensory input do not align, causing dizziness, nausea, and disorientation.
• Focusing on a distant point or object can help reduce motion sickness by aligning
visual and sensory input.
• Astronauts may experience space motion sickness (SMS) during space travel, which
typically lasts for the first week but diminishes with adaptation.
PERCEPTION
• Perception is the method by which
the brain takes all the sensations a
person experiences at any given
moment and allows them to be
interpreted in some meaningful
fashion.
• For example, two people might be
looking at a cloud and while one
thinks it’s shaped like a horse, the
other thinks it’s more like a cow.
They both see the same cloud, but
they perceive that cloud differently.
The constancies: Size, Shape, brightness
1.Size Constancy:
• Definition: Perceptual constancy related to the interpretation of an object's size as
constant, regardless of its distance from the viewer or the size of its image on the retina.
• Example: If an object typically perceived as 6 feet tall appears small on the retina, it is still
interpreted as being far away.
2.Shape Constancy:
• Definition: The tendency to interpret an object's shape as constant, even when it changes
on the retina.
• Example: People perceive a coin as a circle, even when it appears as an oval on the retina
due to its angle. Dinner plates on a table are also seen as round, despite appearing oval
from a certain viewing angle.
3.Brightness Constancy:
• Definition: Perceptual constancy related to the interpretation of an object's apparent
brightness as constant, even when lighting conditions change.
• Example: In broad daylight, a white shirt may appear much brighter than black pants.
However, if the sun is obscured by clouds, both the shirt and pants reflect less light, but the
perceived brightness difference remains the same, as the ratio of light reflection between
them remains constant.
Gestalt principle
• Figure-Ground Relationships: Figure-ground
relationships involve perceiving objects or
figures as existing on a background. Even from
birth, people tend to pick out figures from
backgrounds.
• Proximity: Proximity is the tendency to
perceive objects close to each other as part of
the same grouping.
• Similarity: Similarity refers to the tendency to
perceive things that look alike as part of the
same group, like a sports team wearing
matching uniforms.
• Closure: Closure is the tendency to complete
incomplete figures, where viewers fill in missing
details, as seen in art.
• Continuity: Continuity is the
tendency to perceive things
with a continuous pattern
rather than a complex, broken-
up pattern.
• Contiguity: Contiguity is the
perception that events
happening close together in
time are related, often with the
first event causing the second.
• Common Region (Added
Principle): Common region is a
principle of perceptual grouping
added by Stephen Palmer. It
refers to the tendency to
perceive objects within a
common area or region as part
of a group, often defined by
visible boundaries.
Depth perception
• Depth perception is the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions, which helps in
judging distances between objects.
• Development of Depth Perception: Depth perception seems to develop very early in
infancy, possibly present at birth. Individuals who were blind from birth and later regain
their sight have limited depth perception.
• MONOCULAR CUES (PICTORIAL DEPTH CUES):
1.Linear Perspective: Parallel Lines appear to converge in the distance. Creates the
illusion of depth in paintings and drawings.
2.Relative Size: Objects expected to be a certain size appear smaller and are perceived
as farther away. Used in filmmaking to make small models seem distant and enormous.
3.Overlap (Interposition): When one object appears to block another, the blocked
object is perceived as behind and therefore farther away.
4. Aerial (Atmospheric) Perspective:
• Distant objects appear hazier due to airborne particles like dust and
pollutants.
• Explains why distant mountains look fuzzy and distant buildings are blurry.
5. Texture Gradient:
• Texture becomes finer and less distinct as you look farther into the distance.
• Artists use this to create depth in paintings.
6. Motion Parallax:
• Objects closer to the observer appear to move quickly, while distant objects
seem to move more slowly.
• Perceptual cue for judging depth.
7. Accommodation:
• Utilizes changes in the eye's lens shape or thickness in response to objects
at varying distances.
• Also known as a "muscular cue."
• BINOCULAR CUES:
1.Convergence:
• Involves the rotation of both eyes in their sockets to focus on a single object.
• Greater convergence when objects are close and less when they are far away.
2.Binocular Disparity:
• Arises from the slight differences in the images seen by each eye due to their separation.
• The brain uses these differences to estimate distance, with greater disparity indicating
closer objects.
Perceptual illusions
• An illusion is a perception that does not correspond to reality.
• An illusion is a distorted perception of something that is really there, but a
hallucination originates in the brain, not in reality.
• HERMANN GRID ILLUSION:
• It is an optical illusion reported by ludimar
Hermann in 1870. The illusion is
characterised by “ghostlike” grey blobs
perceived at the intersections of a white
( or light colored) grid on a black
background. The grey blob disappear
when looking directly at the intersection.
• MULLER LYER ILLUSION:
• The distortion happens when the viewer
tries to determine if the two lines are
exactly the same length. They are
identical, but one line looks longer than
the other.
• THE MOON ILLUSION:
• Another common illusion is the moon
illusion, in which the moon on the
horizon* appears to be much larger
than the moon in the sky.
• One explanation for this is that the
moon high in the sky is all alone, with
no cues for depth surrounding it. But on
the horizon, the moon appears behind
trees and houses, cues for depth that
make the horizon seem very far away.
• Because people know that objects that
are farther away from them yet still
appear large are very large indeed, they
“magnify” the moon in their minds—a
misapplication of the principle of size
constancy.
• ILLUSIONS OF MOTION:
1. Autokinetic effect: In this effect, a
small, stationary light in a darkened room
will appear to move or drift because
there are no surrounding cues to indicate
that the light is not moving.
2. Stroboscopic effect: seen in motion
pictures, in which a rapid series of still
pictures will seem to be in motion. E.g.
Flipbook
Phi phenomenon: an optical illusion that
causes one to see several still images in a
series as moving.
• People’s tendency to perceive things a certain way because their previous
experiences or expectations influence them is called perceptual set or
perceptual expectancy.
• Top-down processing—the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual
features into a unified whole. This is also a form of perceptual expectancy.
• bottom-up processing- there is no expectancy to help organize the perception,
making bottom-up processing more difficult in some respects.
THE END