Sensation & Perception

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Sensation
1. 5 senses + more!
2. Transduction
3. Absolute thresholds
Perception
Sensory Adaptation
Perceptual Set
Context Effects

Nursing Points

General

Sensation
1. 5 senses + more!
2. Transduction
3. Absolute thresholds
  1. Subliminal Stimuli
  2. Difference Thresholds
Perception
1. Bottom-up Processing
2. Top-Down Processing
Sensory Adaptation
1. The process of becoming less aware of stimuli after constant exposure
Perceptual Set
1. The assumptions we have that impact how we interpret context
Context Effects
1. Our own context/enviornment impacts our interpretation of what is around us

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Today we’re going to be talking about sensation and perception.

Sensation is the input of information that we receive through our senses- not just the 5 most well-known senses like touch, smell, sight, taste, and hearing but we have many more senses, like our sense of space and our vestibular system. Our sensory receptors detect information and our nervous system transmits the information to our brain. When we take in information, our sensory system must convert the energy, like our vision processing light energy or how the hearing system processes sound waves. Each sense must receive sensory stimulation, transform the into a neural impulse, and deliver the information to our brain. The whole process of converting energy so that our brain can interpret and organize the information is called transduction.

All day every day we are being bombarded with stimulation- radio waves, sound waves of different frequencies, ultraviolet and infrared light and we don’t even notice it; however, some animals may notice some of these. For example, dolphins are able to use sonar when locating prey. The threshold for dolphins to detect sound waves is much different than humans. The term absolute threshold refers to the point of minimum stimulation necessary to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste, or odor at least 50% of the time. The information below your absolute threshold is subliminal, you would not be able to detect it 50% of the time. Difference Threshold refers to the minimum difference between two stimuli required in order to detect at least 50% of the time. If we were listening to music together and I slowly increased the volume, the moment you realize the music is louder is the difference threshold.

Once we have taken in information, our brain must interpret and organize that information. There are two ways of processing that happen: bottom-up and top-down. Bottom- up processing is where we have the stimuli and our brain interprets and organizing based on that. The other way is top-down, where our previous knowledge, experience, and expectations influence how our brains create meaning of that stimulation.

There are a few other key terms to keep in mind. Sensory adaptation is when we have a diminished sensitivity to something due to constant exposure. An example of this is when you walk into a person’s home and it smells and you wonder how they tolerate that smell but within a few minutes, you do not smell it anymore. Perceptual set is a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that affects what we hear, taste, feel and see- a mental predisposition if you will. Similar to perceptual sets, the immediate context someone is in can cause different perceptions. For example, if someone is holding a gun they often are more likely to perceive another person holding a gun when they are really holding a wallet or phone.

Sensation & Perception

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Included In This Lesson

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Nursing Points

General

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