11/13/23, 11:28 PM Chapter One Notes - Sensation and Perception - Goldstein/Cacciamani
Introduction to Perception
- Human perception is incredibly complex
- Rosenblatt (1958) tried to create the Perceptron, a computer that could
replicate human perception. It didn’t work, but his ideas paved the way for
modern AI
- Computers can’t store all the information that humans do
- Humans begin making a storehouse of information from the time they’re
born
- Perception: the experiences that result from stimulation of the senses
1.1 Why Read This Book?
- Graduate school/research
- New technology and medical inventions that go hand-in-hand with psychology and
the study of perception
- Appreciating everything that happens in your body and nervous system as you
perceive things
- Perception depends on the properties of the sensory receptors
1.2 Why Is This Book Titled Sensation and
Perception?
- Sensation: the simple processes that occur right at the beginning of a sensory
system, such as when light reaches the eye, sound waves enter the ear, or your food
touches your tongue.
- Perception would be identifying what you’re touching, tasting, or hearing,
and remembering the last time you associated with it
- Perception involves higher-level processes
- Deciding between sensation and perception is not always obvious or even that
useful.
- Sensations are historically important, but we normally use perception to talk about
the senses now - everything is interpretation, in a way.
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, 11/13/23, 11:28 PM Chapter One Notes - Sensation and Perception - Goldstein/Cacciamani
1.3 The Perceptual Process
- Perceptual process: the journey from stimuli to responses
- The steps of the process (“I see something” to “that’s a tree”) don’t always
happen one after the other. Sometimes they are simultaneous or happen in
reverse order.
Distal and Proximal Stimuli (steps 1 and 2)
- Distal stimulus: a stimulus that is distant, or “out there” in the environment
- Proximal stimulus: the representation of the distal stimulus on the receptors (the
light reflected from the tree entering the eyes, the rustling of the leaves picked up
by the auditory receptors
- Principle of transformation: “stimuli and responses created by stimuli are
transformed, or changed, between the distal stimulus and perception.”
- Nature of the light that reflects off the tree depends on the time of day, the
properties of the environment or atmosphere, and even the properties of the
retinas of the viewer.
- Principle of representation: “everything a person perceives is based not on direct
contact with stimuli but on representations of stimuli that are formed on the
receptors and the resulting activity in the person’s nervous system.”
- Distal stimulus transforms into the proximal stimulus.
Receptor Processes (step 3)
- Sensory receptors: cells specialized to respond to environmental energy. Different
types of receptor cells respond to different things in the environment.
- Visual receptors respond to light.
- Auditory receptors respond to changes in air pressure.
- Touch receptors respond to pressure changes on the skin.
- Smell and taste receptors respond to chemicals entering through the nose
and mouth.
- Sensory receptors a. Transform environmental energy into electrical energy and b.
Shape perception by the way they respond to different properties of stimuli.
- Environmental energy = light, sound, thermal, etc. energy
- Transduction: the transformation of environmental energy to electrical energy
- Transformed so that environmental stimuli can be understood by your brain
Neural Processing (step 4)
- Electrical signals in thousands of sensory receptors travel through the neuron
network, which transmits signals both from the receptors to the brain and within
the brain, and changes (processes) these signals as they are transmitted.
- Neural processing: changes in these signals once they are transmitted.
- Can become dampened or amplified
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Introduction to Perception
- Human perception is incredibly complex
- Rosenblatt (1958) tried to create the Perceptron, a computer that could
replicate human perception. It didn’t work, but his ideas paved the way for
modern AI
- Computers can’t store all the information that humans do
- Humans begin making a storehouse of information from the time they’re
born
- Perception: the experiences that result from stimulation of the senses
1.1 Why Read This Book?
- Graduate school/research
- New technology and medical inventions that go hand-in-hand with psychology and
the study of perception
- Appreciating everything that happens in your body and nervous system as you
perceive things
- Perception depends on the properties of the sensory receptors
1.2 Why Is This Book Titled Sensation and
Perception?
- Sensation: the simple processes that occur right at the beginning of a sensory
system, such as when light reaches the eye, sound waves enter the ear, or your food
touches your tongue.
- Perception would be identifying what you’re touching, tasting, or hearing,
and remembering the last time you associated with it
- Perception involves higher-level processes
- Deciding between sensation and perception is not always obvious or even that
useful.
- Sensations are historically important, but we normally use perception to talk about
the senses now - everything is interpretation, in a way.
about:blank 1/6
, 11/13/23, 11:28 PM Chapter One Notes - Sensation and Perception - Goldstein/Cacciamani
1.3 The Perceptual Process
- Perceptual process: the journey from stimuli to responses
- The steps of the process (“I see something” to “that’s a tree”) don’t always
happen one after the other. Sometimes they are simultaneous or happen in
reverse order.
Distal and Proximal Stimuli (steps 1 and 2)
- Distal stimulus: a stimulus that is distant, or “out there” in the environment
- Proximal stimulus: the representation of the distal stimulus on the receptors (the
light reflected from the tree entering the eyes, the rustling of the leaves picked up
by the auditory receptors
- Principle of transformation: “stimuli and responses created by stimuli are
transformed, or changed, between the distal stimulus and perception.”
- Nature of the light that reflects off the tree depends on the time of day, the
properties of the environment or atmosphere, and even the properties of the
retinas of the viewer.
- Principle of representation: “everything a person perceives is based not on direct
contact with stimuli but on representations of stimuli that are formed on the
receptors and the resulting activity in the person’s nervous system.”
- Distal stimulus transforms into the proximal stimulus.
Receptor Processes (step 3)
- Sensory receptors: cells specialized to respond to environmental energy. Different
types of receptor cells respond to different things in the environment.
- Visual receptors respond to light.
- Auditory receptors respond to changes in air pressure.
- Touch receptors respond to pressure changes on the skin.
- Smell and taste receptors respond to chemicals entering through the nose
and mouth.
- Sensory receptors a. Transform environmental energy into electrical energy and b.
Shape perception by the way they respond to different properties of stimuli.
- Environmental energy = light, sound, thermal, etc. energy
- Transduction: the transformation of environmental energy to electrical energy
- Transformed so that environmental stimuli can be understood by your brain
Neural Processing (step 4)
- Electrical signals in thousands of sensory receptors travel through the neuron
network, which transmits signals both from the receptors to the brain and within
the brain, and changes (processes) these signals as they are transmitted.
- Neural processing: changes in these signals once they are transmitted.
- Can become dampened or amplified
about:blank 2/6
