Sensation & Perception

In simple terms, sensation refers to the detection of a stimulus. It is the first encounter with any
stimulus or item that a specific sense organ detects. This happens when particular receptors in the
sense organs — the eyes, ears, nose, skin, and taste buds — are stimulated, diverse forms of
external inputs are transformed into neural impulses in the brain. This particular process where
outside inputs are converted to brain activity is called transduction.

Sensory receptors: These are specialized kinds of neurons, which are the cells that are found
throughout the nervous system. These receptor cells are activated by various forms of energy
rather than getting neurotransmitters from other cells. For instance, the receptors in the eyes are
excited by light rather than getting neurotransmitters from other cells.

Terms Associated with Sensation

Absolute Threshold: The absolute threshold of a stimulus is defined as the lowest level of that
stimulus that must be present for it to be detected fifty percent of the time. For example, the
amount of light required in a dark room to just be able to feel its presence.
Subliminal Stimuli: The term "subliminal stimuli" refers to any sensory input that falls beneath
the threshold of conscious awareness.
Supraliminal Stimuli: Those stimuli that are present at a level higher than conscious awareness.
Differential Threshold/ Just Noticeable difference: The least difference required between two
stimuli to recognize them as different fifty percent of the time is called differential threshold or
JND.
Synthesia: A disorder in which the impulses from the multiple sensory organs are processed in
the incorrect cortical areas, which results in the sense information being perceived as more than
one sensation.
Habituation & Sensory Adaption
Habituation means ignoring or not paying attention to any unchanging stimulus. In this case,
our sensory receptors actually receives inputs and respond to the stimulation, but the lower brain
centers do not relay the information to the cerebral cortex. Example: If there is a continuous
sound of a cooler in a room, we tend to ignore it and not hear its sound unless and until it is
suddenly changed or someone diverts our attention towards it.
Whereas in sensory adaption, our sensory receptors tend to ignore the constant stimulus. The
sensory receptors gradually lose their sensitivity to everything that is constant. Example: The
shopkeepers in a fish market are less likely to sense the strong, foul smell of that place as their
sensory receptors become less sensitive towards it with time.

Visual Sensation
Vision or visual sensation refers to the perceptual experience that brings environmental things
into consciousness through seeing. It happens when light makes its way into our eyes and
triggers our visual receptors.
There are three components to our experience of light, each of which relates to a different
psychological property of light:
 Brightness: It is the physical intensity of light, which is based on how high or low the
wave is. The light seems to be brighter when the wave is higher. Low waves are less
bright.
 Color or hue: The length of the wave has a lot to do with the color, or hue. At the red end
of the visible spectrum, which is the part of the light spectrum that we can see, the
wavelengths are long (measured in nanometers), while the wavelengths at the blue end
are short.
 Saturation: It is a term that refers to the degree of color purity that individuals perceive:
In the case of red, for example, a color with a high saturation level would have no
wavelengths other than red, while a color with a lower saturation level would have a
variety of wavelengths

The Structure of Human Eye

Source: ThoughtCo.

 Iris: It regulates the pupil and the amount of light that enters the eye.
 Pupil: It is located in the center of the iris and changes size according to the quantity of
light entering the eye.
 Cornea: It is a transparent, curved dome that bends incoming light waves to focus the
picture on the retina.
 Retina: The retina is a thin tissue layer that lines the inner rear of the eye. It resides close
to the optic nerve. The retina is responsible for receiving light that has been focused by
the lens, converting it into neural impulses, and sending these signals to the brain for
visual recognition. It has three layers: ganglion cells, bipolar cells, and photoreceptor
cells; the rods (role in low-light or night vision) and cones (role in day-light vision).
 Lens: It changes shape to sharpen the focus on objects.
 Eye muscles: They control the movements of the eye in all directions.
 Optic nerve: It carries all the visual inputs from the retina to the brain.
 Fovea: It is the center region of the retina where light rays are concentrated most
strongly.
 Vitreous Humor: This is a liquid with a jelly-like consistency that nurtures and shapes the
eyes.
 Aqueous Humor: It provides nourishment to the eyes.
  Blind Spot: Due to saccadic movements, the eyes do not adapt to steady stimuli under
normal circumstances. Objects that slowly cross a person's visual field may disappear
momentarily if they look at a single location with one eye for an extended period of time,
since there is a "hole" in the retina where the axons of the ganglion cells leave the retina
to form the optic nerve. This area has no rods or cones, hence it is known as the blind
spot.

Visual Adaption: It is the process of adjusting to various intensities of light.

 Light adaptation: It is the process of adjusting to bright light following exposure to dim
light.
 Dark adaptation: The process of adjusting to dim light following exposure to bright light.

The Working of Eye

Light goes through ganglion cells and bipolar cells until it gets to the rods and cones and
stimulates them. From the rods and cones, nerve impulses travel along a nerve path to the brain.
Light undergoes a phenomenon known as refraction when it travels through materials of varying
densities. This causes the light to bend.
Light passes in a straight path between the cornea and lens, causing the image projected on the
retina to be inverted and backwards relative to the visual field. Light from the left visual field
falls on the retina’s right side and travels to the right visual cortex and vice versa. Through the
optic nerve, nerve impulses are transported to the visual brain.
Theories of Color Vision
Trichromatic Theory: Thomas Young came up with the idea in 1802, and Hermann von
Helmholtz changed it in 1852. It is the theory of color vision that suggests red, blue, and green as
three cone types, and all the colors are the combination of these three.
Opponent-process theory: In the late 1800s, German physiologist Ewald Hering initially
suggested the theory. According to the opponent process hypothesis, human color perception is
governed by three conflicting systems. To characterize color vision, we require four distinct
hues: blue, yellow, red, and green. According to this idea, our eyesight consists of three
conflicting channels. They are blue against yellow, red against green, and black against white.
We perceive a hue based on up to two opposing colors, but we can only detect one of them at a
time. According to the theory of opposing processes, one member of a color duo suppresses the
other. For instance, we observe yellowish-green and reddish-yellow hues, but never reddish-
green or yellowish-blue.

After images- This indicates that the image continues to temporarily appear after the exposure to
the real image has stopped. They are of two types:

 Positive afterimage: The after image is the exact same and has the same colors as the
original one.
 Negative afterimage: Here, the original hues have been inverted. One member suppresses
the other, which is why, after staring at a certain hue and then diverting our sight away
from it, we perceive the opposite color. As an illustration, the negative afterimage of
black is white.
This thing is also explained in the opponent process theory. It describes how staring at a
colored stimulus (e.g., a colorful photograph) generates a negative afterimage consisting of
complementary colors. Continuous exposure to the colors shown in the colorful stimulus
causes the cells that respond to those hues to deteriorate. Therefore, immediately following
this prolonged exposure, cells that respond to the opposite colors will be activated.

The Hearing Sense

When sound enters the ear and stimulates the principal organs of hearing, this is referred to as an
auditory sensation.

Amplitude: It is a standard measure of stimulus intensity.

Pitch: It describes the loudness or softness of a sound.

Timbre: It describes the characteristics and quality of a sound.

Frequency: It is the rate at which sound waves travel through the air.

Structure of the Ear

Source: istock

The Outer Ear: The pinna is the exterior, visible portion of the ear that acts as a form of sound
concentrator, directing sound waves from the environment into the ear's structure. The pinna is
also the entrance to the auditory canal (or ear canal), the narrow tunnel that leads to the tympanic
membrane, also known as the eardrum. When sound waves strike the eardrum, they produce the
vibration of three small bones in the middle ear.

The Middle Ear: The three small bones in the middle ear are called the hammer (malleus), the
anvil (incus), and the stirrup (stapes), based on their distinct shapes. The vibrations of these three
bones amplify the eardrum's vibrations. The stirrup, the chain's last bone, causes the membrane
covering the entrance of the inner ear to vibrate.

The Inner Ear: This membrane is known as the oval window, and its vibrations initiate a second
chain reaction within the inner ear. The cochlea is a snail-shaped, fluid-filled structure that
makes up the inner ear. When the oval window vibrates, the fluid within the cochlea vibrates as
well.

The organ of Corti, which houses the receptor cells for the sensation of hearing, rests on the
basilar membrane. When the basilar membrane vibrates, it causes the organ of Corti to
oscillate, causing it to brush a membrane above it. On the organ of Corti are specialized cells
called hair cells that serve as sound sensors.

This causes the auditory receptors or hair cells to send a neural message along the auditory
nerve (which contains the axons of all the receptor neurons) and into the brain, where the
auditory cortex interprets the sounds (transduction is the transfer of sound vibrations into neural
messages). The stronger the vibrations that excite more of these hair cells, which the brain
perceives as loudness, the louder the sound in the external environment.

Theories about how the brain takes in pitch information

Place Theory: The theory of pitch says that different pitches are heard when hair cells on the
organ of Corti are stimulated in different places.
Frequency Theory: The theory of pitch says pitch is linked to how fast the basilar membrane
vibrates.
Volley Principle: The theory of pitch asserts that frequencies between roughly 400 Hz and 4000
Hz induce the hair cells (auditory neurons) to fire in a volley pattern, or take turns in firing. This
idea was developed to explain how humans perceive pitch.
Chemical Senses: Taste and Smell

Taste

Taste receptor cells, which are found in the mouth and are responsible for the sense of taste, or
gustation, are often called "taste buds." The tongue has most of the taste buds, but there are also
some on the roof of the mouth, in the cheeks, and under the tongue. There are roughly 20
receptors on each taste bud that are remarkably similar to the receptor sites on post-
synaptic neurons at the synapse. Similar to receptor locations on neurons, taste buds' receptors
receive molecules of diverse substances that fit into the receptor as a key does a lock. Because
taste interacts with food molecules in a way that is similar to how neural receptors interact with
neurotransmitters, it is frequently referred to as a chemical sense. A signal is sent to the brain
when molecules (dissolved in saliva) bind to receptors; the brain then interprets the taste
sensation. The sweet, sour, salty, and bitter taste buds are the most basic.

Smell

Olfaction, or the olfactory sense, is the capacity to identify odors. The molecules of many
different compounds that are found in the air serve as stimulation for the sense of smell. They
travel through the nasal passages and eventually dissolve in the wet tissues of the nose. Because
of this, they are brought into contact with the receptor cells that are found in the olfactory
epithelium. The portion of the olfactory system that is responsible for transducing scents, or
converting smells into signals that the brain can comprehend, is found at the very top of the nasal
passages. Even though this patch of olfactory receptor cells only takes up about an inch square in
each cavity, it nonetheless manages to store approximately 10 million olfactory receptors.

Olfactory receptor cells: Each of the olfactory receptor cells has around a half dozen to a dozen
tiny "hairs" that protrude into the cavity. These hair-like projections are termed cilia. On these
hair cells, similar to taste buds, there are receptor sites that, when triggered by the molecules of
substances that are in the air moving past them, transmit messages to the brain.

Olfactory Bulbs: The olfactory bulbs can be found on each side of the brain directly beneath the
frontal lobes and right on top of the sinus cavity. Bypassing the thalamus, which is the relay
center for all other sensory information, the olfactory receptors transmit their neurological
signals directly to these bulbs at the top of the brain. After then, the information that the
olfactory bulbs have gathered is relayed to higher cortical areas, such as the primary olfactory
cortex (also known as the piriform cortex), the orbitofrontal cortex, and the amygdala.

Somesthetic Senses
There are three different somesthetic sense systems:

The skin senses:

The sensations of touch (pressure), warmth, cold, and pain are all produced by the skin, which is
a sensory organ. Because the touch receptors are not distributed uniformly, some parts of the
body, such as the face and the fingertips, are more sensitive than others.

Different types of sensory receptors in skin: In the different layers of the skin, there are
approximately six different types of receptors. There are some of them that will only react to a
single type of sensation. As an illustration, the Pacinian corpuscles are located just beneath the
surface of the skin and react to variations in pressure. When a person plucks their eyebrows or
has their hair pulled out, they may be acutely aware of the fact that there are nerve endings that
wrap around the ends of the hair follicles. This is also true when someone else pulls on their hair.
These nerve terminals are responsive not just to painful stimulation but also to touch. Just
beyond the topmost layer of the skin, there are free nerve endings that react to changes in
temperature as well as to pressure, and they also respond to the sensation of pain.

There are distinct varieties of pain. Organs contain receptors that detect pain (and pressure)-a
type of pain known as visceral pain. Somatic pain is felt in the skin, muscles, tendons, and
joints and is transported by massive nerve fibers. Somatic pain is the body's signal that
something is being injured or is soon to be damaged; it is typically severe and sudden. A second
sort of somatic pain is transported on short nerve fibers and is characterized by a slower, more
general discomfort. This somatic pain serves as a type of reminder mechanism, preventing
additional injury by serving as a constant reminder that the body has already been wounded. For
instance, if you hit your thumb with a hammer, the immediate pain is of the first type: sharp,
quick, and intense. Later, though, the tissue merely aches, alerting you to take it easy on that
thumb.

The kinesthetic sense: This sense is termed as kinesthesia which is derived from the Greek
words kinein ("to move") and aesthesis ("feeling") and is related to the positioning of bodily
parts in relation to each other. Special sensors in the muscles, tendons, and joints contribute to
the body's sensation of movement and position in space—the movement and location of the
arms, legs, and other body parts in relation to one another. When you close your eyes and raise
your hand above your head, you know where it is because these unique sensors, known as
proprioceptors, detect joint movement or muscle stretching or contraction.

The vestibular senses: It is related to balance and equilibrium (having to do with movement and
body position). This specific sense derives its name from the Latin word for "entrance" or
"chamber." This sense's components are positioned in the ear's deepest chamber. The two types
of vestibular organs that exist are:

 Otolith organs: These are very small sacs that are located directly above the cochlea.
These sacs are filled with a fluid that is similar to gelatin, and small crystals are
suspended inside it. The movement of the head causes the crystals to force the fluid to
vibrate, which triggers some microscopic hair-like sensors on the inside surface of the
 sac. These receptors notify the person whether they are moving forward, backward,
sideways, or up and down.
 Semicircular canals: These are three liquids in the inner ear that help keep balance.
When we move our heads, the liquid in the canals sloshes around, which in turn causes
the minute hairs that line each canal to move. The movement of the liquid is translated
into nerve messages by these hairs, which are then transmitted to the brain. Even after we
have stopped spinning, these liquids keep sending messages to the brain indicating that
we are spinning even if we are not, making us feel dizzy.

Motion Sickness: This difference between what the eyes see and what the body feels is
mostly what causes motion sickness, which is the tendency to feel sick when in a moving
vehicle, especially one that moves in an uneven way. This explanation is what termed as
motion sickness. The vestibular sense usually works well with the other senses. But for
some people, the information from the eyes and the vestibular organs may not agree
enough, causing them to feel dizzy, sick, and lost. The most likely cause of the sickness is
the dizziness.

Perception
It is the process of recognizing, interpreting, and assigning meaning to information received
through our sense organs.
Perception holds some level of subjectivity. For instance, one person might perceive a place as
beautiful while the other person may not. On subjective topics, perceptions largely differ.

Perceptual Constancies: This refers to the stability of the perception of objects despite
variations in sensory receptor stimulation. The types of perceptual constancies are:
 Size constancy: It is the propensity to perceive an object's true size as remaining constant
regardless of its distance. E.g., our perception of the size of our friend would not change
even though he or she might look small from a great distance.
  Shape constancy: It is the propensity to interpret the shape of an item as constant, even
when its shape on the retina is changing. E.g. our perception of the shape of the shape of
the plate would remain same, even if the image formed on retina is oval.
 Brightness constancy: It is the capacity to perceive the visual brightness of an object to
remain constant regardless of changing lighting circumstances. E.g. we would perceive
white colored paper only white even if it is in dark room.

Gestalt Principles of Perception

According to Gestalt psychology, we perceive a stimulus as a whole and not as its discrete parts.
Our focus is primarily on the perception of a good figure. Everything is ordered in our minds.
Figure-ground perception
The tendency to perceive objects or figures as existing on top of a background is referred to as
figure-ground perception.
Some of the Principles are as follows:
Proximity: This is the propensity to think of things that are in close proximity to one another as
belonging to the same category or group.
Similarity: It means that we tend to think that things that look the same belong to the same
group.
Closure: It is the propensity to complete incomplete figures.
Continuity: It is the predisposition to view objects as belonging to the same group if they
present themselves in a continuous pattern.
Symmetry: The human eye has a tendency to perceive symmetrical areas as figures against an
asymmetrical background.
Closure: We tend to fill the gaps in stimulus and perceive the thing as a whole rather than
individual components.
Source: GameUX MasterGuide

Perception of Depth, space, and perception

The term "distance perception" or "depth perception" refers to the mental process of perceiving
the world in three dimensions. We are able to discern not only the size, form, and direction of
items found in space but also the distance between those objects. The ability to perceive depth is
essential for our day-to-day lives. For instance, when we are driving, we employ depth
perception to judge the distance between ourselves and an oncoming car.
There are two sources of information that are referred to as cues, and they are both used in depth
perception. Images in two dimensions can be converted into three dimensions with the use of
these cues.

Monocular cues: Monocular cues are frequently referred to as pictorial depth cues, as artists can
use them to create the appearance of depth in paintings and drawings. These cues permit us to
comprehend depth with only one eye. Examples are:
 Linear perspective: It refers to the tendency of parallel lines to appear to meet.
 Relative size: It is the perception that arises when items that a person anticipates to be a
specific size appear to be considerably smaller than expected, and are consequently
considered to be much farther away.
 Overlap: It means that an object that appears to obscure a portion of another object is
assumed to be in front of the second object and nearer to the viewer.
  Aerial (atmospheric perspective): Due to microscopic particles of dust, dirt, and other
impurities in the air, the further away an item is, the hazier it will appear; this is known as
aerial (atmospheric) perspective.
 Texture gradient: It is the propensity for textured surfaces to appear smaller and finer as
the viewer's distance increases.
 Motion parallax: It refers to a technique of perceiving the speed of objects in which
objects that are closer to the observer appear to be moving at a faster rate than ones that
are further away.
 Accommodation: Accommodation utilizes something that occurs inside the eye. A
number of muscles work together to keep the lens of the eye in its proper position,
despite the lens's ability to bend. In the earlier portion of this chapter that focused on the
eye, we talked about the process of visual accommodation, which is defined as the
tendency of the lens to change its shape, or thickness, in reaction to things that are either
close or far away. The information regarding accommodation can serve as a cue for
distance for the brain to use. The term "muscular cue" refers to accommodation in some
circles.

Binocular cues: These are the cues that require both eyes.
 Convergence: It refers to the movement of the two eyes in their sockets to focus on a
single object, which results in more convergence for closer things and decreased
convergence for those that are further away. If you place your finger in front of your
nose, then move it away and then back again, you will experience something in the eye
muscles, which is actually convergence.
 Binocular Disparity: The image formed on the retina of each eye is slightly different due
to the distance between the two eyes. Binocular disparity is the difference between what
you see with each eye. The difference is bigger when you look at something up close and
smaller when you look at something far away. You can give yourself a personal
demonstration of this cue by placing something in front of your nose and holding it there.
After first covering one eye and making a mental note of its location, you will next open
one of your eyes and cover the other. There ought to be a significant divergence in views.
Perceptual Illusions
A perception that doesn't match reality is an illusion. People think they see something, but the
truth is very different. Illusions can also be thought of as visual things that "trick" the eye.
"Visual illusion" is the inability to accurately interpret sensory information. It is the disparity
between physical stimulus and perception.
.

MÜLLER-LYER ILLUSION: The Müller-Lyer illusion is one of the most renowned visual
illusions. The distortion occurs when the spectator attempts to assess if the two lines are of
identical length. Although they are similar, one line appears to be longer than the other. (always
the line with the angles facing outward.) The explanation is that the majority of individuals
inhabit an environment with many buildings. Every structure has corners. When a person is
outside of a building, the structure's corner appears close, while the walls appear to recede (like
the line with the angles facing inward). When a person is inside a building, it appears that the
room's corner is receding while the walls are approaching (like the line with the angles facing
outward). In their thoughts, people "pull" the inward-facing angles toward them, as if they were
the outer corners of a building, and they "stretch" the outward-facing angles away from them, as
if they were the inside corners of a room.
The Moon Illusion: The Moon Illusion is another prominent type of optical illusion. In this
illusion, the moon that is seen on the horizon appears to be much larger than the moon that is
visible in the sky. One possible explanation for this is that the moon, which is located so high in
the sky, is completely isolated and does not have any depth cues in its immediate surroundings.
However, on the horizon, the moon can be seen peeking out from behind trees and homes, which
serve as visual cues for depth and create the illusion that the horizon is extremely far away.
Because these other things are in front of the moon, it appears as though the moon is further
distant from the observer. Because people are aware that things that are further away from them
but still appear large are indeed very large, they "magnify" the moon in their minds. This is a
misapplication of the principle of size constancy, which states that objects that are farther away
from them but still appear large are very large indeed. The perceived distance theory is the name
given to this particular explanation of the moon illusion.
Illusion of Motion: It's possible for folks to think they see motion in something that's actually
just standing motionless. One instance of this occurred as a component of the well-known
experiment in compliance that is known as the autokinetic effect. Because there are no external
indicators to suggest that the light is not moving, a small light that is fixed but is located in a
dark room will give the impression that it is moving or drifting because of the effect.
Another type of motion that can be noticed in moving photos is called stroboscopic motion. In
this type of motion, a rapid succession of still photographs will appear to be moving. Students
everywhere have come to the conclusion that doodling itty-bitty figures on the margins of a
notebook and then rapidly turning the pages can achieve the same effect of giving the impression
that something is moving.
The Phi phenomenon is a type of movement illusion that is linked to stroboscopic motion. In
this illusion, lights that are switched on in sequence give the impression that they are moving.
For instance, if a light is switched on in a dark room and then off, and then another light located
a short distance away is flashed on and off, it will give the impression that there is only one light
travelling over that space.
This principle is used to suggest motion in many different types of theatre marquee signs,
flashing arrows indicating direction that have a series of lights going on and off in a sequence,
and even in strings of decorative lighting, such as the "chasing" lights that can be seen on houses
during the holiday season.
Other variables that affect perception include:
 Expectations or perceptual set: It is the tendency to interpret things in a particular manner
due to the effect of previous experiences or expectations.
 Motivation: It refers to our needs and desires. We perceive stimuli in terms of the way
they satisfy our needs.
 Cultural backgrounds and experiences: The type of culture we are exposed to and brought
up in largely influences our perception of various experiences.
The method in which individuals interpret the things that they observe might also have an effect
on what they perceive. People can make an effort to comprehend what they experience, for
instance, by making use of the knowledge they already possess (as is the case of perceptual
expectancy). However, if there is no previous information that is related to the new information,
then they might examine each aspect of what they observe and attempt to piece it all together
into a single whole. The two approaches are:
Top-down processing: This processing involves using what was already known to organize the
different parts into a whole.
Bottom-up processing: It means looking at the smaller parts of something to get a full picture of
it.