Psychology - Sensation and Perception

Sensation
1. Initial process of detecting and encoding environmental energy
2. Sensation is the same for every person
3. Sense organs are involved
4. Physiological response
Perception
1. Organising, interpreting and giving meaning to what the sense organs initially process
2. Perception differs from person to person
3. The brain is involved
4. Psychological response
Process - Vision
1. 1. Reception
  1. Light reflects off the visual stimulus and enters the eye through the pupil and is detected by the retina
2. 2. Transduction
  1. Photoreceptors (rods and cones) convert electromagnetic energy into electrochemical energy
3. 3. Transmission
  1. The sensory information is sent from the eye to the brain via the optic nerve to the primary visual cortex via the thalamus
4. 4. Interpretation
  1. The brain assigns meaning to the original stimulus to understand what is being seen
Process - Taste
1. 1. Reception
  1. Chemical molecules in food are broken down by saliva and detected by the taste receptors
2. 2. Transduction
  1. Taste receptors convert chemical molecules into electrochemical energy
3. 3. Transmission
  1. The sensory information is sent from the tongue to the brain via the facial nerve to the primary gustatory cortex via the thalamus
4. 4. Interpretation
  1. The brain assigns meaning to the original stimulus to understand what is being tasted

Resource summary

	Created by Amy Koprek about 8 years ago