SESSION 4

Sensation: Studying the Gateways of Experience

I. OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, you will be able to
• Differentiate among sensation, perception, and cognition.
• Describe key aspects of the visual process.
• Explain the trichromatic theory of color perception.
• Describe key aspects of the hearing process.
• Identify principal features of the processes associated with taste, the skin
senses, smell, kinesthesis, and the vestibular sense.

II. INTRODUCTION
• A whole industry can sometimes be based on a single sense. The early
motion picture industry appealed primarily to vision.
• Radio appeals primarily to hearing. Today’s motion pictures and television
make a combined appeal to vision and hearing.
• Other senses such as taste and smell play important roles in the food
industry and the perfume industry.
• It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the senses. They are our gate-
ways to experience.
• Without our senses we would be creatures living in solitary confinement. We
wouldn’t know the world “out there,” the world beyond the self. Learning
would be impossible because, as you will see in our next session, the very
definition of learning requires that we be capable of experience.
• What is sensation?
o A general feeling caused by something that happens to you, especially
a feeling that you cannot describe exactly1.
o Sensation, in neurology and psychology, any concrete, conscious
experience resulting from stimulation of a specific sense organ,
sensory nerve, or sensory area in the brain2.

1
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sensation
2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sensation
III. THE THREE ASCENDING STEPS OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
• Consequently, psychology considers it important to study the process of
sensation, the basic process by which we obtain information about external
reality.
1. Sensation
▪ The first step is associated with sensation. Sensation refers to the
raw data of experience.
▪ Seeing a flash of light, hearing a single note sounded on a musical
instrument, or feeling the touch of a fingertip, are all examples of
simple sensations.
▪ Instead of yourself, imagine that an infant only a few days old is
having these sensations. To the extent that they have little
organization and little meaning, they are close to simple
sensations.
2. Perception
▪ The second step is associated with perception. Perception refers
to organized experience.
▪ The sensory experience of the world, which includes how an
individual recognizes and interpret sensory information.
▪ It is a way of interpreting in your mind what you have experience.
▪ If a set of notes sounded on a musical instrument takes on a
particular form, and you hear a melody, you have attained the level
of perception.
3. Cognition
▪ The third step is associated with cognition. Cognition refers to
knowing. Thinking and concept formation are processes
associated with cognition.
▪ If you perceive a melody and remember the name of the song, you
have attained the level of cognition. You know what you’re
listening to.
▪ (Note that the familiar word recognition can be broken down into
“re” and “cognition,” suggesting that its root meaning is to “know
again.”)
IV. THE HUMAN SENSES
A. Vision: Seeing is believing
▪ Most people think of vision as the primary sense. We need to see to drive,
to read, to look at the people we love, and so forth.
▪ If asked what sense they con- sider the most important, most students in
an introductory psychology class answer that it is vision.
▪ To appreciate the visual process, it is necessary first to give some
attention to the stimulus that makes it possible. That stimulus is light.
B. Hearing: The Sound of Music
▪ If you enjoy hearing music, you appreciate the importance of the sense of
hearing.
▪ Also, a moment’s reflection helps us to realize that hearing is the primary
way in which we overcome social isolation. It is by talking to each other, a
behavior that requires hearing, that we visit with family and friends.
▪ If one cannot hear, it is important to learn skills such as lip reading and
signing.
▪ Like vision, the sense of hearing can be better understood by studying the
stimulus that makes it possible.
▪ This stimulus is the sound wave. A sound wave requires a medium such
as air or water. (The word sonar is associated with a sound wave in water.)
Let’s give our attention to a sound wave that uses air as its medium.
▪ First, there must be a vibrating source to get a sound wave going. An
example of such a source is a guitar string. Another example is a human
vocal cord. The vibrations emanating from the source set up a traveling
wave of compressions, alternating with partial vacuums, in the air. The
compressions strike the eardrum somewhat like a series of hammer
blows.
▪ The frequency of a sound wave is measured with a unit called the hertz
(Hz). One hertz is equal to one cycle per second. The greater the number
of cycles per second, the higher the experienced pitch.
C. Smell: The Nose Knows
▪ You may think to yourself, “Someone in this room is wearing a perfume
that I can’t stand!” How do you know? You can’t see the perfume. You
can’t hear the perfume. But you, with your sense of smell, know.
▪ The sense of smell allows us to detect the presence of some, but not all,
air- borne chemical substances. The sense of smell is also known as
olfaction.
 ▪ The receptor organ that makes the sense of smell possible is called the
olfactory epithelium, and it is located high in the nose.
▪ It is to smell what the retina is to vision. Several kinds of neurons
differentially sensitive to chemicals in gaseous forms induce the various
smell sensations.
D. Kinesthesis: Can you touch the tip of your nose with your eyes close.
▪ If you can touch the tip of your nose with your eyes closed, as most
people can, you have an intact sense of kinesthesis.
▪ Kinesthesis, also known as proprioception, is the capacity to know the
position in space of various parts of your body.
▪ (The term proprioception is related to the word “property.” Your body
belongs to you— it’s your property.)
▪ Close your eyes and lift or lower a single finger. You know where it is at all
times. When you walk you can sense the position of your legs even if
you’re not looking at them. Pianists and dancers rely heavily on
kinesthesis.
▪ The receptor neurons for kinesthesis are located in the connective tissue
sur- rounding the body’s joints as well as within the joints themselves.
E. The Sense of Balance: Walking in Upright Position.
▪ The sense of balance informs you that you are walking in an upright
position. What you are sensing is the relationship of your body, and in
particular your head, to the Earth’s gravitational field.
▪ The sense of balance is made possible by receptor neurons located in the
semicircular canals. Located in the inner ear, the canals are tubular
bones filled with fluid.
▪ The movement of this fluid stimulates the firing of receptor neurons
within the canals, and the information is transmitted to the brain.
▪ The sense of balance is also known as the vestibular sense. A vestibule is
a small antechamber or passageway.
▪ This is one way to describe the semicircular canals, important
components of the apparatus involved in the sense of balance.