SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

UNIT OBJECTIVES

1. Describe the terms sensation and perception

2. Discuss several perceptual illusions

3. Discuss the application of sensation and perception in medical practice.

1.0. Introduction

Sensation and perception are two separate processes that are closely related. Sensation
is input about the physical world obtained by our sensory receptors. Perception is the
process by which the brain selects, organizes and interprets these sensations. In other
words, senses are the physiological basis of perception.

Perception of the same senses may vary from one person to another because each
person’s brain interprets stimuli differently based on that individual’s learning, memory,
emotions and expectations.

2.0. Sensation

The human body has sensory receptors, that is, specialized neurons that respond to
specific type of stimuli. When sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor,
sensation has occurred. For example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes
in the cells that line the back of the eye. These cells relay messages, in the form of action
potentials, to the central nervous system. The conversion from sensory stimulus energy
to the action potential is known as transduction.

2.1. Categories /Types of Senses

Human beings are found to possess at least 9 senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste,
pressure, temperature, pain, vestibular and kinesthetic senses. These have been
categorized as follows:

Category Senses Included

1 Visual senses Sense of vision
2 Auditory senses Sense of hearing
3 Chemical senses Sense of smell; sense of taste
4 Skin senses Sense of pressure; sense of temperature (thermoception); and
sense of pain (nociception)
5 Body senses Kinesthetic sense; and vestibular sense. These provide information
about balance
Each of the senses helps humans to become aware or conscious of the nature of the
particular stimulus coming in contact with the senses. This awareness is termed as
sensation. The quality of the sense organ such as the eye or ear which helps us in feeling
one or other type of sensation is known as sensitivity.

3.0. Perception

While the sensory receptors are constantly collecting information from the environment,
it is ultimately how we interpret that information that affects how we interact with the
world.

3.1. Several Definitions of Perception

Boring, Langfield & Weld (1994) “ The first event in the chain which leads from
stimulus to action”
Morris (1979) “All the processes involved in creating meaningful patterns out of a
jumble of sensory impressions fall under the general category of perception”.
Fantino & Reynolds (1979) “Perception is the organizing process by which we
interpret our sensory input”
Desiderate, Howieson & Jackson (1976) “Perception is the experience of objects,
events or relationships obtained by extracting information from and interpreting
sensation”
Silverman (1979) “Perception is an individual’s awareness aspect of behavior, for it is
the way each person processes the raw date he or she receives from the environment,
into meaningful patterns”.
Based on the several definitions above, perception can be defined as “the physiological
process that helps us derive necessary meaning from our sensory impressions for
initiating behavioral responses to the stimuli lying in our environment.
3.2. The Nature and Meaning of Perception

From the definitions of perception, the following constitute the nature and meaning of
the term perception:

a. Perception is a process

Perception is essentially a process rather than being a product or outcome of some

physiological phenomenon. When considered from the perspective of a systems
approach, then, sensory impressions, gathered through the sensory organs may be
termed as INPUT. The way in which we finally behave or react to this gathered
information may be taken as OUTPUT. Perception provides the necessary link in terms
of PROCESS for converting INPUT into OUTPUT by the way of organizing and
interpreting the sensory impressions.

b. Perception is the information extractor

Our sensory receptors are bombarded continuously by various stimuli present in our
environment. It is difficult and rather impossible to react to all stimulation. A selection
process is therefore essential. Perception perform this duty by extracting relevant
information out of a jumble of sensory impressions and converting them into some
meaningful pattern.

c. Perception is preparation for response

Perception is the first step towards the active behavior of an organism. It is the
preparatory stage that prepares an individual for action and response. Our sensory
receptors are just the receiving and transmitting centers of the sensory information. How
we should react and respond is ordered by our central nervous system through the
involvement of some mediating activity known as perception.

d. Perception involves sensation

In a simple and straight forward way, we may sense that sensation precedes perception.
The relationship between sensation and perception is always direct, that is, what we do
have in sensation is always a part of perception. Perception goes beyond perception as it
organizes, interprets and gives the to the result of sensations. This implies that sensation,
attached with some meaning, is thus termed as perception.

e. Perception provides organization

In addition to the help provided in deriving meaning to sensory impressions, perception

also helps in its proper arrangement and organization. This arrangement or organization
reflects a particular pattern rather than being merely a summation of the sensory
impressions. What one perceives, he or she perceives as a whole in an organized pattern
and not as the sum total of various stimuli.

f. Perception is highly individualized

Perception, by all means, is an individual affair. Different individuals do not perceive

objects, events or relationships in much the same way. Even individual perceptions of the
same event may vary. For example, a hawker selecting the commodities in the open
ground and a farmer standing in his farm are likely to perceive rain in different ways. The
same rain may cause a different perception for the same farmer at the harvesting
seasons. It is because the perception is always influenced by internal bodily factors as
well as psychological factors like attention, expectations, motivation ad past experiences
with the stimuli.

3.3. Perceptual Organization

Our senses react to patterns of stimuli present in the environment. Perception organizes
that stimulation, it interprets the patterns and gives them meaning.

Perceptual organization was first studied by a group of German Psychologists known as

Gestaltists. Notable among them were Max Worthemer; Kurt Koffka; and Wolfgang
Kohler. The term “gestalt” refers to configuration, totality or whole. Gestalt Psychologists
tried to study perception in terms of gestalts or wholes. They asserted that what we
perceive in terms of an object, we perceive it in terms of its totality or a whole and not
merely a random collection of its constituents or parts. They found that individuals tend
to organize environmental stimuli into some meaningful patterns or wholes according to
certain principles.

3.3.1. Principles of Perceptual Organization

The Gestaltists discovered over a hundred principles or laws concerning the perceptual
organization.

a. The Principle of Figure –Ground Relationship: Perception of a figure in

relation to its background

According to this principle, a figure is perceived in relation to its background. A tree is a

figure that appears against a background of a sky. Similarly, the words are figures that
appear on the background of a page.

The perception of the object or figure (in terms of color, size, shape, intensity and
interpretation, depends on the figure-ground relationship. We perceive a figure against a
background or background against a figure, depending on the characteristics of the
perceivers as well as the relative strength of the figure or ground.

Sensory experiences other than visual experiences are also perceived as figure and
ground. For example, a person who is eating a meal that tastes too salty will perceive
salt as a figure on a ground of chapaties and vegetables. We smell odors, listen to the
news and watch particular figures on television (figure) and at the same time, are aware
of the conversations going on and various objects present in the room (ground).

A proper figure – ground relationship is quite important from the angle of the perception
of a figure on the ground. In a case where such a relationship is not there, we may
witness ambiguity in terms of clear perception as may be revealed through the figure
below (Rubin’s Vase), with the depiction of a reversible figure –ground perception.
In the above illustration, the pattern shown may be perceived in two plausible ways,
depending on which of the two shapes, vase or faces, is perceived as the figure and
which one as the background. Moreover, it is impossible to perceive both figure and
background at the same time.

b. Principle of Closure: Tendency to complete or close an incomplete

pattern

According to this principle, while confronting an incomplete pattern, one tends to

complete or close the pattern or fill in sensory gaps and perceives it as a meaningful
whole. This can be illustrated as shown below:
This type of organization is extremely helpful in making valuable interpretation of various
incomplete objects, patterns or stimuli present in our environment.

c. Principle of grouping: Tendency to perceive the stimuli by grouping them

on the basis of similarity, proximity and continuity

Principle of grouping is the tendency to perceive stimuli in some organized meaningful

patterns by grouping them on some slid basis like similarity, proximity and continuity.

C1. On basis of similarity, objects or stimuli that look alike are usually perceived as a unit.
For example, in the figure below, horizontal rows of black dots and blank dots may be
seen to form separate groups in terms of their perception.

C2. On the basis of proximity, objects or stimuli that appear close to one another are
likely to be perceived as belonging to the same group.

C3. On the basis of continuity, the objects or stimuli are perceived as a unit or group on
the basis of their continuity.
This explains why our attention is held more by continuous patterns rather than
discontinuous ones.

d. Principle of Simplicity: Perceiving the simplest possible pattern

According to this principle, we tend to interpret our sensory stimulation so that we

perceive the simplest possible pattern. The simplicity or ‘Configuration Goodness’ of a
figure is said to observe the general rule that the information about the parts is able to
provide knowledge of the whole. Thus the characteristic like symmetry, unbroken lines
and curves, compact areas and the perceiver’s familiarity with the figure all may
contribute to figural simplicity because they enable the perceiver to perceive the whole
from some of its parts.

e. Principle of Contour: It asks for the degree of the quality of the contour,
separating the figure from the ground

A contour is said to be a boundary between a figure and its ground. The degree of the
quality of this contour separating figure from ground is responsible for enabling us to
organize stimuli or objects into meaningful patterns.

f. Principle of Context: It demands a meaningful change in the setting in

which a perceived stimulus appears

The context is the setting in which a perceived stimulus or object appears. A change in
its context is likely to bring a great change in its perception. For example, the rain may
be perceived by the same farmer, as different in different contexts. Similarly, a word may
mean different things in different contexts. Furthermore, an examiner may award higher
marks to the same answer book in a pleasant context than in an unpleasant one.
 g. Principle of Contrast: Lays emphasis on the care of the contrast effects
in perceptual organization

Perceptual organization is very much affected through contrast effects as the stimuli that
are in the sharp contrast to nearby stimuli may draw our maximum attention and carry
different perceptual affects. For example, the intensity or brightness of a color is strongly
affected by the presence or proximity of the contrasting background or figure. It may
also lead to distortion of our perception as may be evident through the following figure:

FIG (A) FIG (B)

In the above illustration, the surrounding circles in “A” make the central circle seem
smaller than the central circle in “B”, even though they are the same size.

h. Principle of Adaptation: Advocates that we develop an adaptation level

that acts as a standard by which we judge or compare stimuli.

According to this principle, the perceptual organization for some stimuli depends on the
adaptability of the perceiver to perceive the similar stimuli. An individual who adapts
himself or herself to work before an intense bright light will perceive normal sunlight as
quite dim, while for a person whom adapts himself or herself to work in a dimly lit room,
the normal sunlight is likely to be perceived as very bright. Similarly, our senses of touch,
smell, hearing may all get accustomed to a certain degree of stimulation and getting
accustomed to this may strongly affect the interpretation of the related sensations.