01.07 Sensation & Perception

Watch More! Unlock the full videos with a FREE trial

Start Free Trial
Add to Study plan
Master
Previous lesson
Next lesson

Included In This Lesson

Access More! View the full outline and transcript with a FREE trial

Start Free Trial

Outline

Overview

  1. Sensation
    1. 5 senses + more!
    2. Transduction
    3. Absolute thresholds
  2. Perception
  3. Sensory Adaptation
  4. Perceptual Set
  5. Context Effects

Nursing Points

General

  1. Sensation
    1. 5 senses + more!
    2. Transduction
    3. Absolute thresholds
      1. Subliminal Stimuli
      2. Difference Thresholds
  2. Perception
    1. Bottom-up Processing
    2. Top-Down Processing
  3. Sensory Adaptation
    1. The process of becoming less aware of stimuli after constant exposure
  4. Perceptual Set
    1. The assumptions we have that impact how we interpret context
  5. Context Effects
    1. Our own context/enviornment impacts our interpretation of what is around us
View the FULL Outline

When you start a FREE trial you gain access to the full outline as well as:

  • SIMCLEX (NCLEX Simulator)
  • 6,500+ Practice NCLEX Questions
  • 2,000+ HD Videos
  • 300+ Nursing Cheatsheets
Start Free Trial

“Would suggest to all nursing students . . . Guaranteed to ease the stress!”

~Jordan

Transcript

Today we’re going to be talking about sensation and perception.

Sensation is the input of information that we receive through our senses- not just the 5 most well-known senses like touch, smell, sight, taste, and hearing but we have many more senses, like our sense of space and our vestibular system. Our sensory receptors detect information and our nervous system transmits the information to our brain. When we take in information, our sensory system must convert the energy, like our vision processing light energy or how the hearing system processes sound waves. Each sense must receive sensory stimulation, transform the into a neural impulse, and deliver the information to our brain. The whole process of converting energy so that our brain can interpret and organize the information is called transduction.


All day every day we are being bombarded with stimulation- radio waves, sound waves of different frequencies, ultraviolet and infrared light and we don’t even notice it; however, some animals may notice some of these. For example, dolphins are able to use sonar when locating prey. The threshold for dolphins to detect sound waves is much different than humans. The term absolute threshold refers to the point of minimum stimulation necessary to detect a particular light, sound, pressure, taste, or odor at least 50% of the time. The information below your absolute threshold is subliminal, you would not be able to detect it 50% of the time. Difference Threshold refers to the minimum difference between two stimuli required in order to detect at least 50% of the time. If we were listening to music together and I slowly increased the volume, the moment you realize the music is louder is the difference threshold. Once we have taken in information, our brain must interpret and organize that information. There are two ways of processing that happen: bottom-up and top-down. Bottom- up processing is where we have the stimuli and our brain interprets and organizing based on that. The other way is top-down, where our previous knowledge, experience, and expectations influence how our brains create meaning of that stimulation.  There are a few other key terms to keep in mind. Sensory adaptation is when we have a diminished sensitivity to something due to constant exposure. An example of this is when you walk into a person’s home and it smells and you wonder how they tolerate that smell but within a few minutes, you do not smell it anymore. Perceptual set is a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that affects what we hear, taste, feel and see- a mental predisposition if you will. Similar to perceptual sets, the immediate context someone is in can cause different perceptions. For example, if someone is holding a gun they often are more likely to perceive another person holding a gun when they are really holding a wallet or phone.

Some key things to remember are:



1. Sensation is what we take in from our senses as information



2. That information must exceed a certain threshold in order for us to use it consciously



3. Perception is how we interpret the information we take in. We use bottom-up and top-down processing to organize and interpret information.We love you guys now go out and be your best self today and as always, happy nursing!  


View the FULL Transcript

When you start a FREE trial you gain access to the full outline as well as:

  • SIMCLEX (NCLEX Simulator)
  • 6,500+ Practice NCLEX Questions
  • 2,000+ HD Videos
  • 300+ Nursing Cheatsheets
Start Free Trial

“Would suggest to all nursing students . . . Guaranteed to ease the stress!”

~Jordan

Introduction to Psychology

Ashley Nederveld
Ashley Nederveld
LLPC, MA, SST

This course will give you a broad understanding of some of the popular topics for psychology. This course includes topics on behavior, the brain, memory, sensory, theorists, intelligence, states of consciousness, and the relationship of stress on health.

Introduction to Psychology Course Introduction

    Introduction to Psychology