Sensation and Perception

Sensation

• The process by which our sense organs/receptors detect and respond to sensory information that stimulates them  
• Raw sensory data is meaningless 

Perception

• The process by which we give meaning to raw sensory information using our conscious experience of our external/internal environments 
• Interpreting sensations

Perceptual Set 

• The predisposition to perceive something in accordance with what we expect it to be 

1) Reception

• The process of detecting and responding to incoming sensory information 
• At this stage sensory information is in the form of energy which can't be sent into or processed by the brain 
• The energy can't be sent along neural pathways to the brain
• For vision the energy is light, for taste the form of energy is chemical molecules

Receptive field

• The area of space in which a receptor can respond to a stimulus
  • For example, if you're looking at a computer, everything you see is your receptive field
  • Whatever you smell is in your receptive field, anything you touch is your receptive field, if you hear someone talking this is in your receptive field etc

2) Transduction

• The process by which receptors change the energy of the detected raw sensory information, into a form which can travel along neural pathways to the brain, as action potentials (neural impulses) 

3) Transmission

• The process of sending the sensory information (as action potentials/neural impulses) to relevant areas of the brain via the thalamus

4) Interpretation

• The process in which incoming sensory information is given meaning so it can be understood