- Reaction time
- Levels of analysis
- Principle of Neural Representation
- Processing in perception
- Bayesian Inference
- Mental imagery

Focuses of Research on Perception

- Vision 
- Hearing 
- Touch 
- Taste
- Smell
- Pain
- Social 
- Multi-modal
- Sensory Adaptation

Types of Perception

In Buddhism, perception is the process of identifying what the individual experiences by associating historically learned patterns with what is happening.

The Five Aggregates of Clinging: Perception

The body transfer illusion refers to the deceptive sense of ownership over a body that does not belong to oneself. This occurs when bottom-up visual cues override top-down knowledge about body ownership, leading to a false perception of possessing a different body.

Body Transfer Illusion 

Inattentional blindness is when people do not notice certain stimuli in their environment because their attention is elsewhere.

Inattentional Blindness

Perception is an active interpretation of sensory data that is significantly affected by a variety of personal and social factors. An individual's beliefs, values, prejudices, cultural background, and unique life experiences all interact to shape how they consciously perceive the world around them.

Factors Influencing Perception

Perception operates through two fundamental processing modes. Bottom-up processing is initiated by sensory information from an environmental stimulus, while top-down processing is guided by an individual's pre-existing knowledge and expectations.

Processing Modes in Perception

The discrepancy between what sensory receptors detect (sensation) and what is consciously experienced (perception) can be explained by several psychological mechanisms. Concepts such as sensory adaptation, selective attention, and signal detection theory help explain why certain sensory stimuli are perceived while others are not.

Factors Explaining Gaps Between Sensation and Perception

Human perception is not an objective recording of reality; it is a subjective process susceptible to error. Perceptual interpretations can be significantly shaped by an individual's pre-existing biases, prejudices, and other personal factors, demonstrating that what we perceive is not always an accurate reflection of the sensory world.

Fallibility and Bias in Perception

A person who is very afraid of spiders sees a small, dark piece of lint on their bed and momentarily perceives it as a spider, causing a brief panic. Which psychological principle best explains why the piece of lint was interpreted in this way?

Perception is the complex psychological process of organizing, interpreting, and consciously experiencing sensory information. It involves making sense of the raw data detected by sensory receptors, actively shaping our conscious experience based on focused attention, past experiences, and cultural background.

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University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

New Mexico Highlands University

Cognitive psychology is an area of psychology that focuses on studying cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to our experiences and actions. Like biological psychology, it is broad in scope and often involves interdisciplinary collaborations to study mental processes such as:  - attention - language - memory - perception - problem-solving - creativity - thought - decision-making - processing - knowledge - learning

It also includes the study of computer-based cognitive models such as connectionism (parallel distributed processing). Fields that draw from cognitive psychology include learning science and developmental psychology.

Cognitive Psychology

Sensation and perception is an interdisciplinary field of psychology focused on how we receive and interpret sensory information to shape our conscious experience. It encompasses both the physiological aspects of how sensory systems work and the psychological experience of that information. Researchers in this domain study a wide array of sensory inputs—such as sights, sounds, smells, touch, temperature, and balance—and explore key topics like the distinction between sensation (detecting stimuli) and perception (interpreting data), the physical properties of stimuli, and the structure and function of sensory systems.

Sensation and Perception in Psychology

Sensation is the initial process in which specialized neurons, called sensory receptors, detect environmental stimuli. This detection of sensory input provides the foundational data that the nervous system uses to understand the surrounding world.

Sensation

Wikipedia

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

The flow of ideas and associations that can lead to conclusions or actions

Thought

Choosing a belief, action or object out of a set of alternative options.

Decision-Making

The process of consciously focusing on specific stimuli. Attention is a limited resource, but automatic processing allows us to use our limited attention on other stimuli while performing an automatic task.

Attention

Information and knowledge encoded into the brain to be retrieved 

Memory

Perception

Creativity is the ability to generate, create, or discover new ideas, solutions, and possibilities.

Creativity

- Structuralism
- Behaviorism 
- Cognitive revolution

Early schools of thought/movements in Psychology (leading up to cognitive psychology)

Contributing fields to cognitive psychology

Contains Sources Relevant to Cognitive Psychology:
- Sources From Books
- Sources from Journals
- Sources from Websites
- Journals from Organizations 

References for Cognitive Psychology

Processing (cognitive)

Understanding or awareness of something or the sum total of one's understanding/awareness of all things.

Knowledge

Learning science an interdisciplinary field that works to further our understanding of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations. Contributing fields include cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics. 

Learning Science

An approach to computer-based cognitive model in which concepts are represented by distributed activity across a network.

Connectionism (parallel distributed processing (PDP))

Problem solving is a fundamental cognitive process people engage in daily to find solutions for challenges they encounter. These challenges can range from straightforward tasks, such as doubling a recipe, to more complex situations, like handling an unexpected equipment failure under a tight deadline. A more formal definition states that "problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods in an orderly manner to find solutions to problems."

Problem Solving

The psychological and neurobiological operations by which information is processed, to build knowledge and understanding that supports decision making.

Cognition

Cognitive psychology helps designers to overcome psychological barriers and create products that are more intuitive for the products to be more readable, accessible, easy to navigate and allowing for users to use products more intuitively. 

UX Research and Cognitive Psychology

It is something that accompanies a mechanism but is not actually part of that mechanism. Looking at that something will not tell us anything about what is going on in the "mechanism". Examples include:
- Experiences of mental imagery

Epiphenomenon

Which of the following best describes the focus of cognitive psychology?

Which of the following is an example of a mental process studied in cognitive psychology?

Which of the following fields draws from cognitive psychology to understand how people learn?

Which of the following concepts is central to cognitive psychology?

Language is a formal system of communication that is structured by a set of rules, known as grammar, and utilizes a vocabulary of words, referred to as a lexicon.

Language

A cognitive psychologist is a psychologist who studies thinking and explores questions related to mental processes. They investigate topics such as how people determine the best way to solve problems, how individuals develop an understanding of concepts without direct physical experience (for example, understanding snow without ever seeing or touching it), and how young children acquire language without formal instruction.

Cognitive Psychologist

Cognitive psychologists investigate a wide array of subjects to better understand human mental processes. Specific areas of study include determining and measuring different types of intelligence, analyzing why individuals vary in their problem-solving abilities, and evaluating how emotional intelligence influences success in the workplace. Additionally, researchers explore how individuals organize information gathered from their environments into meaningful categories of thought.

Research Topics in Cognitive Psychology

- Deafness
- Congenital Deafness
- Conductive Hearing Loss
- Sensorineural Hearing Loss
- Ménière's Disease
- Vertigo
- Synesthesia
- Astereognosis
- Prosopagnosia

Disorders of Sensation & Perception

Gestalt psychology is a school of thought based on the core principle that the whole is different from the sum of its parts. The term 'gestalt' translates to 'form' or 'pattern,' reflecting the idea that the brain does not merely combine individual sensory stimuli but actively creates a holistic perception. This process of organizing sensory information into a meaningful whole occurs in predictable ways, which Gestalt psychologists formulated into a set of principles.

Gestalt Psychology

Visual and auditory stimuli occur as waves. 

Waves in Sensation and Perception within Psychology

Sensory systems are essential for gathering critical information from the surrounding environment. This information is utilized to navigate and interact with the world, enabling organisms to find food, locate shelter, maintain social connections, and avoid dangerous situations.

Function of Sensory Systems

The distinction between sensation and perception highlights two distinct stages of processing environmental stimuli. Sensation occurs when sensory receptors physically detect sensory stimuli, whereas perception involves the subsequent organization, interpretation, and conscious experience of those sensations.

Distinction Between Sensation and Perception

Historically, vision and hearing have been the primary focus of sensory research, leading to a more developed understanding of these modalities compared to others. Senses such as taste, smell, touch, and balance have received comparatively less scientific attention.

Research Attention on Sensory Systems

Based on the scenario provided, break down the experience into its two key components. Identify which part of the experience constitutes the initial detection of the stimulus and which part constitutes the interpretation and conscious experience of that stimulus. Explain your reasoning for each.

Analyzing a Sensory Experience

A person walking between buildings provides a clear example of the constant stream of sensory information we process. This individual is simultaneously inundated with sights, sounds, touch sensations, and smells from their surroundings. Additionally, they experience the ambient air temperature and rely on their sense of balance to navigate their path. All these factors are of interest to researchers in the domain of sensation and perception.

Example of Sensory Experience

A person moving between buildings illustrates the constant and diverse sensory information humans process. This individual is simultaneously exposed to a variety of stimuli, including sights, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations. They also perceive ambient temperature and use their sense of balance for navigation, all of which are topics studied within the field of sensation and perception.

The common idea that humans have only five senses is oversimplified. Along with vision, hearing or audition, smell or olfaction, taste or gustation, and touch or somatosensation, humans also have sensory systems for balance, body position and movement, pain, and temperature.

The Senses

Refers to the conversion of sensory stimulus energy into action potentials by sensory receptors, enabling the communication of sensory information to the central nervous system.

Transduction

A key example of sensation occurs in vision. When light enters the eye, it acts as a stimulus, causing chemical changes in the sensory receptor cells lining the back of the eye. These cells then relay this information to the central nervous system by generating messages in the form of action potentials.

Example of Sensation: Vision

Sensory receptors are specialized neurons that are uniquely responsive to specific types of stimuli from the environment. Their function is to detect sensory information, such as light, sound, or pressure, and initiate the process of sensation.

Sensory Receptors

Imagine you are walking barefoot on a beach. You step on a sharp seashell, and your foot immediately pulls back. Which of the following statements describes only the process of *sensation* in this experience?

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