Sensation is the process by which our senses gather

information and send it to the brain.

 A large amount of information is being sensed at any
one time such as room temperature, brightness of the
lights, someone talking, a distant train, or the smell of
perfume.
 The process through which the senses pick up visual,
auditory and other sensory stimuli and transmit them
to brain;
 Sensory information that has registered in the brain
but has not been interpreted called sensation.
 Eyes, ear, skin, nose and tongue contain receptor cells
 These receptor cells receive and process sensory
information from the environment.
 The brain interprets and organizes sensory
information in a process called perception.
 is based on the interpretation of patterns of sensation.
 The process of selecting, organizing and interpreting
raw sensory data into useful mental representations of
the world.
 The process of becoming less sensitive to unchanging
stimulus is referred to as sensory adaptation.
 Ever wonder why we notice certain smells or sounds
right away and then after a while they fade into the
background? Once we adapt to the perfume or the
ticking of the clock, we stop recognizing it.
 Selective attention is purposely focusing your
conscious awareness onto a specific stimulus. This
means that if you are in a noisy place with lots of
people and you purposely pay attention to the person
you are speaking with, you are engaging in selective
attention.
 The incorrect perception of stimulus.
 The perception of something objectively existing in
such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual
nature."
 Something that looks or seems different from what it
is something that is false or not real but that seems to
be true or real.
 One of the most popular illusions in psychology is
Ebbinghaus' Tichtener Circles: Which center circle is
bigger, the one on the right or the one on the left?
 distortion illusion is the Muller-Lyer Illusion, where
two separate lines with arrows at either end of each
line appear to be of different length because on one
line, the arrows point out, while on the other line, the
arrows point in.
 Subjective
 Objective
 Social
 Objective factors are found in psychical environment as
stimuli. These stimuli are so strong that an individual is
attracted to attend to them and perceive them.
 Intensity
 Size
 Distinct and striking
 Movement
 Novelty
 Duration
 Repetition
 Abrupt change
 Intensity: the louder the sound the more likely a person
is to perceive it. The brighter the light the more likely it
is to be in focus of perception.
 Size: a full page advertisement is more likely to be
noticed than half column one.
 Distinct and striking: distinct and striking things are
perceived sooner than dull and unclear things.
 Movement: when things move suddenly in still and
motionless environment, it is quickly perceived, eg,
birds sitting quietly on trees are not quickly perceived
as compared to ones about to fly,
 Novelty: a new and novel thing is perceived sooner
than old and used thing.
 Duration: television advertisements of long duration
are attended to more than those of short duration.
 Repetition: repetition causes us to adapt to the
repeated stimuli.
 Abrupt change: any change in stimulus conditions,
such as increase in noise, often attracts attention.
 Subjective factors related to perceiver’s own self. These are
stated as the internal state and psychological state.
 Motives or needs
 Interest
 Past experience
 Age
 preparatory set
 Emotions
 Motives or needs: when people are motivated, they tend to
see and hear what they want to hear. In other worlds, we may
be set to perceive the world in ways that agree with our
motives and match our goals.
 Interests and values: we attend to those aspects of the world
that relate to our values.
 Past experiences: much of our daily activity is dependent
upon past experience. We have learned to react to cues and
symbols. E,g on seeing a moving line on the sky, we
guess it to be an airplane.
 Age: age brings a change in perception as well. A child perceive things in
different way as compared to young man.
 Preparatory set: this refers to person’s readiness to respond to one kind of
sensory input, but not to other kinds.
 Emotions: The various emotions we experience can influence both how we
perceive things and also how others perceive us. Both positive and negative
emotions can drive us toward or away from a thing. The feelings we have
influence our perceptions of places, situations, people, objects, etc. If an
individual feels negative emotions toward someone, for example, then
everything that person does or says will be perceived in light of that
negative emotion. It is as though we are wearing colored glasses which
color the way we see the world. The phrase "seeing the world through rose
colored lenses" indicates that our biases, emotions, and social interactions
color the way in which we perceive the world.

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 Social factors are related to need and interest of the
group in society to which an individual belongs. Man
is a social animal. He can’t live alone.
 Social values
 Attitudes
 Stereotypes
 Suggestion
 We don't always see things as they are because our perception
is influenced by internal and external factors. Stereotyping, or
exaggerated beliefs, may cause us to make snap judgments
about others. The danger of first impressions is that once we
have made them, we tend to stick to them, and we make any
differing information fit our first impression.
 stereotype, a fixed set of characteristics we tend to attribute to
all group members.
 Fundamental attribution Error:
 when interpreting and explaining the behavior of
another person (the actor), to underestimate the
situation and to overestimate the personal disposition.
 fundamental attribution error is our tendency to
explain the behavior of others based on character or
disposition.
 For example, explaining your professor's harsh words
about class performance as being the result of his angry
personality type, or you might attribute it to his
disappointment with the overall class performance. If
you attribute his harsh words to an angry personality
type, then you have made the fundamental attribution
error.
 The halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which
our overall impression of a person influences how we
feel and think about his or her character.
 Essentially, your overall impression of a person ("He
is nice!") impacts your evaluations of that person's
specific traits ("He is also smart!").
 One great example of the halo effect in action is our
overall impression of celebrities.
 Since we perceive them as attractive, successful, and
often likeable, we also tend to see them as intelligent,
kind, and funny.

 Bias, or showing an unfair inclination for
or prejudice against something,
 also influences our perception in both positive and negative
ways. The Egocentric bias causes individuals to think more
positively about themselves than others think of them. The
Over-confidence bias causes individuals to overestimate
their own confidence. The Status Quo bias demonstrates
that individuals give preference to things which are
familiar. The Ingroup bias shows a preference for
individuals who are in one's own group affiliation.
 the ability to know things (such as what another person
is thinking or what will happen in the future) that
cannot be known by normal use of the senses.
 The belief is that one can have a perceptual experience
without any sensory input. Types of reported ESPs
include
 Telepathy
 Forecasting
 psychokinesis
 Telepathy, the ability to read another person's
thoughts
 forecasting, the ability to predict future incidents
accurately (for example, who will win a race or
engage in a particular activity)
 psychokinesis, the ability to cause things to move by
virtue of thought processes.