Investigation of the themes of sensation and perception is a crucial section of psychological science. Sensation is the physical process by which sensory organs such as hearing and tasting organs respond to external stimuli (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2016) . On the other hand, perception is the active process through which the brain decodes the electrical stimulation that sense organs distinguish (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2016) . For instance, a sensation occurs when someone feels the blowing wind on the face or hears a car hooting. During the process of sensation, physical energy such as light is converted to electrical stimulation. This process is known as transduction. Subsequently, the brain can interpret the electrical energy, and someone can detect occurrences such as gas leaks. Irrespective of the mode of “sensing,” several principles influence sensation.
Firstly, the capability to identify an external stimulus is one of the principles. The sense organs involved in sensation require an absolute threshold for someone to detect the stimulus. The minimal threshold is achieved through the use of signal detection theory. To be precise, the presentation of the stimulus occurs at different intensities (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2016) . For example, in the study to determine the interaction between apparent motion in vision and touch, the participants are subjected to different sequences to the stimuli both light and vibrations (Conrad, Vitello & Noppeney, 2012). The second principle is the ability of an individual to distinguish the variations between two stimuli of different strengths. It is achieved by determining differential threshold or just noticeable difference (JND). The concept concludes that immense stimuli entail larger differences to be perceived (Weber’s Law) (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2016) .
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On the other hand, our experiences play a vital role in our brain’s perception. Normally, if experiencing a stimulus for the first time, someone processes the stimulus by use of bottom-up processing approach. The approach involves constructing the perception from the original raw data. However, a times someone may process a stimulus based on their experience. The method is known as top-down processing. Lastly, if a stimulus is constant, someone may stop paying attention to it and become less sensitive to such a stimulus. The phenomenon is known as sensory adaptation.
References
Conrad, V., Vitello, M., & Noppeney, U. (2012). Interactions between apparent motion rivalry in vision and touch. Seeing And Perceiving , 25(0), 26-27. doi: 10.1163/187847612x646497
Goldstein, E. B., & Brockmole, J. (2016). Sensation and perception . Cengage Learning.
