Chapter 3
Sensation and Perception

Learning Objectives for Chapter 3:
  1. Define sensation and perception.
  2. Define signal detection theory and explain the notion of absolute and difference thresholds.
  3. Explain the concept of sensory adaptation.
  4. Explain the physical characteristics of wave amplitude, wavelength, and wave purity.
  5. Discuss how these physical properties of light waves affect our psychological experience of light.
  6. Discuss the major eye structures involved in focusing images and their functions.
  7. Describe the structures of the retina, including definitions and distinctions between rods and cones.
  8. Explain the path of visual information from the visual fields, through the eye structures, to the cerebral cortex.
  9. Summarize the trichromatic and opponent-process theories of color vision, and understand empirical support for each theory.
  10. Explain the physical characteristics of sound: wave amplitude, wave frequency, and wave purity.
  11. Discuss how these physical properties of pressure waves affect our psychological experience of sound.
  12. Explain the path of sound waves through the different structures of the ear and how sound wave information is translated to electrical energy.
  13. List the primary qualities of taste, and discuss the current knowledge about their locations.
  14. Understand olfaction and how it relates to gustation.
  15. Describe the cutaneous senses and the position senses.
  16. Discuss theories explaining how pain is processed in the brain.
  17. Describe methods by which the sensation of pain can be controlled or reduced.
  18. Distinguish between a salient detail and a peripheral detail.
  19. List the stimulus and personal factors that influence what we perceive.
  20. Explain the salient characteristics that guide bottom-up processing of perceptual information.
  21. Describe how top-down processing influences how sensory messages are organized.
  22. List and define the ocular and physical cues that provide us with information about depth and distance.
  23. Define the following perceptual constancies: size, shape, brightness, and color.