The Snake

Relate: Explain the relationship between a physical stimulus and the kinds of sensory that result from it.

For this exercise, think about snakes. Snakes are a good way to think about the differences between sensation and perception.

1			1. Ask someone you know that is afraid of snakes or who has never touched one to close his/her eyes and think about a snake. Record your observations of that person's body language. Did s/he move, wriggle, squirm or make a face? 2. Ask this person to describe how a snake would feel if s/he touched one. Record his/her response. 3. Ask this person to describe the sound a snake would make. Record his/her answer.

The Snake

Relate: Explain the relationship between a physical stimulus and the kinds of sensory that result from it.

For this exercise, think about snakes. Snakes are a good way to think about the differences between sensation and perception.

Let’s look at this.

2			1. A person who is afraid of snakes will often display a strong physical reaction at the thought of a snake. Why does this happen? 2. How did your subject think snakes would feel? 3. What kind of sound did s/he think the snake would make?

The Snake

Relate: Explain the relationship between a physical stimulus and the kinds of sensory that result from it.

For this exercise, think about snakes. Snakes are a good way to think about the differences between sensation and perception.

In our example, the subject has never actually touched or heard a snake. Find someone who like snakes, who owns a snake, or who has dealt with snakes in the past and as him/her the same questions.

3			1. Describe the subject's body language as s/he thinks of a snake? 2. Ask this person to describe how a snake would feel if s/he touched one. Record his/her response. 3. Ask this person to describe the sound a snake would make. Record his/her answer.

The Snake

Relate: Explain the relationship between a physical stimulus and the kinds of sensory that result from it.

For this exercise, think about snakes. Snakes are a good way to think about the differences between sensation and perception.

Are you answers the same or different? It is likely they are very different. This difference is based on sensation and perception.

4			1. What is the perception of the fearful person? 2. What is the actual sensation felt by the non-fearful person? 3. This relationship between our physical responses to a snake and our perceptual experiences is called ____________________________. 4. This is the difference between sensation and perception. How do you think these two concepts impact the way you experience your environment?

Just Picture It!!

Remember: Describe the basic processes that underlie the sense of vision.

5			1. Do you remember taking hearing tests when you were in elementary school? The tester slowly increased the volume of the tone until you could hear it. The tester was measuring your _______________________, or the quietest tone you could hear. 2. Think about a time when you were in a sunny room. In a sunny room you are often more aware of minor changes in the amount sunlight. This is because the cloud has blocked the light at a ______________________________. 3. A mathematician would be able to tell you precisely how big a cloud in the atmosphere would have to be to cause your senses to pick up the changes it caused on earth. This is called _______________________. It means that a just noticeable difference (i.e., changes in light in the room) is in constant proportion to the intensity of the original stimulus (i.e., the sun). 4. If a storm rolled in, the sky would darken considerably. You may find it more difficult to read your textbook. However, it is likely that in a few short moments you will be able to read you book as well as you did in the sunny room. This is called _________________________.

What Do You Think?

React: Distinguish the skin senses; describe the skin sense and discuss how they relate to the experience of pain.

6			a. Pain is like the sniffling that takes place when you have a cold. Pain is a symptom that something is wrong, but sometimes is not the problem itself. For example, a stress headache is painful, but the pain is a symptom—not the cause. In other words, the pain tells you something is wrong. Are there any dangers involved in using painkillers to control pain? Explain your answer. b. If pain's only purpose is to tell you that something is wrong, how does the gate-control theory relate to your experiences of pain? Explain your answer. c. Data suggest that as much as 75% of all medical problems have a psychological component. Keeping this in mind, how could you help someone control his or her physical or emotional pain?

Gestalt Laws

Remember: Make sense of and explain the Gestalt laws of organization.

According to the Gestalt laws of organization, humans tend to organize information in specific ways. For each Gestalt concept below, comment on what the purpose this may serve. For example, grouping together elements that are similar may serve an important function in identifying objects quickly. List at least 5 possible reasons why each concept is used.

7			1.) Closure 2.) Proximity 3.) Similarity 4.) Simplicity

That's a Puppy

Relate: Identify the top-down and bottom up processing.

As children, we use bottom-up processing. In other words, small children build a knowledge base by continually refining large information sets into increasingly smaller sets. You can see this clearly as a child learns to speak. Imagine you are teaching a child to speak, and you have a puppy at home.

8			1. You point at the puppy and tell your child that is a puppy, s/he repeats the word "puppy." 2. You take your child to a friend's house. Your friend has a cat. The child will likely point at the cat and say ________________________. 3. Pretty soon, the child has two words for four-legged animals (i.e., puppy and cat). If the child sees a bear, s/he will likely call it either a ___________________ or __________________. 4. At this age, the child is learning to speak at an extremely fast rate. 5. The child learns and understands that a puppy is actually small. 6. Eventually, the child learns that a bigger, older version of a puppy is a __________. 7. As an adult, a person can usually look at a dog that is small with large eyes and an angular head and identify it specifically as a _____________________. In other words, we learn things from the bottom up!!

The Mask

Remember: Define perceptual constancy

9			1) Suppose your brother/father/cousin grows a beard. Are you still able to identify him as a family member? The concept that something remains the same, even if there are changes in its appearance or physical environment, is called ____________________________________. 2) Have you ever seen a child scream and run from the room after someone puts on a scary mask? Even after showing the child the real person by removing the mask, the child will likely scream and run again when the mask is put back on. The child has not yet learned that the person stays the same even though s/he appears different. What is the purpose of perceptual constancy? Name the desirable and the undesirable characteristics of this pattern in humans. Explain your answer.

The Glass Floor

Remember: Explain depth perception.

10			1. Suppose you were on a platform with a glass floor 20 stories in the air. How would you feel walking across the glass, even if you knew it was solid? 2. If you place an infant that had not yet learned to crawl on the glass, the baby would not react to the experience. S/He has not learned the concept of: ____________________________. 3. But, if you put a baby that has crawled, even if the baby has yet to fall, the baby would be anxious and probably would not cross the glass. What purpose does this skill serve?

Strike!

Remember: Relate motion to daily life

11			1. Suppose someone threw a baseball at you. As the baseball came toward you, it would appear to grow larger, though the actual size of the baseball stays the same. This is called __________________________. 2. Why do you think the human brain does this?

Perceptual Illusions

Relate: Determine the important of perceptual illusions

12			Now that you have a basic understanding of perceptual illusions, describe how can these be useful in understanding psychology?

Tarantula Terror

Find a friend to help you with this activity. As you read the following statement, closely note your friend's body language during the activity. Write down your observations.

13			Read to him/her the following statement: Imagine you are in a dark, quiet room, sitting in the corner. You hear a slight rustling from across the room. You are not concerned, yet, as you try to figure out what might be making to soft noises. But, the sounds begin to come closer to where you are sitting. You peer harder into the darkness, catching just a brief glimpse of movement. Suddenly, something is very close to your foot—it is a large, black tarantula, preparing to crawl up your leg! You are too scared to move as you watch the tarantula crawl slowly over your legs…your waist… It's heading for your torso. It continues to crawl, eventually reaching your face and head. Your friend likely became very uncomfortable, showing strong signs of distress even though s/he knew that s/he was not in a dark room and that you did not have a large tarantula!

There is No Reality, Only Perception!

14			Did you know that the brain cannot distinguish between what it perceives in its environment and what it imagines? Your friend's brain created a mental image of a real spider, and so your friend reacted as if the situation was really happening. Think about the types of things you visualize in your head. Has the content of your imagination ever turned into your reality? Explain your answer.

the case of. . . the cautious pilot

Captain Kevin Mueller has been flying private and commercial aircraft for almost 30 years. His flight from Boston to Dallas on the night of November 4 was as routine as any other; Mueller and his copilot had run through their preflight routine in the darkness of the cockpit and, after a 20-minute delay, were cleared for takeoff. Halfway through the flight, Captain Mueller noticed something unusual out of the corner of his eye: a point of light that was initially very faint but growing brighter. It stood out against the backdrop of terrestrial light sources because it appeared to be much closer, and possibly moving. Knowing that no other aircraft were operating in the area, Mueller focused his attention on the mysterious light source, concerned only with whether it might pose a threat to the safety of his passengers and crew.

When at last Mueller still couldn't make out what the mysterious object was after observing it for several minutes, he decided to take no chances. He rapidly increased altitude to put more distance between his aircraft and the object, which eventually faded from view and did not return. A later investigation could make no determination of what Mueller saw, but concluded that he acted appropriately to protect his passengers.

15			1. Why would Captain Mueller and his copilot sit in darkness before taking off on a night flight? 2. Why would the mysterious object have first appeared to Mueller in his peripheral vision? 3. What cues might Captain Mueller have used to determine that the mysterious object was much closer to his aircraft than any light source on the ground? Why might it have been difficult to determine whether the object was actually moving? 4. Even though many of the passengers were awake and looking out their windows, only Captain Mueller and his copilot noticed anything amiss. Why might the passengers have failed to notice the object when it was so obvious to the pilots? 5. Several of the passengers did, however, notice when Captain Mueller changed altitude despite having no visual cues as a reference. Describe the sense that allowed these passengers to detect the aircraft's motion.