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S&P (6-8%)
A good way to begin the study of sensation and perception is by clearly distinguishing between these processes. With respect to sensation, you should present the common properties of all of our senses by discussing thresholds, adaptation, and transduction. When discussing the structures and functions of each of our senses, focus more on the study of vision and audition. Remember to examine deafness and color blindness to connect students to the functions of these senses. While discussing these topics, you can introduce the theories for color vision and pitch perception, thereby segueing into a discussion of perception. Using examples of illusions can demonstrate how the brain constructs its own reality. You should talk about the Gestalt principles of organization, depth, and motion perception, using everyday examples to illustrate each. Focus on the role that experience plays in perception by contrasting top-down and bottom-up processing.
AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.
• Describe sensory processes (e.g., hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthesis, pain), including the specific nature of energy transduction, relevant anatomical structures, and specialized pathways in the brain for each of the senses.
• Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments).
• Describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote stable awareness of the external world (e.g., Gestalt principles, depth perception).
• Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g., perceptual set, context effects).
• Explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion.
• Discuss the role of attention in behavior.
• Challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena.
• Identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., GustavFechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel).
Essential Questions:
How do the five senses receive and translate signals to the brain for processing?
How does each of the senses affect behavior?
What are the limitations of each sense and how do those limitations affect behavior?
How do sensation and perception differ?
How does the brain process sensory signals accurately? Inaccurately?
Sensation without perception- can't recognize faces
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