Psychology › Section E · Sensation and perception › Topic E.1
Sensation versus perception
Your eyes and ears do not deliver a finished picture of the world; they deliver signals, and your brain builds the experience. This topic separates the two stages, shows how psychologists measure the limits of the senses, and explains why attention, expectation and culture shape what you perceive.
In this topic
- Two stages: detecting and interpreting
- Bottom-up and top-down processing
- Absolute thresholds and subliminal messages
- Difference thresholds and Weber's law
- Worked example: Weber's law with numbers
- Signal detection theory
- Worked example: the engineer and the café
- Sensory adaptation
- Attention and inattentional blindness
- Expectation, experience and culture
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
This topic is part of Wuanberri Pro. Checking your access…