How Our (More Than) Five Senses Work | Introduction to Psychology 6 of 30 | Study Hall
Summary
TLDRThis video script explores the fascinating interplay between sensation and perception, highlighting cultural differences in color perception using the Berinmo community as an example. It delves into the biological and psychological aspects of how our senses work, from the basic cells gathering information to the brain's complex processing. The script challenges the notion of raw sensory input, revealing how our backgrounds and experiences shape our unique interpretations of the world around us, and introduces concepts like absolute threshold, subliminal messages, and sensory illusions, such as the McGurk Effect.
Takeaways
- đ The script is an introduction to the concept of sensation and perception in psychology, explaining how they are different yet interconnected.
- đ It discusses the cultural impact on color perception, using the example of the Berinmo community in Papua New Guinea, which has a unified term 'nol' for what English speakers would distinguish as blue and green.
- đ§ The script highlights that sensory information is processed by the brain differently, leading to varied interpretations of the same stimuli among individuals.
- đ The visual system is described, including how light is focused and transformed into signals by rods and cones in the eyes, which are then sent to the brain.
- đ The auditory system is explained, detailing how sound waves are translated into neural signals by hair cells in the inner ear and sent to the brain via the auditory nerve.
- đ The olfactory system's role in the sense of smell is discussed, emphasizing the interaction between odor molecules and cells in the nose, and how this leads to the production of signals sent to the brain.
- đ The gustatory system, responsible for the sense of taste, is described, illustrating how taste buds on the tongue respond to food molecules, creating flavors like sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or umami.
- đïž The somatosensory system, including touch and proprioception, is explained, showing how the body interprets sensory information from pressure, temperature, and pain.
- đ The script introduces the concepts of bottom-up and top-down processing in perception, explaining how new information is built upon sensory input and prior knowledge, respectively.
- đĄ The McGurk Effect is presented as an example of an illusion, demonstrating how the senses can conflict and affect perception, such as when visual cues alter the perception of auditory information.
- đ The importance of understanding the relationship between sensation and perception is emphasized for gaining insight into human experiences and behavior.
Q & A
What is the purpose of the website gostudyhall.com mentioned in the script?
-The website gostudyhall.com is mentioned as a resource for learning more about earning college credits with Study Hall courses.
Why might the experience of colors differ between individuals from different cultures?
-The experience of colors can differ due to cultural knowledge and language. For example, the Berinmo community in Papua New Guinea uses a single term 'nol' for what an English speaker might call green and blue.
How does the Berinmo community's language affect their color perception compared to English speakers?
-The Berinmo community's language includes a single term 'nol' for multiple shades that English speakers differentiate as green and blue. This leads to different interpretations of color, with Berinmo people often confusing shades of 'nol' in memory tests, unlike English speakers who can distinguish them.
What is the difference between sensation and perception as explained in the script?
-Sensation is the process of specialized cells gathering certain information, like responding to high-frequency sound waves. Perception is the organization and processing of that sensory information by the brain, leading to an understanding or interpretation of the environment.
How does the script describe the relationship between the olfactory and gustatory systems?
-The script describes the olfactory system (sense of smell) as closely related to the gustatory system (sense of taste) because the sense of smell significantly influences the sensation of taste, as evidenced by the diminished taste experience during a head cold.
What is the somatosensory system and how does it relate to the somatosensory homunculus?
-The somatosensory system is responsible for interpreting sensory information from the body, such as pressure, temperature, and pain. The somatosensory homunculus is a representation in the cerebral cortex that shows the areas of the body with varying sensitivity to touch, with more sensitive areas having more space in the cortex.
What is the concept of Bottom-up processing in the context of perception?
-Bottom-up processing is a type of perception where the interpretation of sensory information is built upon the actual sensory data received from the environment, such as determining the taste of a new food based on its smell and flavor.
How does Top-down processing differ from Bottom-up processing?
-Top-down processing involves prior knowledge influencing the perception of new information. For instance, if someone tries a new food that reminds them of a previously disliked food, their prior experience affects their perception of the new food.
What is the 'McGurk Effect' as mentioned in the script?
-The McGurk Effect is an auditory-visual illusion where the perception of one sound is influenced by the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third, entirely different word.
Why is it important to study illusions like the McGurk Effect according to the script?
-Studying illusions like the McGurk Effect helps researchers understand more about how our senses work and the complex processes involved in sensory perception, including how our senses do not work in isolation and how our brain interprets contradictory information.
How does the script suggest our sensory experiences can change over time?
-The script implies that our sensory experiences can change over time due to various factors, including changes in our background, culture, language, and identity, which all contribute to the organization of perceptions in our brain.
Outlines
đ Cultural Impact on Color Perception
This paragraph explores the fascinating intersection of language, culture, and color perception. It begins by questioning whether the experience of colors is universal, using the Berinmo community in Papua New Guinea as a case study where the color categories of green and blue are merged into a single term 'nol'. This cultural difference in color naming impacts not only language but also cognitive processes, as demonstrated by memory tests where Berinmo participants confuse shades of 'nol', unlike British participants who can distinguish between green and blue. The paragraph emphasizes that sensory information is processed by the brain in ways that are influenced by individual and cultural factors, leading to diverse interpretations of the same sensory input.
đ Sensation and Perception: How We Experience the World
The second paragraph delves into the concepts of sensation and perception, distinguishing between the two as essential components of our sensory experiences. Sensation is defined as the gathering of information by specialized cells, such as the response to sound waves in the ears, while perception is the organization and processing of that information by the brain, exemplified by recognizing a fire alarm sound and reacting accordingly. The paragraph also highlights individual differences in sensory experiences, such as the varying tastes for cilantro and the common inability to distinguish between red and green, which are attributed to biological variations. Furthermore, it introduces the idea that sensation is more biologically driven, whereas perception has a stronger psychological component, shaped by factors like background, culture, and language.
đ The Complexity of Sensory Systems and Perception
This paragraph examines the intricacies of our sensory systems, such as the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and somatosensory systems, and how they translate external information into neural signals for the brain to process. It describes the process of transduction, where sensory information is converted into sensations and then into perceptions influenced by both biological and psychological factors. The paragraph also discusses different types of sensory processing, including bottom-up processing, which builds perception on sensory information, and top-down processing, which is influenced by prior knowledge. Additionally, it touches on the concepts of absolute threshold, subliminal messages, and sensory illusions, such as the McGurk Effect, to illustrate the complex interplay between our senses and how they shape our perception of reality.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄSensation
đĄPerception
đĄBerinmo community
đĄCultural knowledge
đĄTransduction
đĄBottom-up processing
đĄTop-down processing
đĄMcGurk Effect
đĄSomatic sensation
đĄVestibular sense
đĄInteroception
Highlights
Study Hall courses offer college credits, accessible via gostudyhall.com.
Cultural differences can affect color perception, as seen in the Berinmo community's use of 'nol' for both green and blue.
Berinmo people may confuse shades of 'nol' in memory tests, unlike English speakers who distinguish green and blue.
British participants excel in distinguishing 'nol' and 'wor' shades, not recognized in English, indicating language's impact on color perception.
Sensory information is processed by the brain, leading to varied interpretations of the world despite shared experiences.
Deja Fitzgerald introduces Study Hall: Intro to Psychology, emphasizing the subjective nature of sensory experiences.
Sensation and perception are differentiated, with sensation being the gathering of information and perception its organization and processing.
Individual biological differences, such as cilantro aversion or color blindness, affect sensory experiences.
Cultural knowledge, not just biology, influences sensory interpretation, as demonstrated by the Berinmo community's color categories.
Sensation is more biological, while perception is more psychological, though the distinction isn't clear-cut.
Sensory systems convert physical information into brain-processed signals, as illustrated by the visual and auditory systems.
The olfactory and gustatory systems are closely related, affecting how we perceive taste through smell.
The somatosensory system interprets exterior sensory information, including touch and temperature.
The somatosensory homunculus in the cerebral cortex represents the body's sensitivity to touch, with more sensitive areas receiving more brain processing power.
Interoception allows us to sense internal body processes, contributing to our overall sensory experience.
Transduction in the brain translates sensory information into felt sensations, which are then processed into perception.
Perception is influenced by a combination of biological and psychological factors, including background and culture.
Bottom-up and top-down processing describe how sensory information is used to form perceptions, with prior knowledge affecting interpretation.
Absolute threshold defines the minimum stimulus level that is detected half of the time, with subliminal messages existing below this threshold.
Illusions, such as the McGurk Effect, demonstrate the complex interplay between sensory information and perception.
Senses are not infallible and are influenced by prior experiences, culture, and identity, with sensory experiences varying between individuals.
Study Hall Intro to Psychology offers an online course for earning college credits, further exploring sensory experiences and psychology.
Transcripts
To learn more about earning college credits with Study Hall courses go Â
to gostudyhall.com or click the link in the description.
Roses are red. Violets are blue. But is the experience of colors the same for me and for you?
If you were raised in a culture with English as your first language, Â
calling one shade blue and another green might seem like a no-brainer. Â
But it does take brains and cultural knowledge to do that.
See, if you were part of the Berinmo community in Papua New Guinea, both of these colors Â
would be called ânol,â a color category that includes most of the shades that an English Â
speaker like me would call green and blue â it even covers a couple of shades of purple!
This means that two people might take in the exact same wavelengths of light, Â
but their interpretation could be completely different.
And itâs not just a matter of having different words for things!
When given a memory test, Berinmo people often confused two shades of ânolâ, while the British Â
participants sailed right through the same part of the test since they could distinguish the shades Â
as green and blue. But British participants didnât do well on a part of the test that involved shades Â
of ânolâ and âworâ â a color distinction that doesnât exist in the English language.
So while our senses are an amazing and essential part of our lives, Â
theyâre not a feed of raw information about the world around us. Sensory information is Â
processed by the brain, and itâs processed differently by, well, Â
different brains. And that means although we share the same world, we each interpret it differently.
Iâm Deja Fitzgerald, and this is Study Hall: Intro to Psychology.
The information we get or donât get from the world around us shapes our experiences, Â
from how we differentiate colors to our emotions and reactions to events like finding out in my Â
late twenties that Iâm particularly good at telling the difference between blue and green.
So as psychologists, we can learn a lot about people when we know Â
how this information actually gets to us, which happens in two parts.
Even though we often use these words interchangeably, Â
sensation and perception have different definitions.
Sensation is whatâs happening when specialized cells gather certain information. For example, Â
if the specialized cells in your ears respond to high-frequency sound waves, Â
youâre sensing a noise in your environment through the sense of hearing.
And perception is whatâs happening when that information is organized and processed. So Â
when your brain processes the sensory information your ears are taking in, Â
and you realize itâs a fire alarm and you need to high-tail it outta there, thatâs perception!
So we all have sensory experiences that involve sensation and perception, but they can both vary Â
quite a bit from person to person. Like, we all know someone who can't stand the Â
taste of cilantro. And being unable to tell the difference between red and green is really common.
Both of these are biological differences between people. But like the Berinmo community shows us, Â
these differences don't have to be based in biology!
An easy way to think about how we sense the world is that sensation is more biological Â
and perception is more psychological, though itâs not quite that black and white. But letâs Â
talk about how sensation and perception work separately before we talk about the gray area.
Though each sensory system is unique, they all essentially do the same thing: Â
change information from the physical world into signals the brain then processes.
So if youâre visiting a friend in Hiroshima and are about to dig into some okonomiyaki at Â
a summer festival, youâre getting a bunch of different sensory information. But all Â
that information ultimately comes down to cells sending signals to the brain.
Like when you look at your steaming veggies-and-noodles pancake, Â
youâre using the visual system, which consists of the eyes and related parts Â
of the central nervous system, like the optic nerve and visual cortex.
Light from the world around you enters your eyes, and different parts of them interact to Â
focus the light. Then, special cells called rods and cones turn the light into signals. Â
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but theyâre also sort of windows for the brain.
Now take the auditory system, which consists of the ears and parts of the nervous system Â
like the auditory cortex of the brain. When your friend tells you to dig in while the okonomiyaki Â
is piping hot, cells in your inner ear, way beyond your eardrum, called hair cells move in response Â
to the sound waves made by your friendâs vocal cords. This movement results in signals that get Â
sent to our brains through a special part of the nervous system called the auditory nerve.
We also have sensory systems that work through interactions with molecules. Thatâs whatâs going Â
on with the olfactory system, which makes our sense of smell possible with the nose Â
and olfactory tract, a bundle of nerves that connects to specific regions of the brain.
When you lean over your steaming food and inhale its aroma, cells in the nose interact with odor Â
molecules to produce, yup, signals that go to the brain by way of the olfactory nerve.
And if you've ever tried eating your favorite food when you've got a bad head cold, Â
you know how important that sense of smell is to your sensation of taste. Â
That's because the olfactory system is closely related to the gustatory system, Â
which enables our sense of taste and includes the tongue and gustatory cortex of the brain.
When you take a bite of okonomiyaki, special cells in your taste buds respond to molecules Â
in that warm mouthful of cabbage, sprouts, noodles and sauce. Those cells will send Â
signals to your brain that lead to the taste of sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or umami.
And of course, youâre holding that warm styrofoam container in your hand. The feel of that warmth Â
of the container is a sensation that you and I would call touch. But other people refer to Â
it as a somatosensory sensation, which is a part of the somatosensory system, or our fifth sense.
Think of the somatosensory system as the way our body interprets sensory Â
information from the very exterior bits of usâthings like pressure, temperature, Â
and pain. It also includes proprioception, or the physical awareness of where your body is in space.
And when it comes to movement, we have a specific part of proprioception: Â
the vestibular sense. Thanks to the vestibular sense we can hold our heads up correctly, Â
balance when walking, and even focus our eyes on things in motion.
The vestibular sense is kind of like our sense Â
of gravity and is made possible by structures in the inner ear.
What we feel with our somatosensory system varies across the body, and part of this is Â
because the map of our body that lives in our cerebral cortex, the somatosensory homunculus, Â
is not at all related to Voldemort or what our body actually looks like! Which is probably a good Â
thing, because if that were the case, it would look something like this. Itâs kind of terrifying!
Basically, the more sensitive an area of your body is to touch, Â
the more space your somatosensory cortex devotes to it. This is why a paper cut hurts more than Â
you think â thereâs so much more brain processing power devoted to your hands!
And there are still more senses, like interoception.Thatâs the sense we use Â
to gather signals from inside the body. There are lots of body processes that we can pay attention Â
to if we focus, like our heartbeats, internal temperature, or even the stomach rumbling.
Once sensory information reaches the brain, itâs translated through a process called transduction Â
into sensations that we feel. And when the information is processed, then we have perception.
Perception is biological too since it involves cells sending signals, Â
but we can think of perception as psychological because itâs shaped by many factors, Â
including your background, culture, language, and worldview. As we saw with the people of Berinmo, Â
the names we learn for colors can affect our perception of colors.
And this biological and psychological combination completes our perception. Whether itâs colors or Â
sounds or some other sensation, the way we process sensory information can be divided into two types.
The first is called Bottom-up processing, and it represents how perception is built Â
on information from our senses. Like, when you take the first bite of a new food, Â
youâre taking in the way it tastes and smells to figure out if you like it.
But we also use top-down processing, which is when prior knowledge influences how we Â
perceive something new. Maybe youâve never tried vegemite before, but when you eat it, Â
it reminds you of eating another type of salty spread that you really didnât like. Â
So the similarity is affecting what you think of the vegemite.
So our senses are more complex than just a raw feed of information about Â
the world -- we also have to organize this information in Â
our minds. We need both sensation and perception to understand the world.
So letâs dig into that gray area between sensation and perception, Â
because one doesnât always straightforwardly lead to the other.
Imagine I stimulated your sense of touch by tickling your arm very gently. So gently that it Â
only registers in your brain part of the time. The sensation is always there -- Iâm always tickling Â
you and the cells on your arm are taking in that information -- but itâs not always perceived.
Thatâs in part because our brains limit what sensory information we perceive. Â
Which is a good thing! If you think the open-plan office is already a nightmare, Â
imagine if we were aware of all the things our senses picked up Â
in that environment â every cough, every Slack ping â total information overload.
To study the relationship between sensation and perception, Â
researchers use something called absolute threshold, which is the smallest amount Â
of stimulus that we can register 50% of the time. (For consistency when doing research, Â
we use detecting a stimulus 50% of the time for the definition of absolute threshold.)
Like we said though, the sensation is always happening. So when a stimulus doesnât cross Â
the absolute threshold, we call it a subliminal message. And even though weâre not aware of it, Â
thereâs some evidence that subliminal messages can affect our thoughts. Researchers are Â
investigating just what kind of messages can affect our thoughts...and for how long.
Then there are times when sensation does become perception, but we misinterpret the Â
sensory stimuli. We call these mismatches between sensation and perception illusions.
Even though optical illusions â like the vase with faces or the blue-gold dress of internet Â
yore â seem to get all the attention, illusions can involve different sensesâŠÂ Â
or more than one!. For example, look closely at my mouth and try to guess what sound Iâm making.
Did you hear da da da? Most people do!
Ok, now, this time, close your eyes. NO PEEKING!
Did you hear ba ba ba this time?
Now, letâs try one more time - this time, without sound.
Did you see ga ga ah ah aahâŠÂ er, sorry. Did you see ga ga ga?
Hereâs the thing: you might have heard â or seen â the words differently depending on what kind Â
of stimulus your senses were getting. But the actual audio and video never changed!
This is called the McGurk Effect. Itâs an illusion that occurs when the visual component to one sound Â
is paired with the auditory sound of another word, leading you to perceive a third word Â
entirely. Basically, your senses are at war with one another, and your brain has to sort out the Â
contradictory information itâs getting from your eyes and ears to make sense of whatâs going on.
The McGurk Effect is an example of how illusions are more than just interesting tricks. By studying Â
them, researchers can learn more about how our senses work. Thatâs important because Â
as weâve discussed, the senses donât work the way we might assume they do.
It also shows us that our senses donât exist in isolation from one another, Â
and that while our brain is always receiving sensory information, Â
we can't always trust if or how weâre perceiving that information.
Sometimes our senses seem completely infallible, like theyâre bringing us the true reality of Â
the physical world. But our senses are nothing without our prior experiences, Â
culture, language, and identity. And our senses of course have their limitations.
The way you sense the world may seem incredibly natural and intuitive, but itâs the result of Â
extraordinarily complex processes, processes that might play out differently for other people. The Â
reason you think green is green and vegemite tastes terrible is because of your senses Â
and the way perceptions are organized in your brain. Different peopleâs brains create different Â
sensory experiences, and the way we experience sensory information can change over time too.
So the next time you wonder why a friend chose to wear a fuchsia turtleneck with violet corduroys, Â
keep this in mind! Maybe those colors donât clash for everyone.
If youâre enjoying Study Hall Intro to Psychology and are interested in Â
taking an online course and earning college credit, go to gostudyhall.com Â
or click on this button to learn more. Thanks for watching, see you next time!
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