How We Experience the World

Sensation and perception are about how our senses bring in information and how our brain interprets it. Sensation is the process by which our sensory organs detect stimuli, while perception is how our brain organizes and makes sense of those signals.

Key Processes

• Transduction: Turning physical energy (like light or sound) into neural signals.
• Thresholds: The minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a sensation.
• Perceptual Organization: How we group sensory input to form meaningful patterns.

Classic Experiments

• The "rubber hand illusion" shows how touch and vision can trick our brain into adopting a fake hand as our own.

Everyday Relevance

• Why do we sometimes see faces in clouds?
• How do optical illusions work?

Applications

• Designing user-friendly technology interfaces
• Improving safety in transportation with better warning systems