Understanding Attention and Perception
What is Attention?
Attention is a conscious activity that can interfere with, inhibit, or direct the senses, response systems, and knowledge schemes residing in memory.
Stages of Perception
Detection
Each sense has a receiver, a group of cells sensitive to one type of stimulus.
Transduction
Part of our natural ability depends on the body’s ability to convert one type of energy into another. The receivers convert energy from the stimulus into nerve messages.
Transmission
When this energy is of sufficient intensity, it triggers nerve impulses that transmit coded information about the characteristics of the stimulus to different parts of the brain.
Information Processing
Our sense organs detect information encoded in energy and nerve signals, but it is the brain that organizes and interprets this information in the form of conscious experiences.
Types of Sensory Receptors
Exteroceptors
Taste
A chemical sense that lets us perceive a few flavors. Basically, there are only four (sweet, salty, sour, and bitter). The richness of tastes is achieved by combining these four.
Smell
A chemical sense. The stimuli are volatilized substances that excite the receptors present at the top of the nostrils.
Vision
The eyes are a crucial organ and work together to transmit images to the brain via the optic nerve.
Hearing
It is essential for communication through language. We are very sensitive to differences in sound and can detect differences among thousands of human voices.
Touch
Our society sometimes inhibits touch because it is associated with sexual interest, but affection is not the same as sex.
Proprioceptors
Kinesthetic Sense
Reports the relative position of the body and what it does during movement; muscle tension also regulates the body.
Vestibular Sense
Provides information about the movement and orientation of the head and body with respect to the earth as people move.
Interoceptors
Organic Sense
It tells us the state of our internal organs through gut cells.
Sensory Thresholds
Absolute Threshold
The minimum amount of stimulus needed to detect something (detection threshold) and the maximum quantity of stimulation received, i.e., the upper limit beyond which we no longer feel (upper threshold).
Differential Threshold
The difference in stimulus intensity necessary to notice a change (increase or decrease) compared to a previous stimulus.
Cognitive Perception
Considers that each individual learns to perceive and uses cognitive schemas (bodies of knowledge stored in memory) to interpret reality.
Factors Influencing Perception
External Factors
Intensity
Any change usually stimulates our attention.
Repetition
It has great importance in commercial advertising, hence the frequent recurrence of ads.
Size
Large objects are more likely to attract our attention than those with less size.
Novelty
Objects that are new or different attract attention more easily than common ones.
Internal Factors
Attention
At any given time, we are aware of a limited number of stimuli.
Reason
Makes perception selective.
Interests and Values
We attend to aspects of reality that we care about more.
Characteristics of the Observer
Desires, attitudes, personality, and emotional state influence the observer’s perception.
Culture
Plays a key role in perception; we are taught to perceive, and this learning conditions our perspective.
Perception Disorders
Our senses are not always able to convey a true picture of reality. Disorders can affect perception: