Video Transcript: Sensing and Perceiving

Believing what we look at around us, what comes at us, how we respond. Those are very important things in psychology. Not only have we gone to the biology of  psychology and also what psychology is, we're now getting into the details. How  does it work? How is it that I see things and encode, decode and also perceive  

things to be as they are when we help others in their walk with Jesus and also in life and understanding the psychology of how they respond, how they react, how things are, then put to that person and how then they process things. This is  another important aspect as a counselor, as a coach, and as we understand the  human being, let's get right to it, sensing and perceiving. Sensing and perceiving is what we need to talk about with psychology, because as we look at how we  connect with the world, biologically, again, it's we're gonna look at how we see  things and how we hear things and and the things that we then understand, as  far as what we see and that also then what we then interpret. That's a huge,  huge implication on how we understand God, how we understand people, how  we understand life, because connecting with the world, God has given us these,  these tools in our bodies to understand so as we connect, we have sensations  and perceptions. Hence, sensing and perceiving sensation, as is defined in the  book that you'll be, of course, reading the chapter on when it comes to sensing,  perceiving is awareness resulting from the stimulation of a sense organ. So for  example, my ear hears some things. My eye sees something coming right at  me, and I need to get out of the way, or I see something that's pleasurable, and  the there's pictures in my mind that that come because of the what I see with the flower, or my beautiful spouse, or that beautiful Sunset, what we see and  perceive comes through the portal of the eye, or what I taste, that pizza tastes  really good, and that whole sense of, ah, I have something pleasurable,  something that's That's satisfying for for my stomach and also my body and and, well, maybe not my waistline. But of course, something that is pleasurable,  because I'm sensing this, this in my in my mouth, and tasting the cheese and  tasting the the toppings, the mouth, the eye, the nose, smelling that flower  again,hearing that that, that awful noise, I'm disturbed. So as we counsel, as we  coach people, then as they say, yes, every morning, I keep hearing that, that  awful noise, it's disturbing. I keep hearing my my significant other abusing me  verbally. So what we hear gives a direct impact, of course, on what we think,  how we feel, and also how we respond, sensing and perceiving Well, as we look at perception as well, from the sensation, from the eye, the ear and the nose, to  the perception, the organization and interpretation of sensations. So I can have  that, that great smell, but then something will come right behind this other smell  that's wafting through the air, maybe that shift in the wind and ooh, something  just came about that took away that sweet smell. But I'm able to interpret, I'm  able to understand that it may be something from the field that doesn't smell too  well and it's taking away the sweet smell of the rose or some other flower. I'm  appreciating that God has given or, of course, with the what I hear, if I'm able to 

get into another room is that disturbing noise, I'm able to shut the door and have peace. So when we counsel somebody, and we're coaching in Ministry of  somebody saying, yeah, maybe you should look for that place to go, where you  have peace. Sensation, perception, huge impact. And from there, we also  understand this about sensing, perceiving, the science of sensing, perceiving,  where does it come from, how does it work? Well, there are two important terms  and other terms coming after these as well. We're gonna run right through them  as you'll be reading more about it in your textbook. And also, of course, in other  other readings too, we look at psychophysics and the absolute threshold of a  sensation. Yes, it's a long term, but it's actually a term that is of many words to  best describe what it is. So psychophysics the study of the effects of physical  stimuli on sensory perception and mental states. What does that mean? It is the  study of how stimuli, physical stimuli, for example, that ball that's coming right at  you, you better have your hands up to catch it. Or maybe it's something that's  coming at you that that's bright, as far as the light from a car or from the sun or  from something else. And we look at evaluate what that stimuli is, a physical  stimuli, and there are sensor perceptions, then look at what that is, and our  mental what happens in the mind, therefore, then is able to detect and discern  what it is. It's bright, it's blinding, or Ooh, it's dark, and I can't see.  Psychophysics, absolute threshold of sensation is called the is defined as the  intensity of a stimulus that allows an organism to just barely detect it. So, for  example, you hear that that faint sound, but because of the of the ability of your  ear to catch that sound, there's that threshold that you can you can just hear it.  So psychologists have in order to to compare and contrast loud sounds as  opposed to soft sounds, and other stimuli that are is more subtle, as opposed to  abrupt, the absolute threshold of sensation is that intensity of a stimulus that  allows an organism to just barely detect it, much like that soft sound, and can  just hear it. And for those who can't hear as well, they can't detect it, that's  important, because if I can't hear it, it doesn't affect me. If I can hear it, it does  affect me, and I'll have a certain opinion or reaction based upon that threshold.  So psychophysics, absolute threshold of sensation, building blocks now of how  we understand how we interact and connect with the world around us, the  physical world, of course, the abstract part of the world too, but it's also where  we then look at the perceivers response. It gets even deeper, more detailed with sensing perceiving, because there's also something called the signal detection  analysis. What is it a technique used to determine the ability of the perceiver to  separate true signals from background noise, so as again, coming back to  ministering to your person he or she is is dealing with with noises that they can  hear or cannot hear, things that can detect or not detect, and of course, as that  that affects their their their moves and their attitudes and their Their whole state  of affairs. This helps us to understand how it works. So the signal detection  analysis as a technique used to determine the ability of the perceiver to 

separate true signals from background noise, we have the the signal detection  analysis tool to the right of right of this and as you're looking at the slide here,  we have the tool where you can see in the grid the stimulus is present or absent, the yes or the No, as far as hearing it or being able to detect it, there's a hit or a  miss, false alarm or correct rejection. And so this tool helps us to understand  how then the perceiver is able to separate the true signals from background  noise, while we apply this then to sensitivity and response bias. Sensitivity and  response bias. Sensitivity has to do with the true Ability of the Individual to  detect the presence or absence of signals. What do I mean when we look at  signals, having to do with sounds, images, also brightness, darkness,  somewhere in between. Again, there's this. This in your seat, in the book, as you read more, more in detail how this works, because then look at response bias as well, a behavioral tendency to respond yes to the trials, which is independent of  sensitivity. So what we're doing is we're saying this person is perceiving, for  example, that the truck is coming right at them, and they indeed get out of the  way. There's that that honk of the horn, or that they need to put on some  sunglasses because the sunlight is too bright in their eyes, and they're able to  get a signal of what is coming at them was not coming at them, a signal what is  is about to do a loud noise or not loud noise, or they could, they can hit or miss,  yes or no, false alarm or correct rejection, so they're able to cope with and  manage what stimuli is coming at them and how to respond. This is the way to  measure it, also in sense of perceiving we look at the difference threshold, or the just noticeable difference, the just noticeable difference, or the JND, as it's called for short. The JND has to do with the change in the stimulus that can just barely  be detected by the organism. And so psychologists notice this. Things do  change, either abruptly again or subtly, barely. And so the JND helps to measure that Ernst Weber developed what was called Weber's Law, which is the just  noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion of the original  intensity of the stimulus. In other words, to compare and contrast what is  intense, what is not too intense, what is acute and what is mild, and all these  things that happen with different stimuli. So we can tell that the person, for  example, who has a dog coming at them, they can see the dog is either baring  its teeth and angry, even growling, or that it's now being more gentle, friendly,  wanting to connect with that person in a non threatening manner. There are  signals to this, so Weber, then has measured, studied how these different  signals come into play, and that there's a just noticeable difference of a stimulus  is with a constant proportion of original intensity of the stimulus. So with the  different threshold and just also difference, we can tell how things are and how  people respond to them. Well, we go from simply perceiving then to the term of  Gestalt Gestalt. We hear it, we see it, but then how we perceive it, as far as,  what is that thing? What is that coming at me? So for example, I have my coffee  mug here today, and I my eye looks at the shape, the color, also the nature of 

the top of my yucky coffee mug. Of the case, my coffee real warm, by the way,  kind of cuts down on my coffee intake too, because I can have a drink and it's so warm and I don't have the desire then to just gulp it down and get a brand  another full cup of hot coffee. The stimuli is that I see it, I can then perceive it to  keep the heat within the coffee mug with the top on, it's insulated and also still  smells good. And my mind creates a form and remember the just noticeable  difference. Remember the whole thing of the stimuli coming at the person, the  dog or the coffee mug. I'm approaching it. I'm connecting with it. I'm smelling  what's in it. I'm hearing no noise coming from the coffee mug, from the make,  from the dog. These are signals that the brain then picks up so that I can then  tell what it is that is in front of me and I'm interacting with. And therefore, as I  said with the first slide, connecting with the world around us, much like with  covid 19, the pandemic. When we are isolated from other people, we don't have  other stimuli that coming at us. We then, as human beings, are cut off when we  isolate so we cut down on the number of stimuli coming at us and connecting  with us and us with it or them. So coming back to the form of a coffee mug, my  mind then comes to understand this coffee mug is what it is, the circular cylinder, circular form of it, the shape of it that there's a handle, my brain then interprets it as, then therefore a coffee mug. Let's look further, as far as what the Gestalt is  as it relates to shape and form, as we look at shape and form, a meaningful,  organized whole. That's what Gestalt is, fancy German term, if you will. But in  our minds as English speakers, but it is an organized whole, I see the coffee  mug. It is a whole coffee mug. It isn't just partial. It is defined as that coffee mug  or as the computer screen that you're looking at right now. Now who came up  with this term, this concept? Because, before this people, they see things and  they just are. But then when it came to the enlightenment, and it came to study  from the 1700s into the 1800s then we see, of course, as we look at the  progression of where psychology came from and and the questions are being  raised of the why, the how and and the what, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang,  Kohler, Kurt Koffka, these great theorists came up with the understanding as  they were studying this, this interaction between human beings and stimuli of all  kinds that our minds form an organized whole to us. This seems more  elementary today, but back then it was, it was groundbreaking, because they  were defining what happens inside the brain as it connects with the real world,  from the from the brain to the to the outside. So as we look at the figure and  ground that we because they went to not only defining an organized whole, but  they look at figures and the ground it is in, or the context it's in. So what do you  see as you look at this figure? What is it that you see? Take a moment and just  take a look? Do so what do you see? You may see a vase, or do you see two  young boys, if you will, looking at each other and what do you see? And so  those things are, in fact, important to understand, because what you see is, of  course, has to do with what you perceive you see. Something that is solid in 

another well defined context or place. And you see, then this, in that blue circle  that is also a form, an organized whole. And then you see the picture with the  form of the vase, or the vase, and then you see also the other shapes outside of the vase, sort of the ground that it is in. And then our minds, then look at it again and say, hmm. It seems to me you're saying to yourself, as your your brain is  processing this. It seems like there's two young boys looking at each other, but I  see also the vase and your brain will switch from both forms both figures. It then  takes us into perceiving depth. What do you see depth perception and depth  cues. Now, those who are experimenting with depth they were, in fact, dealing  with depth cues and depth perception. They were then giving us an  understanding of how depth works, as far as what is far off and what is close by  up front. Depth perception is the ability to perceive three dimensional space and  to accurately judge distance. So if I see the truck coming at me, I think it's  coming right at me, or it's not right there, or if you're looking in the rear view  mirror of the car behind you as you're driving down the highway, that mirror may  not give you the accurate depth of where that car actually is, or it might  depending what mirror You have. So depth cues, messages from our bodies and the external environment that supply us with the information about space and  distance. Researchers then would take an infant and put the infant on a table  and see how the infant would then come to the edge of the table and see at that  age how the infant would then perceive the depth of where it would fall off the  edge of the table. If they were to go further, they're crawling around on that on  that infant, slash toddler, they'll look at the edge of the table, and if they were to  get to the edge of table, they might fall off the table, and then therefore to  perceive that they should stay on the table. Depth perception, similar to how you may then look at where you are taking your your your job or your run and you're  trying to round a corner, but you may bump into something because you don't  see something just right, due to depth perception being impaired, or you didn't  see it right the first time, and it caught you by surprise. Again, the ability to  perceive three dimensional space accurately judge distance, and of course,  looking at the messages or depth cues from our bodies in external environment  that supply us with information about space and distance. So those are the  technical terms of the practical of saying, Okay, this is what I see, but what I  don't see, what I perceive, is there, but it's not really there, or it is there. And  then we come to other terms as far as accommodation. In order to help  determine that depth we are, our minds have to adjust at times to  accommodate, to help determine, am I going to make the jump, or am I not  going to make the jump? Am I going to round that corner just right with my car or my body as I'm running, or not I'm going to bump into the tree or with  convergence, the inward turning of our eyes that is required to focus on objects  that are less than about 50 feet away from us. So when something comes right  at you, and there it's coming, it's closing in, or you're walking up to that picture 

on the wall and you're closing in, and your eyes need to converge. This is what  researchers, researchers have defined as in fact, what happens with our eyes,  that that where they turn inward so they can focus and adjust, therefore perceive and understand what is in front of us, also with convergence we have the  monocular depth cues, mono, meaning one and monocular having to do with  what we see over depth cues that help us perceive depth using only one eye.  And so if you're you shut one eye, and with one eye, you're saying, Okay, I think  I can. I can tell better with the right eye shut here, how long the fence is right  there in the on the farm, right there in the field, where we can then and then both eyes. Now let's try the left eye now see what I can I can tell that's monacular  depth cue. That's what we're talking about. So you can then get another  perspective. See things that are are, are either closer or further away. Well, we  then get into perceiving motion. Perceiving motion. What do you see?  Perceiving motion. Researchers came up with two terms, the beta effect and the phi phenomenon, or phi, depending on how you want to pronounce that the beta effect is the perception of motion that occurs when different images are  presented next to each other in succession. I'll repeat the perception of motion  that occurs when different images are presented next to each other in  succession. And so there are things that that come together. Images are come  together next to each other in succession. You have the one picture, let me then  the next picture, and in succession, and how you then, how your mind then  perceives what is happening with that picture, kind of like animation or different  pictures that then form movement for a cartoon, or some other animated work  phi on that to perceive a sensation of motion caused by the appearance and  disappearance of objects that are near each other, and so things that are in  succession, beta effect next to each other, and the phi phenomenon, sensation  of motion caused by the appearance and disappearance of objects that are near each other. So one object forms you know, comes at you, then goes away, and  another one comes at you, a nuance, a new image, and then disappears and  another one. And so that is sensing and perceiving, enjoy reading more about it  in your textbook, and also as we learn from there, taking sensing perceiving to  then, helping others as God has made them.