Sensation & Perception V2

Sensation and Perception V2 is an introductory college textbook that explores how we detect and interpret sensory information from the world around us. Covering all five major senses—vision, audition, touch, taste, and smell—the book provides a comprehensive overview of the biological and psychological processes that underlie perception. While all sensory modalities are discussed, the primary emphasis is on vision, tracing the flow of visual information from the moment light strikes the retina through the complex mechanisms that allow us to perceive objects, color, motion, and depth.

A book cover titled "Sensation & Perception V2" features a surreal digital illustration. The image depicts a human hand holding a magnifying glass, which focuses on a small human figure. Surrounding the hand are various sensory organs, including an eye, ears, noses, lips, and kidneys, connected by thin lines. Below the image, the text reads: "Written by Todd A. Kahan with assistance from ChatGPT."

Cover image created with DALL-E in August 2024 using the prompt “Make an image where there is a hand holding a magnifying glass in front of a disembodied eye ear nose and mouth”. I have left this image “as is” to make several points. (1) AI models sometime generate material not included in the prompt that can be irrelevant (e.g., kidneys were not requested and will not be discussed in this class) and (2) AI models have biases that you should be mindful of when writing assignments as well as your final paper (e.g., why is this person white with blue eyes?)

Table of Contents

Metadata

  • container title
    Sensation & Perception V2
  • publisher
    Bates College
  • publisher place
    Lewiston, ME
  • rights
    Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike 4.0
  • rights holder
    Todd A. Kahan
  • version
    2