Foundations of Sensation and Perception / Edition 3

The first edition of this comprehensive introduction to sensation and perception has been highly praised for its unique approach: it allows students to thoroughly grasp the fundamental principles in relation to the relatively simple sensory systems before moving on to the more complex topics. The book's introductory chapter on general physiological, perceptual, and theoretical principles gives the reader the conceptual tools to build a clear understanding of how we perceive the world. The following chapters then flesh-out basic topics such as transduction, receptive fields, and sensory adaptation via coverage of the minor senses (touch, balance, smell, and taste). Later chapters on hearing and vision build on these foundations. Unlike other perception textbooks, there is also a whole chapter on individual differences, which considers potential sources of difference such as age, sex, expertise, and culture. This second edition has been revised and updated to include: Revised and expanded coverage of taste processing and perception, touch perception, pitch perception, and receptive field modeling New sections on word perception, the size after-effect, crowding, scene perception, and optic flow A completely new chapter devoted to multisensory processing and synesthesia, with a new tutorial on attentional effects in perception A new tutorial or visual dysfunction in artists This textbook is supported by web-based instructor resources and a tailor-made Student Learning Program available free of charge to university departments that adopt the book.