Real-Life Examples of Elements of Perception

There are four different factors that can influence our perception:

1) Absolute Threshold
2) Difference Threshold
3) Signal-Detection Theory
4) Sensory Adaptation

Can you provide a real-life example of one of these and explain this? For example, when someone who is obese gains 10 pounds, we are not likely to notice. But when someone who is very thin gains 10 pounds, we are much more likely to notice. This is due to the concept of Weber's Law (thanks Shannon D!!!)

There are other examples that we could become aware of each and every day. Your job is to identify only one and explain it for our friendly neighborhood bloggers!

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Backmasking and Phantom words

Backmasking is a technique that is related to subliminal messages that students are usually fascinated with. Subliminal messages are stimuli that occurs below our absolute thresholds. As a result, we may be able to detect this information sometimes (less than 50% of the time, in fact!). While we ARE able to process information below our conscious level of awareness, this information will probably not have that much of an impact on our behavior. Couple this fact with the understanding that we can sometimes be primed to "hear" or "see" certain messages, these will sometimes become more convincing. Remember, though, according to research, "these have little or no value in determining our behavior".

Nonetheless, these can be fun to explore and play around with. Here's a link with some backmasked messages.

Backmasking

There is also some research done on "phantom words". I barely understand the concept of phantom words, but this is an amazing illusion in and of itself. Check out this link if you are interested.

Phantom Words

Any reaction to backmasked messages? Are you able to hear any phantom words in some of the messages? Let's start the board!