--- title: Sensation & Perception description: This field examines how sensory organs detect physical stimuli and how the brain interprets this information. Learners will understand the biological mechanisms behind vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and spatial awareness. category: social-sciences subcategory: psychology difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/sensation-and-perception --- # Sensation & Perception This field examines how sensory organs detect physical stimuli and how the brain interprets this information. Learners will understand the biological mechanisms behind vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and spatial awareness. ## Available Resources 4 Courses • 2 Websites ## Courses ### 1. Sensory Systems (MIT 9.04) **Author:** Peter H. Schiller, M. Christian Brown Neural bases of perception in the mammalian nervous system: visual pattern, color and depth perception, auditory responses and sound localization, and somatosensation, drawing on physiology, anatomy and behavior. Includes 23 lecture videos with slide notes explaining how the senses encode the world. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/9-04-sensory-systems-fall-2013/ **Tags:** sensory-neuroscience, visual-perception, auditory-system, somatosensation, neurophysiology ### 2. Abnormal Psychology Explore abnormal psychology & therapy. Understand mental health conditions and treatment options with Sal Khan & others! **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine/mental-health **Tags:** mental-health, abnormal-psychology, psychiatric-disorders, clinical-psychology ### 3. Introduction to Psychology What are people most afraid of? What do our dreams mean? Are we natural-born racists? What makes us happy? What are the causes and cures of mental illness? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, persuasion, emotions, and social behavior. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-psychology **Tags:** psychology, cognitive-science, mental-illness, social-behavior, intro-course ### 4. Sensation and Perception Duke University course by neuroscientist Dale Purves explaining how the visual system generates perceptions of brightness, color, form, depth, and motion, and the evidence that what we see reflects accumulated experience rather than a direct report of the physical world. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/visual-perception **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ## Podcasts ### 1. Perc Podcast **Author:** PERC Goldsmiths Podcast by PERC Goldsmiths **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://soundcloud.com/user-149686671 ### 2. The Retina **Author:** Keyvan Koushan, MD, FRCSC A journal club to review recent journal articles in the field of retina. The target audience are retina specialists and other healthcare professionals who want to stay up-to-date with the latest publications in the field of retina. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.theretinachannel.com **Tags:** retina, ophthalmology, journal-club, vision-science, clinical-research ## Websites ### 1. michaelbach.de/ot An extensive online gallery of optical illusions and visual perception experiments by Michael Bach, featuring hundreds of images and interactive demos with explanations of how perception and attention shape what we see. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://michaelbach.de/ot **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, cognitive-science ### 2. perceptionweb.com PerceptionWeb is a curated resource hub for sensation and perception, providing links to scholarly articles, reviews, and reference materials on visual perception and related perceptual phenomena. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://perceptionweb.com **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/sensation-and-perception