Blog Post #7

Sensation is how we receive information from our surroundings. Sensory receptors detect stimuli. Perceptions are the way we organize and understand the stimulus. Perceptions are drawn from sensations, experience, and expectations. They are interpretations of what we receive from our senses.

I believe the most interesting thing is absolute thresholds, which is the minimum amount of stimulus needed to notice something half of the time. I saw something on tv where teenagers can hear certain sounds of cellphones when adults can't. Age has affected the absolute threshold for high pitched sounds in adults. This is also mentioned in the book. This is helpful to know because it seems in schools, teachers hear certain students better than others. The low voice of a male must be at a higher threshold to hear than a whisper of a girl. Boys could learn from this by being more quiet with their voices.

I read the article, Psychology of Magic: 3 Critical Techniques. Magicians use psychology in their tricks. They use physical misdirection, physical illusions and physical forcing with psychological counterparts. Using physical misdirection, a magician also tries to lead the audience to a different solution mentally. They will then look for proof of that solution instead of seeing the real illusion. They also try to fool our attention by using our predicton of how events normally happen. They plan on the audience making certain predictions or having certain expectations for normal ev ents and use those to trick us. Drawing our attention away from the important action is also a way to fool us. When we concentrate on one thing intensely, we fail to see another event that happens in front of our eyes, like an assistant slapping the right card on a window to show which card was picked. Magicians also use mental forcing which appears to give the audience a free choice but is really highly influencing their decision through various techniques, such as holding a card for a longer period of time or making it larger.

This is interesting because, although these tricks don't sound like an intelligent person might fall for them, it seems like they always do. This shows me that I could possibly influence others to make a choice I want them to make even though they may think they are making their own choice. I will be more skeptical when given choices and try to make them without being influenced by others.