Sensation and Perception

by E. Bruce Goldstein

Long regarded as the gold standard in sensation and perception texts, E. Bruce Goldstein's SENSATION AND PERCEPTION has helped more than 100,000 students make the connection between perception and physiology. Goldstein has crafted an easier-to-understand, and more student-friendly book, without sacrificing the text's comprehensive examination of sensation and perception. Goldstein takes readers on an intriguing journey through their senses, and chronicles scientists' efforts to understand the fascinating behind the scenes activity that allows us to perceive. With balanced coverage of all senses, this book offers an integrated examination of how the senses work together. Goldstein shows readers how seemingly simple experiences are actually extremely complex mechanisms and examines both the psychophysical and physiological underpinnings of perception. All material is presented in a way students find interesting and easy to follow. The book's visually dynamic presentation includes numerous color plates that are presented as visual topic essays. In addition, more than 50 hands-on demonstrations illustrate perceptual experiences. All are simple enough for students to do and are seamlessly integrated into the flow of the text.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Textbooks, Neuroscience, School, Reference

704 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

E. BRUCE GOLDSTEIN is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona. He received the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Pittsburgh for his classroom teaching and textbook writing. He received his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Brown University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Biology Department at Harvard University before joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Goldstein has published papers on a wide variety of topics, including retinal and cortical physiology, visual attention and the perception of pictures. He is the author of SENSATION AND PERCEPTION, 10th Edition (Cengage, 2017), and the editor of the BLACKWELL HANDBOOK OF PERCEPTION (Blackwell, 2001) and the two-volume SAGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PERCEPTION (Sage, 2010).

Reviews

[Westcoast_girl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book would have been really good when it first came out, but 36 years later it's become a bit of a mess.

You can see where new research has been pasted into the old text, and the coverage of it doesn't really fit with the flow of the chapters. There are some things that are covered in depth, such as optical illusions and Gestalt principles, and other things that are barely covered at all, such as the neurology of each sense. An extraordinary amount of text focuses on describing the experiments that found out new information about the senses, and not as much time actually reviewing that information or looking at its applications and implications.

But perhaps my biggest issue was that though the book claims to look at "sensation and perception," the majority of it covers vision. 10 of the 15 chapters look at vision. While some of these chapters claim to be an overview of a general topic using vision as an example, they are, in reality, only looking at that topic through the lens of vision. While so much attention is given to vision, there are some senses that are barely touched at all and others that are never even mentioned. Proprioception, interoception, and other "newer" senses receive no mention (well, proprioception receives a definition but no coverage) and all the cutaneous senses and chemical senses are crammed into 2 chapters at the end.

I believe this textbook is still being used since it's what has always been used, but I think it's time this book were either rewritten or replaced.

[Lauren McDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again, another great textbook, actually one of my higher favourites, but it was just for a class and I don't want Goodreads to think this is the kind of stuff to be recommending for me LOL

[⋆.˚ Ariana ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked reading this book for my course, however, it’s a pretty heavy text and unfair of them for excepting me to remember everything 😒

[Keira Mc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for one of my classes.

This textbook was a long one, but quite thorough about the topics and written in a way that was easy to understand. Some of the chapters were on the long side, but not unmanageable.

[Elari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something a neuroscientist on vacation would read.

Edit: I'm changing the rating from three to four stars because of the references to Beatles songs in the epilogue. However trivial it may be, the rush of yay outbalanced the boredom brought about by chapters 5 to 8. Never underestimate the power of music.

[Sarv]

هرچیز جالبی رو که با هدف امتحان بخونی بی مزه می شه. و این کتابم مستثنی نیست از این قاعده. جالب و دوست داشتنیه... اگه نخوای ازش امتحان بدی‌.

[D.B White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read for Sensation and Perception. Only read 60% (hoping to finish in my free time, or by taking part two of the course). I personally found it interesting because there are some explanations for various neurological conditions and conditions that affect the senses, and you can read about many hypotheses and theories behind sensory perception, which can lead to a greater understanding of how your body functions and also about the physical world around us. I found this textbook to be a good follow-up to reading Oliver Sacks case studies (Island of the Colourblind; An Anthropologist on Mars; Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat) and getting a more technical explanation for certain phenomena. If you can get passed the unimaginative, dry as toast, tedious writing style found in most textbooks (including this one), and have the luxury of supplementing the denser, more technical explanations by watching videos or by reading related articles online, you're in for a fascinating read (and probably a better grade). I hope your prof's presentation style is less monotonous than mine was and I hope you can put your knowledge to improving yourself, cultivating a more understanding professional/personal attitude by understanding different experiences of the world around us, and come up with fantastic magic tricks for your next dinner party (and tell me all about it!)

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blah, Blah, text book. Good information about sensation and perception and intriguing for those of us who are fascinated by human behavior. I guess I was tired of seeing no books on my currently reading list.

[alexander shay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for PSYC 267

Almost entirely a re-hash of PSYC 275 (Biopsychology) from last semester, so I was lucky. Half of the book is only about vision, because we know the most about it. We ran out of time in my class to really look into anything else other than the beginnings of hearing, so I can only vouch for about half the content in the book, but it was so much easier to understand than my last textbook. My teacher this semester explained things a lot better but the book was easier to follow too. Most of the content overlapped but it was explained with more continuity, so especially where the structures were concerned, things made so much more sense this semester. But we also went into detail about how we perceive things in the brain, which PSYC 275 doesn't. It's really cool to have some of the illusions our brains see explained, or how certain effects in images are created. I didn't even mind reading this textbook, but that said it's not really something I can sit down and burn through a whole chapter at once (they're between 20-30 pages on average), but I was forced to because of the timeline of summer courses. Definitely something you want to have time to read and think over in bits and pieces.

[Aidan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook is a great introduction to the science of the senses and the research pertaining to the biological correlates and processes of perception. If you are reading this book for an undergraduate course (you probably are as I was) it is, again, a great introduction. Nothing more nothing less. The ideas are relatively surface level and Goldstein demonstrates many views of perception throughout the decades of research from the behaviorist to neuroscientific views of perception from object recognition to language processing. A great book to read in conjunction with a general introduction to Cognitive Psychology.

[Monty Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic overture of empirical physiological and psychological aspects of the human body inclusive.
Perception; Not to be confused with interpretation is the key element in this topic, and illustrated factually without bias.
This is an intensive study of human physiology and the neurological interpretation for each organic cell membrane.
Additional intensive studies is recommended for full proficiency.

[Nick Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book radically overuses terminology that nobody has or will use. Chapter 12 contains some terminology relating to music theory that could be simplified by using terminology that everyone knows from their grade school music class.

[CPSC344 Dummy Account · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great book.

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[Miao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good as a text book and explain the stuff quite clear.

[Indira Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was actually a pretty cool textbook for my s&p psych class. I learned alot. how much Ill remember....who knows

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far my major complaint is that the tests in the Mindtap version seem to be written by a bot. They do not test on any major concepts or terms that were obvious information that should have been gleaned from reading the book or taking the quizzes. The book itself has lots of lovely studies that have been done throughout the history of perception psychology. However, the writing itself could be much better. Some parts seem to be very wordy for no reason at all, while others are painfully lacking (thank god for Google and YouTube). The subject matter is something that I feel more passionate about than any other class I have taken in this psychology school period of my life and yet this book has greatly detracted from the enjoyment.

[Aleksander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ännu en banger

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate when I actually have to read the textbook to do well in class

[Melina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad for a textbook.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

yes, I read the whole textbook.

[Ree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I didn't actually read the entire book, since I only needed some chapters as exam preparation and there really was no time for me to revise any extra content. But having said that, I really wouldn't have minded reading more. For one, the topic interest me (always helpful), and for the other, this was very well written, structured and presented. The authors explained stuff with the intention of actually explaining it and not to sound all high and mighty and academically superior. Also explanations were as long as necessary and as short as possible and after reading you felt that you just learned something (and not that someone threw a bulk of words at you that you now need to consult wikipedia about to form into a coherent thought - maybe I just had no luck with textbooks so far). This book was fun and even funny at times. And I wish all the other stuff I have to read for college was more like it.

[Linnea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on the basic principles of neuroscience-, psychology- and biology of perception. An interesting and comprehensive book, perfect for people studying or working with perception. The information presented is applicable in a wide range of disciplines, such as perception psychology, neuroscience, biology, computer science, human-computer interaction design, auditory environment design and so on.

[Cary S · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent textbook on the whole. Certain concepts were very poorly explained or incomplete. And arguably the most irritating part of the book was the near constant referencing of figures that were not on the same page as their explanations. Very difficult material. I'd highly recommend a more user-friendly textbook on this topic!

[Chrissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually didn't like this textbook. It was poorly organized and made too many assumptions of prior knowledge about its readership. Very dense, not user-friendly, but at least I learned a lot by rewriting notes in my own words...

[Dorothy W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm taking psychology perception and this is my class text. Every week for our forum discussion we have to write about a perception. It's amazing how perception and sensation are tied to biology. Great book!

[Chantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most enjoyable moment of reading this textbook was when I realised I was done with it. If it wasn't an e-book, I'd have burnt it by now. Content-wise the book is not that bad, it's just that the physiology of [insert any subject matter] is not really my thing.

[Jaeyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a textbook.

[tbb03 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for one of my courses in college as exam preparation and enjoyed it a lot. Especially the many examples helped me to understand the various concepts.

[bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just re-read this entire textbook for studying so I'm counting it.

Eh. I'm not big on the subject matter but the textbook did a good job of making it not completely awful, I guess.

[Dan Trachtman · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for school. Almost a physiology science textbook. Donated cause I can get that info online now