Noba is a high-quality, flexibly structured digital introduction to psychology resource for higher-ed classrooms and virtual classrooms. Noba consists of nearly 90 short (2500-4000 word) chapters authored by leading instructors and researchers including 7 winners of the William James Award. Chapters are organized in familiar categories (Development, Learning & Memory, Personality, etc.) for easy reference. All Noba materials are licensed through Creative Commons under the CC BY-NA-SA license terms.

The Noba website allows anyone to combine chapters in any order to create unique psychology textbooks to suit virtually any curriculum. In addition to allowing users to build their own customized collections, Noba provides a series of "Ready-Made" digital textbooks curated from the Noba chapters to conform to the scope and sequence of some of the most commonly taught 100/200-level psych courses (Intro-to-Psych, Psych as a Biological Science, Psych as a Social Science, etc.). The Ready-made books can also be edited to add or remove chapters, or sections so that they better conform to the specific course an instructor will teach.

Custom-made books, Ready-made books, or even individual chapters can be used online, downloaded as PDFs or shared withe learners via email and social media using easy-share tools built in to the website.

Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.Senior Contributing AuthorsRose M. Spielman, Formerly of Quinnipiac UniversityContributing AuthorsKathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State CollegeWilliam Jenkins, Mercer UniversityArlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph's UniversityMarilyn Lovett, Livingstone CollegeMarion Perlmutter, University of Michigan

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Distinguish between sensation and perceptionDescribe the concepts of absolute threshold and difference thresholdDiscuss the roles attention, motivation, and sensory adaptation play in perception

The first chapter provides an overview of the textbook and reviews the history of psychology and its methodology. Psychology is described as a science studying how hereditary (nature) and experiential (nurture) variables interact to influence the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals. The remainder of the text will be organized in sections entitled “Mostly Nature” (Biological Psychology; Sensation & Perception; Motivation & Emotion), “Mostly Nurture” (Direct Learning; Indirect Learning (i.e., observational learning and language); Cognition), and “Nature/Nurture” (Human Development; Personality; Social Psychology; Maladaptive Behavior; Professional Psychology and Human Potential).

The topics of sensation and perception are among the oldest and most important in all of psychology. People are equipped with senses such as sight, hearing and taste that help us to take in the world around us. Amazingly, our senses have the ability to convert real-world information into electrical information that can be processed by the brain. The way we interpret this information-- our perceptions-- is what leads to our experiences of the world. In this module, you will learn about the biological processes of sensation and how these can be combined to create perceptions.