Introduction to Psychology and its Methods - 15 September
The senses (mainly vision):
Sensation =/= perception
Sensation occurs when sensory receptors detect sensory stimuli. Perception involves the
organization, interpretation, and conscious experience of those sensations.
The underside of our brains right hemisphere —> helps us recognize a familiar human face as
soon as we detect it. Human ears are most sensitive to sound frequencies that include human
voices, especially a baby’s cry.
Sensation - the detection of external stimuli and the transmission of this information to the brain.
Perception - the processing, organization and interoperation of sensory signals
Are perceptions true re ection of reality or do they represent an interpretation of reality.
The moment you detect something (from nothing to something) you cross your absolute threshold
The amount of di erence between strength of perception is the di erence threshold.
The senses:
- Vision
- Hearing
- Taste
- Smell
- Skin senses (pressure, temperature pain)
- Vestibular sense: has to do with your balance, the sensory receptors are in your inner ear.
- Kinesthesis: information about your movement, where they are happening in relation to space
- Proprioception: conscious awareness of your limbs
- Interoception: what’s going on inside of your body (full, thirsty)
Stimuli di er in di erent ways, for example intensity (quantitive variations) —> based on the rates
of neurons ring. Di erent sensory qualities are signaled by di erent neurons.
Sensory adaptation: the tendency to respond less to a stimulus that has been present and
unchanging for some time.
Vision: Is very light dependent, direct or re ected. Items of themself don’t have color, but they
absorb all other colors except of the one they re ect (and appear to us). If it’s a dark environment
your pupil gets dilated to let in more light. IN our retina we have receptors (rod and cone shape)
The optic nerve takes it to the visual cortex. Rods have receptors for black white and gray (in the
night). Rods have receptors for colors (for during the day).
Trichromatic Theory (Young-Helmholz) some cones are more sensitive to blues, and there are
some cones more sensitive to green, and some of them are more sensitive to even slower
wavelengths (red). Short cones, medium cones, long cones.
Opponent process theory (Hering) there is no such thing a blue yellow or red green (these colors
are opposites of each other, so the same cone is picking up on them.
Both theories are true. They just represent di erent stages of the visual process.
After the retina: visual information travels to the optic nerve, and then travel through 2 di erent
pathways.
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The senses (mainly vision):
Sensation =/= perception
Sensation occurs when sensory receptors detect sensory stimuli. Perception involves the
organization, interpretation, and conscious experience of those sensations.
The underside of our brains right hemisphere —> helps us recognize a familiar human face as
soon as we detect it. Human ears are most sensitive to sound frequencies that include human
voices, especially a baby’s cry.
Sensation - the detection of external stimuli and the transmission of this information to the brain.
Perception - the processing, organization and interoperation of sensory signals
Are perceptions true re ection of reality or do they represent an interpretation of reality.
The moment you detect something (from nothing to something) you cross your absolute threshold
The amount of di erence between strength of perception is the di erence threshold.
The senses:
- Vision
- Hearing
- Taste
- Smell
- Skin senses (pressure, temperature pain)
- Vestibular sense: has to do with your balance, the sensory receptors are in your inner ear.
- Kinesthesis: information about your movement, where they are happening in relation to space
- Proprioception: conscious awareness of your limbs
- Interoception: what’s going on inside of your body (full, thirsty)
Stimuli di er in di erent ways, for example intensity (quantitive variations) —> based on the rates
of neurons ring. Di erent sensory qualities are signaled by di erent neurons.
Sensory adaptation: the tendency to respond less to a stimulus that has been present and
unchanging for some time.
Vision: Is very light dependent, direct or re ected. Items of themself don’t have color, but they
absorb all other colors except of the one they re ect (and appear to us). If it’s a dark environment
your pupil gets dilated to let in more light. IN our retina we have receptors (rod and cone shape)
The optic nerve takes it to the visual cortex. Rods have receptors for black white and gray (in the
night). Rods have receptors for colors (for during the day).
Trichromatic Theory (Young-Helmholz) some cones are more sensitive to blues, and there are
some cones more sensitive to green, and some of them are more sensitive to even slower
wavelengths (red). Short cones, medium cones, long cones.
Opponent process theory (Hering) there is no such thing a blue yellow or red green (these colors
are opposites of each other, so the same cone is picking up on them.
Both theories are true. They just represent di erent stages of the visual process.
After the retina: visual information travels to the optic nerve, and then travel through 2 di erent
pathways.
ff fi ffff ff fl fl ff fl ff ff ff
