PSY 101 1st Edition Lecture 8 Outline of Last Lecture I. Developmental psychologyOutline of Current Lecture II. SensationCurrent Lecture-Thoroughly cover vision, get a basic understanding for other senses-Sensation:-We sense because we need to know what’s out there to survive-What do we sense?-Answer 1: the ‘naïve” view: we sense the world that is there to be sensed (FALSE)-Answer 2: the adaptive view: we sense the properties of things that mattered for our ancestors’ survival-Seven channels of sensation:-vision (extremely good)-hearing-smell (pretty bad)-taste-skin senses (especially hands)-pressure-temperature-pain-proprioception-kinesthesia (where are our limbs)-vestibular sense (gravity/acceleration)-pheromones (mostly atrophied, unconscious)-Humans don’t sense: infrared light, location of objects in the dark, the earth’s magnetic field, radio waves, others’ thoughts, and ovulation… some other animals can-Basic Principles-Sensation: the process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain-Perception: the process by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets sensations-Bottom-up processing: analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information-Top-down processing: information processing guided by higher-level mental processes; as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations-*Sensation is similar but NOT the same as bottom up processing…perception is similar but NOT the same as top down processing-More basic principles of sensation:-psychological reality does not correspond directly to physical reality-many properties are not “really” in the objects at all (ex color, smell)-brains perception of the world-psychological intensity differences don’t correspond to physical intensity differences-sensation and perception are active. Your sensation and perception systems are constantly guessing. Our brain adds information, but doesn’t tell you its doing so-remember major theme #3-Sensation and perception are adaptive (we focus on the things that are most important for us to understand)-Thresholds: our ability to perceive things and the level at which we can perceive them-Weber’s Law: to perceive a difference between two stimuli, they must differ by a constant proportion-light intensity – 8%-weight – 2%-tone frequency - .3%-Subliminal processing (look in book)-Sensory adaptation: you don’t think your house smells funny, but you may think that other peoples’ do; you adapt to the smell of your house-also happens with eyes-Steps in the sensation and perception of a tree-Distal stimulus: a real tree (converted by lens of eye into…)-Proximal stimulus: the flat retinal image of a tree (transduced by retinal cells into…)-Neural impulse, along the optic nerve (converted by occipital cortex into…)-Sensation: low-level experiences of green and brown (interpreted by perceptual “software” into…)-Final product is the perception of a tree, but it first goes through all of these steps-Sensation is more about the hardware; perception is more about the software (the book doesn’t distinguish between the two)-Transduction: -Cones: near center of retina (fovea); fine detail and color vision; daylight or well-lit conditions; think COnes -> COlors-Rods: peripheral retina; detect black, white and gray; twilight or low light-We have different cells in our brain that respond to different features; specialized-Parallel processing: processing all features at the same time-Specialization: -trichromatic (three color theory): three different retinal color receptors: red blue and green (not same as primary colors with paint)-Strange phenomena that result…-Opponent process theory: opposing retinal processes enable color visionON OFFRed GreenGreen RedBlue YellowYellow BlueBlack WhiteWhite Black -Specialization: -Feature detectors: neurons in the visual cortex respond to specific features (shape, angle, etc.)-Parallel processing: simultaneous processing of several dimensions through multiple pathways (color, motion, form, depth)-Learn the basics of transduction for the other
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