Lecture 4- Sensation & perception Flashcards
Sensation
nervous system detects or encodes information from the environments or our bodies
perception
how we give meaning or interpret what our nerve sensations are
transduction
physical energy is converted into nervous system activity
perception vs commonalities
perception is unique to a person but there are commonalities.
- we dont perceive everything in the world, we miss things and see different things that aren’t necessarily there (illusions)
Themes of perception
- depends on context
- about expectations
- is multimodal
what is light
- slither on electromagnetic spectrum (400-700nm)
- waves or photons
- objects dont emit light, light reflects off of things to make them visible (reflection)
refraction
- light passes through objects but can bend depending on the material
- ex: lenses refract light
Lens of the eye
- lens bends (refracts) to focus light onto the retina
- changes shape
retina
- in the back of the eye
- has sensory cells that transduce light
ciliary muscles
- muscle that helps change the shape of the lens
accomodation
when the ciliary muscles change the shape of the lens
unaccommodated
- when muscles are relaxed, lens in thin and flat
- unaccommodated is for seeing far away
accommodated
- when ciliary muscles are contracted, the lens is fat and thick
- to see close up objects
myopia
- nearsightedness
- object focuses in front of the retina
- eyeball might be too big for lens
solution to myopia
concave lens
hyperopia
- farsightedness
- objects focus behind retina
solution to hyperopia
fixed by convex lens (bends light inwards)
macula
centre of retina
cones
- middle of the eye
- conical shape
- used to see color and detail
- three kinds of cones
rods
- peripheral
- rod shaped
- show dark vs light
- shows motion
trichromatic theory of colour vision
you need all three cones to see colour.
it is the combination of cone activity that influences our colour vision
- blue cones respond to blue light but not only blue light.
colour contrast
- colour can depend on their backgrounds and context.
- the way we see colour can be affected by what they are in contrast to.
- the same colour can look different when compared to a light colour vs a dark colour
colour constancy
- when colour should stay the same to us even when they are seen in different lightings
- the colour we see is physically different in different lightings but our brains integrate the context and what w know about their properties so that they do not physically change in our minds.
illuminant
the lighting conditions that we understand or imagine
- our brains can expect to see certain illuminant and create shadows
- this is a reason for seeing the dress differently