Notes

Here are my notes on this topic:

1. Sensation

  • Smell
  • Vestibular
  • Sound
  • Tactile
  • touch
  • temperature
  • pain
  • pressure

2. Gestalt

  • German for shape or form
  • pre-cognitive theory
  • based on perception research
  • integrated whole
  • Figure & ground
  • whole is greater than the sum of its parts
  • self-organizing tendencies
  • principle of totality = conscious thought is a relational complex
  • phi phenomenon = flashing lights look like moving directionally
  • Max Wertheimer
  • Biotic experiments
  • not double-blind experiments
  • prefer phenomenon experimental analysis
  • goal is to find a phenomenon and asses its sensory qualities and perceptual impact
  • A reaction to structuralism of Wundt and Titchener
  • Gestalt researchers
  • Werheimer, Koffka, Kohler, Stumph
  • Golden ratios
  • Psychophysical isomorphism = correlation of experience and mental activity

3. Vision

 Light

    • electromagnetic energy
    • magnetism
    • electricity
    • third dimension
    • Frequency
      • how often it comes
      • wave length (peak to peak)
      • longer is slower
      • color
      • part of spectrum
    • Amplitude
      • wave height
      • intensity
      • brightness
    •  Absorb & reflect
      • light source
      • observer
      • see reflection
      • object absorbs waves
      • see color not absorbed
      • impacted by
      • relative distance
      • smoothness

Eye

  • transducer
  • Light hits cornea of ee
  • Exits by optic nerve
  • Optic chiasm
    • noses cross
  • LGN
    • small, oval, one on each side
    • relay center
    • eye to thalamus to occipital
    • six layers of grey
    • alternate with white matter
    • part of thalamus collection
    • 90% of fibers go to LGN
    • 10% to superior colliculus
    • controlling eye movements
    • sent on to paretial lobe
    •  up center of head
  • Blind Sight
    • cortically blind
    • lesions in striate cortex of occipital lobe (VI)
    • respond to visual stimuli
    • don’t consciously see
    • research on patiens who have blindness on only one visual field
  • Occipital lobe outputs
  • Dorsal path (where pathway)
    • to parietal lobe
    • damage
    • normal vision
    • can read, recognize faces, describe objects
    • know what things are but not where
    • can’t reach out and grab
  • Ventral path (what pathway)
    • to temporal lobe
    • ventral stream
    • damage
      • see where but not what
      • can see and gratb
      • can’t watch TV
      • can’t read
      • can’t recognize faces
    • to inferior temporal cortex
      • object recognition
      • face recognition
      • u pright faces
    • fusiform gyrus
      • left identifies face-like
      • right identifies actual faces
      • car model indentification
      • bird species
  • Geniculo-striate p athway

4. Rods & Cones

  • Retina
  • depression is retina
  • macula
  • fovea
  • net of layers
  • Macular degeneration
  • dry: drusen deposits
  • wet: choroid intrusion
  • Rods
  • stable
  • black and white
  • poor quality images
  • good for target detection
  • low light (10k more sensitive than cones)
  • Cones
  • 3 types: long, medium, short
  • some in fovea connect 1 to 1 to occipital lobe
  • color
  • high quality images
  • target identification
  • high light

 5. Color Vision

  • molecules absorb light
  • even molecules come in colors
  • hit by light, change shape
  • Chromophore
    • type of bitamin A
    • causes activation of large proteins called opsins
  • Energy graph
    • read from top to bottom
    • amount of energy needed to respond to particular color
  • Color is pattern of activity
    • yellow = L more than M
    • Red. = L is much more than M
    • Green = easy to see
  • Theories of Color
  • Trichromatic
    • Young-Helmhotlz
    • 3 types of cones
    • doesn’t explain red-green color blindness
    • afterimages
  • Opponent Process
    • paired opposites
    • white-black
    • red-green
    • yellow-blue
    • afterimages from prolonged stimulation (fatiguing of receptors)
    • doesn’t explain color constanc
  • Retinex
    • recognize color as light changes
    • cortex compares inputs, determines brightness