Week 3 - How Do We Sense and Perceive Our World?

Review of the Week:

Psychophysics studies how we process sensory stimuli.

Vision: Wavelength (hue) and amplitude (brightness). Visible spectrum is the narrow band of light we are able to see. In the retina are rods and cones that convert light into neural impulses, which travel to the brain through the optic nerve. The trichromatic theory of color vision and the opponent-process theory are both used to explain how we process color. Color blindness is the inability to see certain colors.

Hearing: Sounds are produced by waves of compressed air. Frequency=pitch; amplitude=loudness. The eardrum, located in the middle ear, vibrates to incoming sounds and transmits these sounds through the small bones to the hair cells of the choclea, where neural impulses are generated, which are carried through the auditory nerve to the brain.

Taste, Smell, Touch, and the Body Senses: Humans taste five tastes: bitter, sweet, sour, salty, and umami. The taste buds convert chemicals in the foods you eat into neural impulses. The sense of smell uses the olfactory epithelium to convert odors to neural impulses. Many animals uses pheromones to communicate with other animals. The sense of touch originates in the skin, the inner layer is the dermins while the outer layer is the epidermis. Kinesthesis is our ability to sense the position of our body parts in space and relation to one another. The vestibular sense monitors the position of our head in space and helps us stay balanced.

Perception: Top-down perceptual processing refers to using previously gained knownledge to interpret a sensory stimilus. Botom-up perceptual processing refers to using properties of the stimulus itself to form our perception of a stimulus.

Accomplished this week: Read Chapter 3, Discussion Post, C&R Paper on the Vestibular Sense, 3 Tweets, Blog Post, Crossword, Quiz; a volleyball triangular, 3 dance practices, went to the Volleyball Continental Tournament to watch Team USA, and watched the Huskers cream SDSU!

Next Week: Chapter 4 - Consciousness: Wide Awake, in a Daze, or Dreaming? :)

The 5 Senses (Missing Vestibular and Kinesthesis) :)