PSYC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Railways Act 1921, Hermann Von Helmholtz, Trichromacy

• School: UConn
• Department: Psychological Sciences
• Course: PSYC 1100
• Professor: Eric Lundquist

Document Summary

Feature-detector story (two girls, 1 cup): black background with white features or white background and black features. Distal stimulus (thing in world) reflected light proximal stimulus (retinal image) Retinal image: stimulation of receptors produces sensations of brightness and colors. Then light sensations must be interpreted as objects. Perception is knowledge of world (experience of objects and events) based on sensations. You"re seeing wavelengths, colors (stimulus) which are projected onto the retina in the back of the eye which signals neurons to fire. Need to be able to interpret a pattern of activity (recognizing a chair) Proximal stimulus (retinal) image is inadequate for knowing about distal stimulus. Basically, perception doesn"t happen in the eye, it happens in the brain. Hermann von helmholtz (trichromatic theory)(measures speed of nerve impulse): start with retinal image, but it is not accurate view of the world. However, there are cues (depth) that go along with an image. Add knowledge/inferences of structures that are learned from experience.