PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Sensory Neuron, Taste, Psychophysics

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Psyc week 8; sensation and perception, psychophysics and transduction. Taking apart reality and building the outside world based on your senses. The brains job is to interpret signals that the eyes bring from the reflection of light in the outside world, to your brain (determining what you are seeing) Sensation: the process by which our sensory systems gather information about the environment, refers to the processes that turn chemical, mechanical, sound, and light energy in the world into electrical signals in the brain. The sensation of a light pressure on the skin might be perceived as gentle or the reflections off something at the bottom of your bag is the keys you have been looking for. Actions vary and depend on our sensations and perceptions about what"s happening around us. Transduction: conversion of physical energy into electrical potentials in response to physical stimuli- happens in sensory receptor cells, which are specialized neurons. Responses to stimuli differ in quantitatively and qualitatively.