PSYCH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Photon, Neural Adaptation, Color Blindness

• School: UW
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 101
• Professor: Lee E Osterhout

Document Summary

Sensation- the passive process by which stimuli are received by the sensory systems. Perception- the active process by which the brain interprets the sensory system. Prosopagnosia- brain damage can result in a person who processes sensations perfectly but. Our perceptions are often active interpretations of the things we experience in the world. Maybe our sensations are fixed and driven by the input we experience, but our perceptions are more malleable. Receptors-neurons specialized for collecting information from the world, and converting the energy into nerve impulses (transduction) Important properties of sensory systems: our sensation is selective. We are sensitive to just a sliver of the spectrum. 1 nm= 1 billionth of a meter: our sensory systems are highly adaptive to changes in the environment. How many photons of light are needed to activate your visual system- one photon: our sensory systems react most strongly to change.