PSY 105 Study Guide - Final Guide: Cerebral Cortex, Parallax, Anosmia
Document Summary
Detection (sensation) vs. interpretation (perception) of sensory information. Table 1: sensory transduction converts environmental stimuli to neural activity. Our sensory receptor can be activated by very weak stimuli. However, they have to reach a certain level of intensity before we can detect it. Surrounded by stimuli: sensory adaptation: since not all stimuli is important for us to sense, constant stimulation decreases the number of sensory messages to the brain, which causes decreased sensation. This happens because we can"t afford to waste attention on unchanging stimuli. Processing sensory information: sensation and perception usually occurs together, however, researchers study each process individually to understand how they work together. Perception can occur through bottom-up processing; the raw sensory data is sent to the brain and your brain uses all of that data to build a perception. b. Fig 1: olfactory receptor neurons (shown in red) transduce information from odorant molecules that enter the nose through the nasal cavity.
