PSYCH101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 18, 20-22: Retina, Subjective Constancy, Endorphins

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Richard Ennis

Document Summary

Pulses of electromagnetic energy strikes our eyes and our visual system perceives as colour. A light"s wavelength (the colour) and intensity (brightness) determines our sensory experience of them. After entering the eye and being focused by a lens, the particles strike the retina. The retina contains light-sensitive rods and colour-sensitive cones that convert the light energy into neural impulses which, after processing by bipolar and ganglion cells, travel through the optic nerve to the brain (occipital lobe) The pupils (adjustable opening in the center of the eye where light enters) dilate to allow more light to reach your retina when dark. The rods of a retinal receptor detect black, white, and gray, while the cones are the receptors that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Feature detector cells respond to a scene"s specific features to particular edges, lines, angles, and movements. Parallel processing is the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously.