PSYA01H3 Chapter 5: Chapter 5- Sensation.doc
Document Summary
Sensation- the detection of the elementary properties of a stimulus (ex: brightness, colour, warmth, etc) Perception- the detection of the more complex properties of a stimulus (ex: location, movements, backgrounds, etc: the detection of objects, both animate and inanimate. Transduction: sense organs detect stimuli provided by light, sound, odour, taste, or mechanical contact with the environment. Transduction the conversion of physical stimuli into changes in the activity of receptor cells of sensory organs: the sense organs convert energy from environmental events into neural activity. Receptor cell- a neuron that directly responds to a physical stimulus (ex: light, vibrations, or aromatic molecules: they release neurotransmitters that stimulate other neurons, so altering the rate of tiring of their axons. Code- a system of symbols or signals representing info (ex: spoken english and traffic lights) If we know the rules of a code, we can convert a message from one medium to another without losing any info.
