Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5, 136-163: Optic Nerve, Hermann Von Helmholtz, Detection Theory

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

We experience light waves as brightness and colours, air vibrations as sounds, chemical substances as odours or taste. Women more likely to be synaesthetes than men. Cross-wiring, activity in one part of the brain evokes responses in another part of the brain dedicated to another sensory modality. Maurer and mondloch we are all born synaesthetic: the neural pathways of infants are fairly undifferentiated and lead to cross-modal perceptions. Information by the stimulus (light, sound waves, chemical molecule, pressure) is translated by our sensory receptors to the language of nerve impulses (the only language our nervous system understands) Once translated, featured detectors (specialized neurons) break down and analyze the specific features of the stimuli. Is the stimulus-detection process by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain. Making sense of what our senses tell us is the active process of organizing this stimulus input giving it meaning.