PS275 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Occipital Lobe, Tabula Rasa, Pacifier
Document Summary
Chap 7: early cognitive foundations: sensation, perception and. Sensation: process by which sensory receptor neurons detect info and transmit it to brain. Perception: the interpretation of sensory input, recognizing and understanding. Learning: the process by which our behaviours change as a result of experience. These 3 processes are the heart of human functioning. Empirist philosophers believed infant was tabula rasa who must learn to interpret sensations. Nativist philosophers rene descartes and immanual kant argued many basic perceptual abilities are innate. Today we agree both maturational processes and experience contribute to the growth of perceptual awareness. Enrichment theory says we must add to sensory stimulation by drawing on stored knowledge in order to perceive a meaningful world, cognition enriches sensory experience. Differentiation theory says perception invlves detecting distinctive features or cues contained in the sensory stimuli we receive, sensory stimulation provides all we need to interpret experience, perceptual capabilities blossom as we learn to detect distinctive features.
