PS275 Chapter 7: Chapter 7 Notes.docx
Document Summary
Sensation the process by which sensory receptor neurons detect information and transmit it to the brain. Perception the interpretation of sensory input: recognizing what you see, understand what is said to you, or knowing odours. Empiricist philosphers believed that an infant was a tabula rasa (blank slate) who must learn to interpret sensations. Nativist philosophers took the nature side arguing that many basic perceptual abilities are innate. Both maturational processes and experience contribute to the growth of perceptual awareness. Enrichment theory claims that sensory stimulation is often fragmented or confusing, therefore we use our available cognitive schemes to add to or enrich it. (cognition enriches sensory experience) Differentiation theory argues that sensory stimulation provides all we need to interpret our experiences our task is to detect the differentiating information that enable us to discriminate one form of experience from another. Research methods used to study the infant"s sensory and perceptual experiences.
