PS390 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Purkinje Effect, Purkinje Cell, Peripheral Vision
Document Summary
Physiologists believed studies of perception could help resolve philosophical debates about consciousness and body-mind relations. Turned to experimental accounts of conscious sensory perception, ex the touch threshold. New university labs in german-speaking nations became site for experimentation on human functions. Jan purkyne / johannes purkinje (german name) (1787-1869) Czech physiologist who studied sensory physiology (peripheral vision, visual accomodation) Observed that relationship b/w eye structure and its neural link to the brain determined afterimages and illusions. Purkinje shift: difference in luminosity of colours b/w bright and partial light, blue objects that appear brighter than red ones before sunrise reverse thereafter. To explain this shift he said the eye contains two different receptors. Subsequent scientists found that rods mediate vision in dim light, while cones mediate it in bright light. Purkinje identified the cells in the cerebrum (purkinje cells) Methodologically, he studied his own responses to visual stimuli through careful self- observation / description, thus strengthening phenomenology as a scientifically valid method.
