Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 - CH 5 Intro Vision RG
1 - CH 5 Intro Vision RG
Sensation
1
Ms. Garcha
AP Psych 12
2 Discussion Question
If you had to give up one of your senses, which one would it be?
Vision
Smell
Touch
Hearing
Taste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLHlfPTRekA
2 min 30 s
9 Bottom up vs Top down
processing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWWrlsfgM0A
4 min 26 s
10Bottom-Up:
12
Absolute Thresholds
An Absolute Threshold is the
smallest amount of energy that a
person can detect reliably,
essentially the weakest level of a
stimulus that can be correctly
detected at least the time
By studying these thresholds
psychologists have found that our
senses are very sharp
14 Absolute Thresholds
Absolute threshold for vision - You can see
a candle flame on a clear, dark night from
30 miles away
Absolute threshold for hearing/audition -
You can hear a ticking watch in a perfectly
quiet room from 20 feet away
Taste/ gustation - You can taste a
teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water
Smell/ olfaction - You can smell a drop of
perfume in a three room apartment
Touch - You can feel the wing of a bee
falling on your cheek from a height of 1
centimeter
Our Sensational Senses
15
Measuring the Senses
The Difference Threshold or Just
Noticeable Difference (JND) is the smallest
noticeable difference in stimulation that a
person can detect reliably (half the time)
When you are just barely aware of a change
in stimulus
Ex. Increase in volume of your TV
Ex. Increase or decrease in brightness of
your computer screen
Ex. Comparing the weight of two blocks
Ex. Comparing the brightness of two lights
Ex. Comparing the saltiness of two liquids
16 Difference Thresholds
Bats can
hear
ultrasoni
c sound
21 Vision
In the back of
the eye,
objects
appear
upside down.
28
The Retina
34
FIGURE 4.7 Experiencing the blind spot. (a) With your right eye closed, stare at
the upper right cross. Move your head if you need to and you should be able to
locate a position that makes the black spot disappear. When it does, it is on your
blind spot. With a little practice you can learn to make people or objects you
dislike disappear too! (b) Repeat the procedure described, but stare at the lower
cross. When the yellow space falls on the blind spot, the black lines will appear
to be continuous. This may help you understand why you do not usually notice
a blind spot in your visual field.
35 Colour Vision
The colours of objects you see depend on the wavelengths of
light reflected from those objects to your eyes
ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet)
combine to produce white light
The sun & most electric light bulbs give off white light
The more light waves your eyes receive the brighter an
object appears
The wave lengths of light that reach your eye from the object
determine the colour/ hue the object appears to be
Colour Vision
36 If an object absorbs all the wavelengths,
then none reach your eyes so object looks
black
If the object reflects all of the wavelengths,
then all reach your eyes and the object looks
white
If the object absorbs some of the wavelengths
and reflects others, the colour you see results
from the colours of the waves reflected
Ex. A rose looks red when it absorbs orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet
wavelengths & reflects the longer red
wavelengths to your eyes
37 Color Vision
Trichromatic theory first proposed
by Thomas Young (1802) and revised by
Herman von Helmholtz(1852)
The eye contains 3 distinct receptors
for color
Each responds best to one of 3
primary colors of light: red, blue,
and green
By combining these 3, all other
colors can be produced
38 Colour Vision Continued
Cones are maximally sensitive to red, green,
or blue
Each colour you see results from a specific
ratio of activation among the 3 types of
receptors
For ex. Yellow results from stimulation of red
& green cones
People who are colour- blind lack a chemical
usually produced by one or more types of
cones
The most common type of colour blindness is
red and green resulting from a defective gene
on the X- chromosome
The relative sensitivities of three types of cones to lights
of differing wavelengths. Although there is considerable
39 overlap, each type is maximally sensitive to wavelengths
corresponding to the primary hues of light: blue, green, and red.
T h re e T y p e s o f C o n e s
S -C o n e s M -C o n e s L -C o n e s
( S e n s i t iv e t o b lu e ) ( S e n s it iv e to G r e e n ) ( S e n s itiv e to R e d )
40 Information about colours
of light is easy to
remember..
Colour
receptors are
Cones.
ROYGBIV is a
long acronym,
so red is a
long wave.
Opponent-process theory
Certain neurons can be excited/ inhibited
depending on wavelength of light
Wavelengths can have opposite effects
For ex. The ability to see reds and greens is
mediated by red-green opponent cells, which
are excited by wavelengths in the red area of
the spectrum & inhibited by wavelengths in
the green area of the spectrum, or vice versa
Opponent-process
42 theory
Basically not only do the three
classes of cells increase their firing
rate to signal one color but they
also decrease their firing rate to
signal the opposing color
(red/green, yellow/blue, white/black)
proof of this can be seen in
afterimages
after you have stared at one color
in an opponent-process pair
(red/green, yellow/blue,
black/white), the cell responding
to that color tires and the
opponent cell begins to fire,
producing the afterimage of the
opposite colour
44 How we see color - Colm
Kelleher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8_fZPHasdo
Vision:
45
The Nature of Colour
Colour is in
the eye of
the
beholder!.
Colour
does not
exist!
46 mixing colour
mixing paint
blue + yellow = green
mixing lights
red + green = yellow
Subtractive Colours
52 Colour Vision: Other
Species
Most mammals
are all or
partially colour
blind.