PSYC2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pressure Measurement, Absolute Threshold, Free Recall
27 Jul 2018
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Examples of tasks & measures: we observe differences across experimental conditions to try to explain how certain mental processes operate through the scientific method. Free recall of a list of words: proportion of correct responses: arithmetic operations, mental imagery: response time. The brain cannot see, hear, smell, nor sense pan. It has no receptors of its own and relies on information captured by our senses that is then translated to the only language our brain understands: action potentials. For the brain to make sense of the environment, our sensory organs must capture and concert electromagnetic radiation (visual stimuli), movement of air molecules (auditory stimuli), mechanical pressure (tactile), or chemical molecules (odour, taste) into a neural signal: transduction. The brain relies on sensory systems to make sense of the world. The visual system is the major source of information for humans (not bats) The visual system is a remarkable sensory and perpetual system responsible for acquiring information from the environment.
