PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Cranial Nerves, Afferent Nerve Fiber, Neural Adaptation

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jill Atkinson

Document Summary

Sensory adaptation is one way to reduce the data that the brain needs to process without actually reducing the amount of information very much: for many senses, information travels along cranial nerves to the brain. Explain the process by which physical energy is interpreted by the brain: receptor cells, which are specialized for their respective senses, transduce (convert) physical energy (light, chemical, mechanical, or sound) into electrical signals. Code: place or labeled-line code depends on the location of the neurons firing to determine perception, temporal coding neurons can fire quickly or they can fire slowly. There is an upper limit to how fast they can go. Describe how physical characteristics correspond to psychological characteristics: all in the perception. Explain the approach used to find and describe lawful relationships between physical stimuli and our perception of those stimuli. Topic 3 approaches to the study of perception.