PSYC 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Absolute Threshold, Occipital Lobe, Psychometric Function

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2220
• Professor: Lesley Deas

Document Summary

Steps of perception: environmental stimulus enters the eye, light is reflected and transformed, receptor process, neural processing, perception } knowledge required, recognition } knowledge required, action. Light is reflected off stimulus and enters eye. Principle of transformation: the stimulus and the perception of the stimulus are not the same, there has been a transformation from the stimulus (tree), to electromagnetic energy (light), to electrical signals (neural firing). The receptor transduces environmental energy to nerve impulses (transduction) Vision(cid:495)s primary receiving area is the occipital lobe. Bottom-up processing: perception based on incoming environmental stimuli. Top-down processing: perception based on previous knowledge (cognitive factors) Bottom-up processing: the moth is there, or what color the moth is. Top-down processing: what i know about moths, whether i(cid:495)m afraid of moths or not. Bottom-up processing- begins with stimulation of receptors from environment. Top-down processing- what we think of as knowledge, (prior biasing) Stepping feet illusion: it appears the feet are stepping alternately (although they(cid:495)re not)