PSYCH 1XX3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Retinal Ganglion Cell, Optic Disc, Visual Acuity
Document Summary
Nearly 1/3 of the brain devoted to visual processing. Humans are highly visual animals, reflected in language, information processing and sense of vision. Light travels in waves and can vary in two aspects: height of the wave amplitude, distance between successive peaks wavelength. Variations in amplitude affect the perception of brightness. Greater the amplitude the more the light is being reflected or emitted by the object and the object appears brighter or more intense. Variations in wavelength affect the perception in color. Smaller wavelengths refer to light waves with a higher frequency. Humans are only sensitive to a tiny portion of the total range of wavelengths visible light spectrum, ranges from 360 to 750 nanometers. Insects can see lower than 350 and snakes can see higher than 750. Two physical characteristics of light: amplitude, wavelength. The physical characteristics translate into our perceptions of brightness and color respectively. Purity affects the perception of saturation or richness of colors.
