PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Lite-Brite, Infrasound, Sound Intensity

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Valerie Wood

Document Summary

Explain the processes by which physical energy is interpreted by the brain. Describe how physical characteristics correspond to psychological characteristics. 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. Evaluate the structuralist, gestalt, and constructivist approaches to perception: sensation. Sensation: process by which our sensory systems gather information about the environment. Processes that turn chemical, mechanical, sound and light energy in the world into electrical signals in the brain. Perception: selection, organization, and interpretation of sensations as meaningful objects and events. It is not the form of physical energy that determines nature of sensation, but rather nature of neurons, receptors, and nerves activated by the stimulus. Allows us to ignore safe, unchanging stimuli and become more alert to danger or sudden changes in environment o. Brains are finite size, information needs to be compressed and reduced to process new changing stimuli.