Introductory Psychology Open Course: Unit 4
Sensation & Perception
In this unit we'll look at how we our senses receive information about the world, and how we process that sensory information to guide our thought and behavior. We'll be looking at the limitations of our senses, the challenges of identifying these thresholds, and the details of how information from each sense is collected and interpreted by different areas of the brain. There will be a natural emphasis on vision, which humans are exceptionally good at compared to most other animals, and which requires a great deal of processing to interpret. Finally, we'll consider how our senses interact, and the role that experience plays in shaping our perception.
The difference between the terms sensation & perception
Investigating the sensitivity and limits of our senses
The challenge of separating signals from noise
Eye structures and their functions
Blood vessels, floaters, and blindspots in our visual field
How photoreceptors work in groups
Complementary theories for understanding color vision
Types of colorblindness and their causes
Structure and functions of parts of the ear
The vestibular sense for balance and orientation
Touch signals and how they are processed in the brain
Fiber types for sending different pain messages in the body
Parts of the olfactory sense for detecting scent
Parts of the gustatory sense for detecting taste
Synesthesia and how our senses interact
Gestalt Laws for how we organize perceptions of the world
How we perceive a stable world with ever-changing perceptions
Cues for perceiving depth from flat retinal surfaces
How experience and culture shape our perception of the world
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