IntroductiontoPsychology

SuzyScherf
Lecture8:HowDoWeKnow?
SensationandPerception
EarlyMemory

What are Our Senses For?

Vision
Audition/Hearing
Smell
Taste
Somatosensory
Vestibular

What are Our Senses For?

All the senses designed to -

Transduction by Design
1. Eyes designed to transduce
2. Auditory apparatus designed to transduce
3. Tongue and Olfactory apparatus designed to
transduce
4. Sensory receptor in the skin, organs, joints, bones all
designed to transduce

Transduction by Design
If we thought that a sixth sense existed,
we would have to figure out -

What are Our Senses For?

Our senses have evolved to -

Our senses provide the necessary information -

Vision
Processes electromagnetic energy

Electromagnetic energy travels -

Vision is a -

Visual Spectrum of Light

Includes wavelengths of light that -

Includes wavelengths of light that -

AnatomyoftheEye

PhotoreceptorsintheRetina

VisualPathway

VisualPathway

OpticChiasm
Thalamus

Optic
Radaitions

Audition
Objects produce vibrations that -

Auditory systems detect -

Analysis of these sound waves -

EarApparatusforHearing

AuditoryReceptors

Spectrum of Audible Sound Waves

Provide a source of info -

Low freq. waves travel ________ than short freq.

waves
A consequence of natural selection
Elephants vs. Insects

Chemical Senses
Seen in all animals and are likely to be most important
of the senses and the first to evolve
Animals that live in the sea -

Smell evolved when -

Taste
Only a contact sense -

Provides animals with -

Not only via the tongue -

Taste

Taste

Taste
1. Salty
2. Sweet

3. Sour
4. Bitter

Smell
________ sense
discerning chemical composition of substances -

provides animals with an ability to detect

1.
2.

Smell and Taste

SensoryApparatusforSmelling

SensoryApparatusforSmelling

Somatosensory
Detects -

Specialized response to extremes -

Pain

SomatosensoryReceptors

Vestibular
Sensitive to Provides info about -

Liquid in ear canals -

EarApparatusforVestibularSense

HumanVestibularCortexandOutof
BodyExperiences
Bodily Sensations

Motor responses
Auditory
Sensations

OBE

Seizure center

Blanke et al. (2002)

I see myself lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs
and lower trunk.

Elements of all Sensory Systems

1. Specialized sensory receptors that are designed
specifically to transduce a particular kind of physical
energy.
2. Specialized neural circuits that channel the sensory
information through the Thalamus to the relevant
Primary Sensory Cortical Areas

Elements of all Sensory Systems

3. Maps at all levels of the brain hardware that represent
and organize the sensory information so that it will
mirror the physical world
Including:

What is Perception For?

____________ sensory information
Perception reflects the real world -

What is Perception For?

Designed to Tight link with memory -

Perception Designed to Guide Action

Example: How do we avoid bumping into things?
Possible answers:

Perception Designed to Guide Action

Example: How do we avoid bumping into things?
Actual answer:

Perception Designed to Guide Action

Size of image on retina (mm)

Example: How do we avoid bumping into things?

Distance from eye (meters)

Perception
Most of the time perception leads animals to -

Perceptual mechanisms have evolved to -

Even though perceptions are derived in large part

from transduced info that has been re-represented in
the brain.

Sensory and Perceptual Systems are

Modularized
They are specialized to -

Most of these systems have -

Early deprivation of activity -

Sensory and Perceptual Systems are

Modularized
Then passed on to higher-order regions of the brain -

Parietal Lobe
Temporal Lobe
Frontal Lobe

DorsalPathway

VentralPathway

IntegratingPerceptualInfo
When info processed and sent onto other systems for
analysis - things can go awry.
The case of Synesthesia

Synesthesia
Syn = ___________ + aisthesis = ___________
Means joined sensation Music that looks like shards of glass
Involuntary, but triggered by stimulus Can be temporarily induced by -

Synesthesia
Tends to run in families, more women than men, and
left-handed
Excellent memory but poor spatial and mathematical
skills
Prone to unusual experiences like those of temporallobe epileptics - dj vu, clairvoyance

SynesthesiaNeuralBasis

Synesthesia
May reflect a holistic process of perception that is not
usually available to consciousness - but is totally
normal - some evidence in kids
Clearly demonstrates how sensation, perception,
emotion, and memory working together to interpret
our environment

WhatdoWedowithPerceptualInfo
afterWeIntegrateandAct?
Keeptrackofitforfutureuse?
=>
=>

MemoryWhatsitfor?
Whydontweremembereverythingaboutallourpast
experiences?
1.

2.

MemoryWhatsitfor?
Whydontweremembereverythingaboutallourpast
experiences?
3.

4.

MemoryWhatsitfor?
Forourmemorysystemstofunctionefficientlywe
havetoforgetmuchofourexperienceorignoreitall
together(ie.neverencodeit).

Example:ChangeBlindness

ChangeBlindness
WhatsImportantforUstoRemember?