sensation
perception
- environmental cue and initial transduction in sense organs
- neural processing that follows sensation
how are sensation and perception related
sensation always precedes perception
-both are always involved in the overall perceptual process
perceptual process steps
stimulus in the environment light is reflected and focused recpetor processes neural processing perception recognition action
distal stimulus
item out in the world
proximal stimulus
what arrives at sense organ
ex. the light at our eye
waves at our ear
transduction
specialized cells change proximal stimulus into neural signal
still considered sensation
ex. rods and cones
percept
product of perception
perception and recognition is in the mind not physical
action and perception
action facilitates change in stimulus and perception of the environment
cognitive processes (mind and brain)
cognitive process (perception and recognition) are NOT steps AFTER neural processes -cognitive processes ARE neural processes
knowledge
genes/evolution
LTM/learning
current cognitive and emotional state
environmental context
principle of representation
our senses and our mind/brain dont have direct access to distal stimuli only to representations
pipe example (representations)
light from pipe is not a pipe
neural activity transducted from the light is not a pipe
percept of a pipe in our mind is not a pipe
principle of transformation
each step from distal stim to percept involves transformation/change of representations
principle of transformation (pipe example)
light from a pipe is different than the pioe
receptor activity transduced from the light is different than the light
neural activity that follows the receptor activity is different than the receptor activity
measuring the perceptual process
a) stimulus (proximal or distal)
b) physiology (processing and receptors)
c) action (behaviour)
behavioural measures
method of limits method of adjustment method of constant stim magnitude estimation recognition testing rxn time
physiological measures
single unit recording fmri epsp tms lesion studies
