Summary
Summary sensation&percetion
- Course
- 30440
- Institution
- University Of Notre Dame
Summary of 17 pages for the course 30440 at University Of Notre Dame (lecture notes)
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Lecture 1:I. Course objective
A. To understand and appreciate how we perceive the world inside and outside of us,
and the relationship between these two types of perception
1. The fish story shows us that even the most obvious, important realities are
often the hardest to see and talk about
a) The Camera Obscura as a model of perception where perception is
direct and comes full formed → Perception seems obvious
2. Ideas about perception change in 1866
a) Perception is a physiological process that often goes beyond the
information that is given and it involves unconscious inferences →
you are not aware of it
3. Emerging tech in 1878 reveals that perception may be limited, prone to error,
and individualized → shows our perception is not as accurate as we might
think
4. We can understand by → realizing perception doesn't just happen
5. We can appreciate by understanding perception is difficult
6. Related because body feelings come from the perception of our bodies
B. Extero vs Interoception
1. Exteroception: Neural systems designed to process sensory input from the
external world → what S&P mostly focuses on
a) Vision
b) Audition
c) Touch → body senses → touch/proprioception vs temp/pain
d) Smell
e) Taste
2. Interoception: neural systems designed to process sensory input from body’s
internal milieu → characterized by bodily feelings (valence:
pleasant/unpleasant and arousal: relaxed) → mostly what S&P ignores but
there is a growing interest in interoception
a) Temp
b) Taste
c) Smell
d) Autonomic visceral function
e) Autonomic vascular functions
f) Neuroendocrine fluctuations
g) Neuroimmune function
C. The study of perception informed by art history, philo, psych. Physics, neuroanatomy,
neurophysiology, neuropsych, neuroimaging, psychophysics, computational modeling
II. Nature of Human Design
,A. 4 billion years to produce homo sapiens
B. Human design based on mechanics inherited from 4 major epochs
1. From eukaryotes, we inherited optimized metabolic pathways and cell biology
a) Life depends on bioenergetics
b) Life is constrained to be energy efficient
2. From worms, we inherited efficient body (including brain) plan because
single cells could not live on their own and predictive regulation
a) Brain’s priority is running the body so predictive regulation predicts
the needs of the body before they arise which ensured metabolic
efficiency. PR also enables adaptation, but some adaptations can lead
to unhealthy conditions. Predictive regulation is baked into our
psychology.
(1) Predictive Regulation and Psychedelics
(a) Research suggests we may benefit psychologically
from occasionally turning off Predictive Regulation.
Many psychological problems arise from engaging in
too much Predictive Regulation like mind wandering,
rumination, obsessions, addiction, and negative affect
3. From mammals, we inherited our high operating temp (endothermy)
a) Endothermy requires 30 times more energy but it accelerates cellular
chemistry and allows mammals to move, perceive, and think fast
4. From primates, we inherited a more profound cerebral investment in visual
processing and sociality
a) Macaque → chimpanzees → human
b) Human brains increased the quantity and quality of computational
capacity
(1) our brains expanded in size by 14 fold relative to macaque
monkeys AND increased the number of distinct cortical areas
, (2) Our brains increased specialization of areas and connections
within the two cortical hemispheres, AND across members of
a community (within species)
(a) Human design links extreme individuality to extreme
sociality
(i) We are WEIRD → Western, Educated,
Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
(a) This causes us to become imbalance
Chapter 1: Foundations
I. Perception
A. PP- psychophysics
1. Carefully measure the relationship between stimulus and perception
2. Uses experimental methods and thinking from physics, to understand
quantitatively the relationship between the physical and mental
3. Foundation of scientific inquiry in psychology is linked to the study of
perception
a) Basic questions in psychophysics that psychologists try to answer
about how our psychological experience of the world relates to our
physical world
(1) How much energy is enough to be detected by an observer
(a) Something or nothing?
(i) Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)
(ii) Developed methods to find the absolute
threshold
(iii) Established 3 classical psychophysical
methods
(a) Method of limits (staircase)
(b) Method of adjustment
(c) Method of constant stimuli
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