Welcome to Psych I!

THE HUMANISTS How are humans different

from mere animals? FOCUS ON HERE AND

NOW!!! Abraham Maslow and the

“hierarchy of needs”

Maslow and Rogers

Self-Actualization

“Making the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, and potentialities.”

Many don’t reach this

Carl RogersPeople are innately

good.Want to develop

capabilitiesOften derailedSelf concept- + or -??Real self vs. ideal self

Welcome to Psych I!

Stimulus- any bit of information or energy that activates your senses

the five senses? Vision, audition, gustation,

cutaneous, and olfaction.

Sensation and PerceptionSensation and Perception

Sensation- activation of the sensory receptors

Transduction- physical energy of the environment into the neural energy of our nervous system.

Sensation and Perception

• Perception- the cognitive process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting stimuli

• Do we differ in our ability to perceive and sense things?

Psychophysics

Sensory Thresholds- the physical intensity of a stimulus a person reports detecting 50% of the time.

Done over many trials

Thresholds

Absolute Threshold- the minimum amount of stimuli needed to be noticed half the time.

OPTIMAL CONDITIONS Chart on page 118

Our sensory limits

Differential Thresholds- the minimum amount by which stimulus information must be changed in order for it to be noticed

Weber’s Law Weber’s Law- this is constant

for that sense amount of changed

stimulus / the original stimulus is a constant

ΔI / I = K 5% auditory; 8% vision

Our Sensory Limits

Signal detection- view that stimulus detection is a matter of noticing a difference among background noise.

Hits, misses, false + and -

Sensory Adaptation

you get used to thingsReceptors need more

stimuli to activate them!!!

Sensation and Perception

Psychophysics- the study of the relationship b/w the physical attributes of stimuli and the psychological experiences they produce.

Variety of approaches

Psychophysics

The power of COLOR restaurants foods cars and reactions surroundings affect

selections

Sensory Systems Light waves

differ in terms of wavelength (hue) or color, amplitude (intensity), and saturation (purity).

Photoreceptors

Cones- able to detect colors, not well adapted to the dark

Rods- able to tell light from dark. Adapt well to the dark

Sight Facts

Receptors create a neural impulse

More cones toward the middle, rods on periphery

FOVEA is where you look for the best precision and detail

Sight Facts

Neural impulses head down the optic nerve

Your brain “flips” the image blind spot- part where there are

no photoreceptors. Optic nerve leaves the eye, thru thalamus to occipital lobe

VISION PROCESS

retinal disparity- each eye gets slightly different information

aka: binocular disparity Binocular fusion merges

disparate images

COLOR VISION

7 million different colors 2 theories/processes: Trichromatic Theory: 3 types

of cones, each respond to different light

BLUE/GREEN/RED

COLOR VISION Evidence: there are three

types Opponent Process Theory- 3 receptor cells - work in

pairs (afterimage) opposition to each other one color OR the other

COLOR VISION

THREE PAIRS: RED vs. GREEN BLUE vs. YELLOW BLACK vs. WHITE

(brightness) THINK ABOUT IT...

COLOR VISION

Evidence: colorblindness red-green or yellow-blue Dichromat- can’t see 1 of

primary colors (lacks cone) in the bipolar cells and

thalamus

TYPES OF COLOR BLINDNESS

Monochromat- can only see black and white (only 1 cone –sees all lightwaves same) rare!

Anomalous trichromats- 1 color processed incorrectly

May confuse red w/ brown

Color deficiencies May be inherited Diabetes Lack of Vitamin B12 Aging – lens becomes yellow

and can’t filter short wavelengths – color confusion b/t blues/greens (pills?)

AUDITION

What is sound? Compression/vibration of air amplitude, frequency, purity amplitude- determines how

loud something sounds decibel scale (70)

Audition

Frequency- how “high” or “low” a sound is.

Has its limits mid-range sounds the loudest Hertz

Audition: Our Ears

Pinna- the outside of the ear Auditory Canal Ear Drum- membrane of the ear,

vibrates Hammer, anvil, stirrup intensify

the sounds OSSICLES

Audition: Our Ears

Now enter the inner ear oval window cochlea- sound waves become

neural impulses here fluid in motion membrane--> hair cells auditory nerve, into the brain

AUDITION

Place Theory- membrane vibrate in different places

high frequencies Frequency Theory-

membrane vibrates at different rates----LOW

olfaction

Know relatively little about smell- 1991, 2004

Cells high in the nasal cavity chemicals in the air stimulate

these cells VERY CLOSE TO THE BRAIN

olfaction

Hundreds of receptors? Different responses and

locations One of the best senses for

memory

OLFACTION

Limbic system involved (amygdala, hippocampus)

10,000 different odors olfactory bulb (Cilia) pheromones

GUSTATION

Chemicals that stimulate our tongue

taste buds sweet, salt, sour, bitter (from front

to back) “Pungent” always replenish themselves

THE TASTE BUDS

Papillae-bumps lined with taste buds

NOT just on the tongue!! microvilli-hairs on the taste

receptors

Gustation

olfactory nerve Sexual Differences age differences Primary Taste vs. flavor

(OLFACTION REQUIRED!!)

Vestibular Sense (Balance)

The vestibular sense enables us to adjust to different bodily movements (Head)

Semicircular canals/ otoliths and utricle in inner ear respond to movements of the head.

KINESTHETIC Sense

allows us to determine position of our extremities. (receptors in joints and muscles)

SLEEPING LIMBS??

Cutaneous Senses

Sense of touch nerve endings in the skin Somatosensory receptors

(nocio, thermo, mechano) Different types of receptors

Cutaneous Senses

Pain - Gate Control Theory

–substance P opens the gate (spinal cord)

Endorphins- close the gate