Please read chapter 1 of our text book (if you don't have a book yet, please let me know). After reading chapter 1, please respond to the following questions:
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why? What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception? Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
Once you are done with this assignment make a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post
FIRST QUESTION: What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting?
From the first chapter, one of the most interesting things for me was that the study of perception wasn’t just about seeing or watching something happen. It clearly states that perception is a complex result of what goes on behind the scenes even to the point that we don’t even know it is happening or has happened. I read about so many fascinating processes that take place every second in my brain and I never once thought about that before reading chapter one.
Secondly, the stimulus was also very interesting and how it exists both “out there”, in the environment, and within the person’s body. After reading how there are two aspects of the stimulus in the environment and all of the things in our environment are the environmental stimulus that we can possibly perceive, it made a little more sense. Further reading on the stimulus on the receptors made things more clearer.
The final thing that was interesting to me was measuring perception and how that comes about. In the text, it goes through describing, recognizing, detecting, perceiving magnitude, and then searching.
All of them working together to measure perception
SECOND QUESTION: Why were they interesting to you?
The first two were interesting because I feel that with the class being called Sensation & Perception, I better know what those two terms mean and be able to fully understand what they do for a person. The way to measure perception has to be just as valuable as defining the term as well.
THIRD QUESTION: Which one thing did you find the least interesting? AND Why?
It’s not that I found anything uninteresting but rather difficult to understand because of the biological terms that were being used. They were times that I had to stop to define or relearn a term or process. Science and/or biology was never my favorite material, therefore it hasn’t been a strong are for me. With this type of material I can see a biological similarity and that is discouraging but not difficult. It only makes me more determined to learn and appreciation all this new material.
FOURTH QUESTION: What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception?
I think the most useful information are the definitions themselves. Learning what a stimulus was, defining perception, reading about the absolute threshold, difference threshold, method of adjustment, methods of constant stimuli were just the tip of the iceberg. And I know it probably will be a good idea to re-read the chapter on Wednesday, the day before we meet for class, so that I can ask questions and really connect the information for myself. It was great to begin understanding that what the chapter was really talking about were things we really can’t see or feel that our bodies/our brain is doing whether we are aware of it or not.
FIFTH QUESTION: Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
How does someone approach the study of perception? I would like to know more about the Threshold measurement and if it can be influenced by how a person chooses to respond. Furthermore, I would love more information on how to make learning all this biological stuff and how to make it fun.
TERMS: Sensation, Perception, concepts, brain, stimulus, absolute threshold, difference threshold, method of constant stimuli, method of adjustment, biological, describing, recognizing, detecting, perceiving magnitude, searching, measuring perception.
(REMINDER TO PROFESSOR MACLIN & TA’S that I am using a different book - Sensation & Perception by E. Bruce Goldstein, 8th ed. (Cleared it w/Professor at the end of class on Thursday 1/15)
signal detection theory is interesting. It raises your awareness that may make you more sensitive to false alarms. There is a certain threshold for stimuli, and depending on your threshold your detection can vary. There are three potential outcomes. You may have a correct rejection (no ring when there is no ring), a hit (detect a ring when there is a ring), or a false alarm (detect a ring when there is a ring). I think its interesting that we can change our sensitivity to stimuli. The receiver operating characteristic curve graphs the hit rate, or the number of times a person awaiting stimuli will correctly detect the stimuli. This basically explains why sometimes when you are anxious about a certain stimuli, your mind sometimes plays tricks on you and you encounter more false alarms.
polysensory is very interesting. It is the blending of multiple sensory systems. The best example I can think of right now would be visually getting information off my computer screen. I then physically interact with the keys. Then, again visually confirm whether I put the letters together correctly. Its an interesting way of looking at things that happen on a daily basis without us thinking too much about it.
I found empiricism and nativism to be interesting as well. Nativism is the idea that the mind produces ideas that are derived from external sources and that we have abilities that are innate and not learned. This is essentially saying that nature gives you these qualities and they are not learned over time. Empiricism says that an individual’s environment lets them learn these qualities. Empiricist is the idea that experience from the senses is the only source of knowledge. I found it interesting because this debate has been brought up several times in many of my classes.
Can't say I found anything unintresting, but not everything was interesting. There was a lot of history attached, some I liked, some I found boring.
I think the thing in this chapter that will prove to be the most useful in understanding sensation and perception is the biology of perception. This is how the senses are communicated to us through the brain. I dont have a big background in biology but I always found certain parts, the brain especially interesting. I would like to learn more about the biology of perception in the classroom.
Signal Detection theory, Correct rejection, hit, false alarm, receiver operating characteristic, polysensory, empiricism, nativism, biology of perception, neurons
The three topics in chapter one that I found to be most interesting were, the history of the study of sensation and perception, measuring thresholds and the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). I always enjoy reading about the professionals that we credit with founding a discipline, particularly how it came about. For example in this chapter when Fechner who began in medicine and then changed to physics and math made a lot of his discoveries because of problems he had. It is interesting to read how they build on each other and how the study changed with the introduction of technology. The threshold theories are interesting because we usually consider perception and sensation as subjective. Weber however was able to come up with an equation that could effectively account for levels of threshold. The just noticeable difference threshold in which he stated that we detect the smallest change close to 1/40 of the standard weight. The ROC is something I don’t fully grasp but it I found it interesting. Basically how we can unconsciously make ourselves more or less sensitive to a signal. This then carries on to how we make either false alarms, or shift to the right and miss the signal. I think I will have some questions come Thursday on this subject.
The subject that I enjoyed the least was section on the nerves as it got more into the biology and neuroscience. It wasn’t that it was not interesting more that it required a lot of re-reading of the section. This section gets pretty in depth in discussing the various nerves and how they interact with each other. Many of the terms are so similar it is easy to mix them up.
I didn’t spend very much time on the section that talked about spatial frequency and would like to follow up more on that area. I also want to dig more into the neural imaging such as MRIs, CT scans and PET scans. We hear quite a bit of pop science in the news but I would like to look more into how they measure and what discoveries are being made by their use.
Terms: perception, sensation, Threshold, Receiving Operating Curves (ROC), Just Noticeable Difference Threshold, spatial frequency, neural imaging
It was interesting to know that Fechner was sometimes considered as the founder of experimental psychology, although Wundt gets credits for it most often – History and system gave full credits to Wundt for being the founder of experimental psychology. This appeared interesting to me because I was taught otherwise, and I realized that different textbooks teach different things. How do I know for sure what is accurate and what isn’t? I guess it all depends on which professor is teaching.
Another interesting thing is the required repetition of the tones of the same intensity before any conclusion is drawn. It was interesting to know that physical factors may affect our perceptual judgments. I have done the hearing tests with audiologists before, not knowing that tones of the same intensity were repeated several times before the tests were completed, and that’s why I found this interesting.
Supertasters is another concept that I thought was interesting. Personally, I have very sensitive taste buds, I cannot tolerate any spice in food; a “mild” level of spice can put my tongue on fire. My grandmother on the other hand, can eat ghost peppers for snacks. Reading the paragraph on supertasters I was reminded of coriander – it is a type of herb that I cannot taste in food, but many people hate it because according to them, it tastes like soap. It was interesting knowing that sensations and perceptions are actually very subjective.
I found neurological concepts least interesting because it is not my area of expertise – nor is it my area of interests. I understand all the basics, like neurotransmitters, neural firing, and synapses, and so on, but anything more advanced than those are out of my league because my brain does not process hard sciences well.
Although I found them the least interesting, I think the neurological concepts are the most important aspects in getting to know more about sensation and perception – because the world that we perceive, is merely the responses of neurons firing back and forth in some complicated manners. It is not possible to learn about sensations and perceptions without having a thorough understanding of what’s going on neurologically in our heads. With that said, I will try my best to understand this area.
I would like to learn more about neuroimaging and how radiologists read images. My sister is a radiologist in training and she can spot abnormalities on x-ray films, I thought her eyes were magical. I hope by learning about neuroimaging, we can spot neurological diseases earlier just by scanning heads. That would save a lot of time, money, and lives.
Terms: Fechner, Wundt, supertasters, perception, sensation, neurotransmitters, neural firing, synapses, neural firing, neuroimaging
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting?
The first thing I found most interesting from the chapter was the differences between sensation and perception themselves as terms. That we experience sensation every day, without even thinking twice about it.
The second thing I found most interesting was magnetoencephalography, which maintains a good measure of the timing of populations of neurons while providing a better idea of where in the brain neurons are most active. I thought this was so interesting that science and technology allows us to do this. The fact that we can look into these things while not harming an alive person is amazing to me.
What I also found interesting was the different methods introduced, including thresholds, scaling, signal detection theory, sensory neuroscience, and neuroimaging. I thought they were a great introductory about what sensation and perception is all about. It made me think in ways that I’ve never really thought about. Like the fact that we have no way to experience what someone else experiences. That we’ll never actually know what it’s like for a cat to be petted which I thought was a great example.
Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
The only thing I didn’t find that interesting was the history about some of the discoveries, but that’s generally just because I don’t like history whatsoever.
What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception?
I think what I found most useful in understanding Sensation & Perception was the biology of perception. Learning how the senses are then connected to the brain was really interesting. Reading about the biology portion really helped me understand more on what perception really is.
Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
I would really like to learn more about just getting a better understanding on what sensation and perception is. I feel like this chapter helped me but I could use more understanding on the subjects. I would also like to learn more on neural imaging like MRIs and PET scans because I found that reading hard to understand but fascinating.
Terms: Sensation, perception, magnetoencephalography, thresholds, scaling, signal detection theory, sensory neuroscience, neuroimaging, MRI, PET scans.
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you?
The noise concept: I have never considered that you are always hearing or seeing “something.” You are always sensing and perceiving even when there is a lack of stimulus. Then when you actually see or hear something called the signal that means that the stimulus is a combination of the internal noise and the external.
Cross-modality matching: I thought it was really cool that people generally answered the same when pairing the intensity of sound and light. The idea that you can compare the five senses like that is really interesting. For some reason the thought of it, for lack of a better word, is pretty trippy.
Frequencies of light and sound: We are constantly sensing many frequencies of light and sound. The combination of these waves is what makes each unique sound or sight. The picture of the penguins were interesting and thought provoking.
Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
The types of neuroimaging. I’ve learned it before and its just really dull. Although it is amazing technology and helpful I would just rather read about something else.
What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to you in understanding Sensation & Perception?
Signal detection theory and the just noticeable difference. These concepts underlie most sensations and is the difference between you perceiving anything at all. Understanding the point of detection or criterion seems pretty important.
Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
Fechner's Law and Weber’s law. For some reason I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Cross-modality matching because I thought that was the most interesting.
Terms: noise, signal, neuroimaging, cross-modality matching, Fechner’s law, Weber’s Law, signal detection theory, just noticeable difference, criterion
The first thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the idea of thresholds, or how little it takes for someone to detect a stimulus most of the time. More specifically I was reading the table about different thresholds of the human body such as how far we can see, or hear etc. I did not know that the human senses were so sensitive to stimuli, and yet when it comes to telling the smallest difference between weights as discussed with the just noticeable difference concept, we are less able to detect changes based on the properties of the original stimulus. I had heard of thresholds in the sense of pain perception before, as well as sound but didn’t really know the science behind them.
The next thing that I found interesting was the concept of sine or pure waves of sound. While they also exist in vision, I found Fourier’s analysis to be really interesting. Especially the example of a loud room full of people talking being broken down into smaller sine waves that combine to form one large overall sound. I hadn’t thought of sounds like that being combined sounds in that way before, rather I thought of it as just one “noise”.
It took me a few readings to understand criterion and the signal detection theory, but after understanding it I thought it was interesting how people have previously decided a criterion for response or not to respond. I never thought of neural activity in playing a part in that though. I had also never heard signal and noise in this context before, only with research results in stats. I also did not think of responses in the sense of “hit, miss, or false-alarms”. I have definitely experienced all of them.
I found the ROC or receiver operating characteristic curve and the several math equations such as Steven’s power law the least interesting, but I think it’s because I’m not good at math and so trying to understand I is rather tiresome. I didn’t understand the chance diagonal or how the curves were calculated, so if they were explained to me in a different way than the textbook did, perhaps with a better understanding I would be more interested in them.
While I don’t have them memorized I think the definitions of different neuron clusters, methods of measuring sensation and perception (technologies and methods of limit/adjustment/estimation), and basic vocabulary such as the sine waves, and thresholds will be the most helpful because they lay a foundation for how we sense and perceive things, and how we can measure them. History is important as well as theories that have been correct and incorrect but if find basic vocabulary and the means of gathering information about concepts to be more helpful than historical mishaps or complex equations.
I would like to understand the ROC better because I didn’t understand it very well, and how criterion relates to sensitivity. I understood that you can’t make yourself more sensitive to a stimuli because you can only perceive something a certain way, but I didn’t quite understand the significance of sensitivity and its effect on reducing false alarms.
Terms: thresholds, stimulus, perception, noticeable difference, sine waves, Fourier’s analysis, ROC or receiver operating characteristic curve, criterion, signal detection theory, signal, noise, hit, miss, false-alarms, Steven’s power law, neuron clusters, limit, adjustment, estimation, sensitivity
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting?
The first thing that I found interesting from the chapter reading was finding out more information about the thresholds and the dawn of psychophysics. I found this part of the chapter interesting because it goes back to Gustav Fechner who was considered the founder of experimental psychology. I found Fechner a very motivational man as he was very hard working and even lost his sight from his studies with the sense of sight and his research with the sun.
The second thing I found interesting was looking further into what the terms sensation and perception really means. I mean I have heard of the words throughout my psychology career but they have never really been broken down. Sensations are really something that we have experienced since day one of coming into this world and are something we don’t often realize like the pressure of a finger. Perceptions our really just our own way of seeing the world around us in more detail.
The third thing that I found interesting was cross-modality matching the ability to match the different intensities of a sensation that come from a different stimulus this is something that people can adjust like the brightness of a light until it matches the loudness of a tone. At first I thought about this and thought about how could a light match a tone and it is really back to the view of each person's perception of the situation.
What one thing did you find the least interesting?
Its not that I found anything interesting in this chapter but I found the information about the neuroimaging within the specifics of CT and MRI machines to be the least interesting just because they are something that I have been learning more and more about since I first took introduction to psychology. I feel that there were least interesting because it was not anything new and exciting.
What did you read in this chapter that you think will be most useful in understanding sensation and perception?
I think the most important information will come from the history and how we got the defined terms. I feel that these terms and definitions are something that will continue as long as we are looking into and learning about sensation and perception. I also feel that the different methods and theories are going to be rather important to know and understand when doing research about different topics within sensation and perception.
Indicate two topics or concepts that you would like to know more information about.
I would like to know more about positron emission tomography, I think learning more about brain activity and what each neuron does would be very interesting and to be able to see what part of the brain is most active. Another thing that I would like to look further into is the many different types of nerves that are connected within the brain. I think this would be interesting because we know that our body is full of different nerve findings but to what extent do we know what each and every nerve is capable of.
Terms: Positron emission tomography, neurons, nerves, brain, methods, theories, sensation, perception, neuroimaging, CT, MRI, cross-modality matching, stimulus, and thresholds
One thing I found interesting was the concept of Binocular Rivalry. Binocular Rivalry is why when a different image is shown to each eye and the person sees only one of the pictures at a time. This happens because the brain can only see one dominate picture at a time. This is also known as dissociation of the stimuli, which is a difference between what the eyes see and the “private perceptual experience”.
The second thing I found interesting was the work of Ernst Weber: Types of Threshold. A threshold is the measurement of how sensitive our sense of touch is. One type threshold is two-point threshold which is the smallest distance required for a person to feel two different points. He also did the same type of test using weight as a measurement and came up with the concept of Just Noticeable Difference. Just Noticeable Difference refers to the idea that the heaver the base line weight was, the heaver the comparison weight needed to be for the person to notice a difference between the baseline and comparison weight. Difference Threshold is the term used to describe the same concept as Just noticeable difference but difference threshold can be used with any stimuli. But absolute threshold is the type of threshold I found most interesting as it is the minimum intensity of stimuli required for a person to be able to detect the stimuli in the first place.
The third thing I found interesting was the concept Tasters: the intensity of a particular sensation. Tasters are used in the method called Cross-modality Matching. Cross-modality matching is the ability to match the intensity of a sensation to the magnitude of a different sensation. There are three types of Tasters: Supertasters, medium tasters, nontasters. Nontasters are stimuli that are so low it is impossible/very difficult to sense them, whispering for example. Medium tasters are mild stimuli that can be detected, a mild head ache for example. Super Tasters are the most intense stimuli that can be perceived, a migraine that causes light to be too bright and sound too loud for example.
One thing didn’t find interesting was the mathematic formulas. Math is automatically boring to me, and it takes a great deal of effort to not automatically tune out it out as I don’t see a need to try to understand the math I saw in chapter 1.
I feel like most of chapter 1 was useful to understanding sensation and perception, as it laid the ground work for later chapters.
I would like to learn more about: Tasters/Cross-modality matching and the differences/similarities in pain thresholds of humans.
Terms: Binocular Rivalry, dissociation of the stimuli, private perceptual experience, Threshold, Ernst Weber, two-point threshold, just noticeable difference, touch, sense, Difference Threshold , absolute threshold, Tasters, Cross-modality Matching, Supertasters, medium tasters, nontasters.
There were several things from this first initial chapter that I found interesting. The first being the methods used to study the senses, and more importantly method 1 Thresholds. I recall from previous classes talking about the different thresholds of the body and have even help friends in biology classes to lab work on the subject so it is very fascinating to me. The first thing that I think of when I say thresholds is the simple experiment that can be done with a partner where they poke you in the back with either one or two fingers and then you have to guess which one it was. It was easier to guess the further your partner separated their fingers, but if they poked you really close together then it was difficult to tell. The second part I found interesting (also related to thresholds) was the method of constant stimuli. This method requires creating many stimuli with different intensities in order to find the tiniest intensity that can be detected. A third thing that I had found interesting was the term Supertasters. Even though it was just briefly mentioned it really stuck out to me. I vaguely recall doing an experiment in grade school where the teacher had us taste something and only some people could taste it while the rest could not, and this reminded me of that time. I was one of the ones that could not taste it. I can assume from this that I would not be qualified as a supertaster, still it was very interesting.
The most useful and common theme of this chapter that I took away was that we have to remember, like all things, that our individual sensations and perceptions vary greatly from one another. So it is not ok to assume that just because something was scary or painful to you that it is the same for everyone else. This makes it difficult to study these areas because the human species are so different from one another. Clearly I do not have the same sensations as a person who may be color blind or even completely blind for that matter.
As a side note that parts in the chapter that focused in on the neurotransmitters and smaller parts in the brain are very dry and boring for me. While I understand how it is connected I just am not interested in that subject area.
I will probably do more research and try to find a fun experiment using thresholds for the Wednesday assignment and discuss it in class. If I cannot find anything interesting on that then I will look up about the most recent advances with fMRI machines.
Terms: methods, thresholds, supertasters, constant stimuli, sensation, perception, neurotransmitters. fMRI
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you?
The first thing from the chapter that I found interesting was the doctrine of specific nerve energies, formulated by Johannes Müller. I found this interesting because it is very strange to think that without our nerves, we would have no sense of the world. Without any outside sources stimulating our nerves, we would be unaware of the outside world. It is also fascinating to think that it doesn’t matter what specific action stimulated the nerve, yet rather that it was stimulated in the first place. It is through the process of perception of that stimulation that the actual cause attains any meaning. (The cause of the sensation only matters when trying to figure out the cause. Before this, the brain is only aware of the simple fact that a sensation has occurred.)
The next thing I found interesting was the speed at which a signal in the nerves travels. In keeping with one of the natures of science (I’m going to prove this man wrong), Hermann Von Helmholtz wanted to illustrate that neuron activity was still subject to the laws of physics. He first measured the nerves in frog legs, then in humans. He estimated the speed of transmissions in sensory nerves to between 165 and 330 feet per second, depending on each specific nerve. Because of the time your nerves take to process information, one is never aware of a sensation at the exact moment it occurs. I happen to think this is intriguing because life or death situations often require the quickest reaction possible, so a lagging neuron could spell doom in such a case.
A third concept that I found interesting was the process that science went on to better analyze brain activity. From the simple tests of Earnst Weber, to EEG’s, to MEG’s, to CT scans, MRI’s, fMRI’s, PET’s, science keeps innovating new ways to delve deeper into our brain functions. In the recent years, this progress has been accelerating. This excites me because learning excites me, and new ways to learn seem to always be just around the corner.
Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
The topic I found least interesting was the subject of thresholds and psychophysics. I have never been too fond of math, and this subject appears to center around equations. While I understand some interest behind “how much is enough to notice,” The sheer amount of equations about it is enough to dissuade my interests elsewhere. As mentioned previously, the biology neuroscience is vastly more exciting and fascinating than the concept of thresholds and psychophysics. While it may be interesting to others, I cannot bring myself to any level of enthusiasm.
What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception?
As cliché as it may sound, the definitions of sensation and perception are most useful in my opinion. When I am confused over a part of this class, the definitions offer a good jumping off point to build off of.
Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
-The actual placement and layouts of the body’s nerves. This could be a 3D model, or a cadaver. Preferably a cadaver.
-How Santiago Ramón y Cajal figured out that axons of neurons are not actually connected to dendrites of other neurons. I do not think the microscopes were powerful enough to see that small, so I am curious.
Terms: Sensation; Perception; Thresholds; Specific Nerve Energies; Stimulated; Neuron; Axon; Dendrite; Sensory Nerve; EEG; MEG; CT Scan; MRI; fMRI; PET; Psychophysics; Biology; Neuroscience
In chapter 1, I liked learning about Fourier analysis, the process of separating signals into component sine waves of differing frequencies, amplitudes, and phases. It will be interesting to learn more about this process and complex sounds in later chapters. I found this interesting because it makes perception seem much more intuitive.
I also enjoyed learning about different sensory nerves, such as the olfactory (I), optic (II), and vestibulocochlear (VIII) nerves, and how they transmit sensory information to the brain, where our psychological experience emerges. Each of these nerves transmits signals from their respective sensory organ to the area of the brain responsible for perceiving information. I’m also looking forward to learning how our brains transform sensory information into our daily experiences.
For me, the least interesting part of the chapter was the portion about different types of imaging technologies, such as EEG, MRI and PET scans. However, I do think this and all of the vocabulary throughout the chapter will be helpful in understanding Sensation & Perception this semester.
I’d like to learn more about Fourier analysis and sensory nerves, particularly the Olfactory (I) Nerve.
Terms: Fourier analysis, frequency, amplitude, and phase, olfactory (I) nerve, optic (II) nerve, vestibulocochlear (VIII) nerve, Electroencephalography (EEG), Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
The very first item I thought was interesting, the actual definitions of sensation and perception. Sensation is defined as the ability to detect a stimulus, and perhaps, to turn that detection into a private experience. In a way, everyone has their own definition to this word, but knowing that it can influence your experience in your everyday living and have an effect on all five of your senses, is pretty cool. Perception is defined as the act of giving meaning to a detected sensation. In other words, following the path from stimuli in the world, through your sense organs, to the understanding of the world we perceive. This is interesting to me because, not one person’s perception is the same, but there are ways to measure these thresholds.
The second item from this chapter that caught my eye was the two-point threshold, JND threshold and the difference threshold. Not just the methods themselves, but the researchers involved on the discovery. I have always been fascinated about how methods are continuously updated and modified. The “Commonsense Absolute Thresholds” table was interesting to look at as well.
The third item that sparked my curiosity was the history on Neural Firing: The Action Potential. Last semester I was in Biopsychology, we studied this process inside and out. Reading in this part of the chapter gave me inside in how they determined which neurons fired, and at which rate they were firing through the voltage gated axon tips. The discovery that some squid have giant neurons to measure this process, was pretty amazing.
From reading this chapter, the parts I liked least were the mathematical computations. Although it was interesting to read how the researcher came to their findings, the mathematical computations were over my head. I have never really been good at algebra or physics, so I didn’t get to much out of this section.
The parts on Sensory Neuroscience and the Biology of Perception section of this chapter caught my eye as being something that will be very important to get a grasp on. Knowing the Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies, which nerves do what, and how they can influence your sensation as well as your perception is important. This also goes hand in hand with knowing how neurons fire and information travels in your nervous system and the rate at which neurons fire can be a precursor to how you perceive stimuli in your world. I think as we get further into the book, knowing how perception researchers are using different types of machines for testing which parts of the brain are receiving signals and what those signals are telling the rest of your senses.
I would like to learn about using this terminology in our Topical Blogs accurately, not just using them to use them. I feel, if I can get a good grasp on what really is Sensation and Perception, my career in Occupational Therapy will benefit from this knowledge. It was an informative chapter but, I do feel like I need more sustainable examples. I would also like to understand the ROC better. As I was reading that section and trying to look at the graphs, I feel like I didn’t understand how you can’t make yourself more sensitive to stimuli, you can only perceive something a certain way.
Terminology: Sensation, Perception, stimuli, two-point threshold, JND threshold, difference threshold, Neural “firing”, Action potential, neurons, voltage gated, axon, Sensory Neuroscience, Biology, Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies
Question #1: First thing that i found interesting the first chapter is the three different types of law that were presented in the first half of the chapter, The Weber's law, where it involves a clear objective measurement. The Fechner's Law, which begins with the same sort of objective measurements as how sensation works, but it's actually calculated based on some assumptions about how the sensation works. and finally, the Steven's Power Law, which describes the data rating, they are qualitatively different from the data supported by the weber's law. these laws are very interesting to me because they have different ways of understanding perception but yet their goal is the same, and that's to understand how hearing can relate to the physical world as much as the conscious world, they have different studies that taught me different things but at the end they commonly want the same answers just had different approaches to it.
THE Second thing that i thought was very interesting was the signal detection theory. this theory is a psycho physical that quantifies the response of an observer to the presentation of a signal in the presence of noise. in other words, this theory is the one that tries to match your mode to your scenery, when you're listening to music, you want to match it the mode that you're into, for example you wouldn't listen to a music that makes you wants to dance, or shout out happy things about life if you're feeling sad inside or you've just went through something that made you very sad and unbarring.figure 1.9 on page 11 showed this theory very well and explained its very understanding.
THE Third Thing that i thought was very interesting was the sensory neuroscience and the biology of perception, it was talking about Darwinism,evolutionary psychology and talks about the cycles per degree, spatial frequency and the Fourier analysis. these are just ways of measuring sounds and their whole point was that all sounds are just mixers of different sounds together and they can be broken down into cycles of a grating per a unit.
Question #2
All of those three things caught my attention because they expose to me ways of understanding the sound, touch and visual systems in many different ways, they give you enough to understand what they are trying to teach you, but yet you want to know more about each specific topics, the time that you can spend trying learn about those topics is unimaginable because you can spend decades and decades upon trying to learn each ways, and the reasoning behind each and everyone of them, and i think that's very interesting because you can either study them all and understand them in the many ways that they are presented by, or you can pick one topic and learn more about it for as long as you'd like.
Question #3 i wouldn't necessarily say that i found something uninteresting, it's just that the first five or less pages were kind of off, i wasn't really tuned in, it could be that i didn't understand some of the terms that they were using or the meaning of those terms, other than that, it was a pretty good chapter.
Question #4 What i read in the chapter that will be most useful in understanding perception and sensory would be the second part of the chapter, which was on the biology of sensation of perception, the usage of FMRI, EEG, PET, etc, those are things that we use in today's research in trying to figure out the brain and the different activities that goes on, it's great because the brain can now be live and get exam which is great because it shows us activation of some parts of it that we weren't able to access back then.
Question #4, The two conceptions i would like to learn more about would be one, Biological of perception, and two, how can i study all of these terms to actually understand them and use them in sentences, also to be able to know what to do when the testing time comes, because if our testing is on the terms then i don't know how i will pass this class...
TERMS.
Perception, Sensation, biological, Signal Detection Theory, Evolutionary Psychology, Darwinism, fecher, Weber, Stevens, criterion.
1. What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you?
I found the concept of the just notable difference (JND) interesting, as I had never thought about it before, but after reading that part of the chapter I feel as though I should have. How quickly we over look things that allow us to perceive the world we live in. Along with it the absolute threshold where you find the minimum amount of stimulation necessary for a person to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
I also never really considered Qualia; that “only your own sensory experience is directly accessible to you”. I guess I had always assumed that others perceived the world as I did too, even though I have taken enough psych classes to have known that. Sensations and perceptions are an everyday occurrence, but there is allot more going on that I ever considered.
Supertasters also interested me, as I had a lab in high school with the chemical propylthiouracil, and I had found that I can taste it. My senses have always been somewhat dull my whole life, so much so that when I was young the doctors suspected that I had CIP (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain).
2. Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
I was not too interested in the equations, math, and physics behind the senses, even thought I know that this class will consist of allot of it. I don’t like having to memories equations like the one in Stevens’ power law.
3. What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception?
I would have to say that getting the terminology behind Sensation & Perception down will be in everyone's best interest. Once we have that we will be able to contribute to the class discussions
4. Two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
How does music trigger emotional response?
How does one build a tolerance to pain, and/or what tolerance is genetic?
Terms: Just Notable Difference (JND), Sensations, Perceptions, Qualia, Stevens’ power law, Tolerance
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting?
I find the definition of perception to be extremely interesting. If we truly consider what perception is, it is fascinating to realize just how many ways things can actually be perceived. We feel something in ways that others don't, a sensation that we may get from a certain situation isn't seen or perceived the same way by someone else.
I find the term dualism to be extremely interesting. It is defined as "the idea that the mind has an existence separate from the material world of the body. This was interesting to me because it isn't something I have ever thought about before, we don't think of our mind having a different existence than our body. The Panile Gland is where the physical world and mental world interact; so how our mind and body could be two separate things is very interesting to me.
The final thing I find to be interesting about this chapter would be Fechner's Law. "A principle describing the relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation that says the magnitude of subjective sensation increases proportionally to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity." It makes sense that a sensation will be stronger if a stimulus is stronger but the process of how it works is interesting to me. We don't often think about how the larger risk of what we do could have a larger reward or it could have a larger downfall.
Why were they interesting to you?
All of these things were interesting to me because they were all things that we can relate to our lives. I think the only way to truly enjoy learning something new for me is being able to place myself into that situation. I like to try to understand why I may do some of the things I do. Or why I feel a certain way, being able to explain why certain thing are perceived the way they are is extremely interesting. We all endure so many emotions and sensations; understanding then may be a life changer for some people.
Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
I didn't really care to understand the difference in Webster's Law and Fechner's Law. I like learning why things happen a certain way, and although I like to give credit where credit is due, I also just like to read the interesting stuff without having to hear all of the boring backstory to it.
What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception?
I think the most useful thing I could take from chapter 1 would be that there are A LOT of different ways to perceive things. Perception and Sensation isn't just going to be a simple minded course about one thing. We will be able to take what we learn and interpret it how we want, and apply it how we want to real life situations. I think keeping an open mind and trying to enjoy learning new things will really help me succeed in this course.
Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
Sensory Neuroscience and the biology of perception comes off as interesting to me; I enjoy learning the science and biology of any subject.
Also how does one build a pain tolerance and what of this is genetic. Subjects that we can relate to are always interesting and who doesn't want to learn how to not feel the sensation of pain.
TERMS: sensation, perception, Webster's law, fecher's law, tolerance, dualism, biology
There are many things that I found interesting reading chapter one but three concepts that stuck out to me were the different methods of senses, repetition of tones, and learning more about the basic terms of sensation and perception. I found the different thresholds interesting because there was so much depth to each one but they were all simple enough to understand. I really enjoy reading things and then having things click in my mind like “oh duh, why didn’t I put that together before.” Repetition of tones was also very interesting to me because there are so many things that can affect our judgment and different levels of tones are one of them. A third thing that I found interesting was the whole background of the terms sensation and perception. Both of these concepts are very eye opening and so full of other concepts that could relate to them. Sensation and perception are not small, simple words; they are full of meaning and theory and facts.
I would say the history of sensation and perception I found the most boring. I took History and Systems of Psychology and I did not find a lot of it to be very interesting. I am not as interested in the person who came up with a theory or proved a certain fact, I am a lot more interested in the theory or fact itself and how it is applied to human life today.
There are many things I found in this chapter to be beneficial in stepping up my knowledge in this area, but a couple of things that stuck out to me would be all of the terms defined that helped our understanding of sensation and perception and then the biology part of sensation and perception. Although I found some of these parts in the reading boring, it really is necessary to learn more detail about this aspect of sensation and perception. No two brains think the same and I think it is important to understand the complexity and knowledge our brains hold. All of the nerves that lead out of our brain hold a specific purpose and I think it is important to be aware of these capabilities. Neurotransmitters were also discussed in this section and I also believe that these are necessary to understand.
One concept I would like to know more about is the concept that Fechner called psychophysics. Mind and matter are two things that potentially go hand in hand and I think it would be interesting to study further into the details. Another concept that I would enjoy studying further is the different thresholds explained in this chapter. There were many different kinds but I wished I would have had more information regarding them.
Terms: Sensation, perception, thresholds, Fechner, psychophysics, neurotransmitters, biology of sensation, repetition of tones.
While it is not necessarily a topic of sensation and perception (more of a precursor), I found the topic of dualism versus materialism quite interesting. We have actually spent several class periods discussing this very idea in a philosophy class I am taking this semester. This is so interesting to me, because the philosophy student in me aligns with dualism, but the psychology student in me aligns with materialism.
Another topic I found interesting was the measurement of qualia, or private experience. I have spent an absurd amount of time thinking about how our subjective experiences compare and contrast to everyone else's. While it is still impossible to answer the questions that I thought about the most, such as "is your red the same as my red?", It is very intriguing that researchers have been able to pin down individual experience so well through tests like cross-modality matching. The varying individual differences in taste do still give me hope that one day we may find out that everyone experiences a completely different range of colors.
The third thing I found interesting was the mathematical basis for so much of the sensation and perception field. I have always found the mathematical principles of nature to be quite fascinating, but I did not realize that there was such so much behind a subjective experience like sensation and perception. Tools like the Fourier Analysis that break down signals and their application to this field is way beyond the scope of my understanding but still very exciting. This fascination sits very closely alongside my interest in neurology.
To be entirely honest, there was not anything in the reading that I found to be uninteresting. I promise this is not a cop-out; I truly found everything to be very interesting.
I think the neurological aspect of the chapter will be most useful in helping me to understand sensation and perception. As this is my final under-grad psych course, I have heard plenty about the theoretics of psychology and the basic concepts. However, I have spent very little time studying beyond the basics of our physiological reaction to stimuli, at least in a neurological sense.
I would like more information about neuroscience and mathematical aspects of sensation and perception. I would prefer to get more information on the dualism versus materialism debate, but I realize that should be left for other classes.
Terms: Dualism, Materialism, Qualia, Cross-Modality Matching, Fourier Analysis, Neurology
The first thing in chapter one that I found interesting is the section on neural connections. Santiago Ramon y Cajal created the idea that neurons do not touch one another, but instead are separate cells with spaces in between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another. This space was named the synapse and was found to slow down neural transmission which suggested that the synapse was of great importance to neural transmission. It was initially thought that an electrical wave traveled across the synapse to another neuron but that particular theory did not account for the fact that some neurons are excitatory while others are inhibitory. (some neurons increase the response of the next neuron and some decrease the response). As a result of this finding it was hypothesized that a chemical had to be working at the synapse. This chemical was discovered to be neurotransmitters. These are the chemical messengers that send messages from neuron to neuron. There are many different neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and acetocholyne that influence the firing of different neurons.
The second thing I found interesting was the section about neural firing. Researchers can use tools such as an EEG (electroencephalography) to measure electrical activity through electrodes on the scalp. These electrodes localize whole populations of neurons and measure their activities with great temporal resolution. Another tool to measure neural firing is called event-related potential (ERP) it measures the electrical activity from a population of neurons an their average response to a particular stimuli recorded from an EEG.
The third thing I found interesting was the section on neuroimaging that shows pictures of brain in differing levels of spacial resolution. The two that were the most interesting to me are the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) which uses the response of atoms to strong magnetic fields to form images of the brain and the fMRI which gives researchers the ability to view activated parts of the brain by watching where oxygenated blood flows while an individual is completing a certain activity. These active areas light up and are placed over an MRI to view the active areas.
These sections of the reading were all interesting to me because I am extremely fascinated by neuroscience, biology of the body and brain imaging. I want to focus on these concepts when I enter graduate school.
I did not find anything specific that I found uninteresting. I truly love the biological, sensation, and perception aspects of psychology so I was able to enjoy all the reading. If I had to pick something that I did not enjoy it would be all the names of historical figures in sensation an perception. It can be hard to grasp and overwhelming.
I think the sections covering theories such as the signal detection theory will be extremely helpful in my understanding of sensation and perception as we move forward in the class.
I am interested in learning more about the biology involved in sensation and perception. I am deeply interested in that area of study. I am also interested in learning more about the auditory and visual systems briefly mentioned in the chapter.
What were three things you found interesting from the chapter and why?
First I found the method 1: thresholds, method 2: Scaling-measuring private experience, and method 3: signal detection theory-measuring difficult decisions interesting. The reason I found this interesting is because I thought the examples were interesting and intriguing, such as the example in method one with sounds and how if you would damage your auditory system by the loudest sound that you've heard then you would have to change the faintest sound that you've ever heard. Next, I thought that method of adjustment was interesting. I thought that this was interesting because it is as simple as turning up the stereo dial or changing the lighting. Thirdly, I found figure 1.18 to be interesting. I found this interesting because you could clearly see the differences when the high frequencies were taken out and when the low frequencies were taken out. I also though that it was a good idea for them to add the waves and the cycles into this figure.
What one thing did you not find interesting and why?
I did not find reading the section about sensory neuroscience and the biology of perception interesting. I think that I did not find this interesting because there were quiet a bit of terms and different areas of the body and brain to try to remember.
What in the chapter do you think will be most useful to understanding Sensation and Perception?
In this chapter I think that simply understanding and knowing the definitions of sensation and perception will be useful for this course.
Two topics that you would like to know more about?
I would like more information on the terms panpsychism and the topics supertasters, medium tasters, and nontasters.
Terms and concepts: Method 1, Method 2, Method 3, Method of Adjustment, Frequencies, Panpsychism, Supertaster, Medium Taster, and Nontaster.
there is a lot of information packed into the 1st chapter of this book. I'm excited to dive into this class and really get a understanding of sensation and perception. Like many of the other students something that was really interesting to me is how so many different things are going on at once in our brains. and we are always seeing,hearing,smelling things and there are so many going on that we pay attention to every single one. the idea of criterion is interesting to me the whole idea about weather or not we are hearing what we think we are hearing. and deciding what to do about it. dualism sounds pretty interesting as well the difference between mind and body. this post is not as great as I was hoping it would be I just recently got the book but hope to make much better post in the future.
What were three things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? Which one thing did you find the least interesting? Why? What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Sensation & Perception? Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like more information about.
Once you are done with this assignment make a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post
Interesting
1. Thresholds. They are something I have always heard about throughout my major in psychology but have never gone in depth on how and why they really work. I found it very interesting to read more in depth into them.
2.Stevens Power Law- This i found interesting because it is something I don't remember hearing about in past classes. Most things in psychology you hear about over and over again so its always nice to learn something new.
3.I also though spatial frequencies were very interesting. Its weird to think about more in depth of how we recognize things whether its spatial or just facial recognition, its crazy.
Uninteresting
1. The biology part in general was uninteresting to me. I took this course so i did not have to retake biopsych because i disliked it so much so talking about it just puts me to sleep.
Thresholds, stevens power law, spatial, recognition, biology, psychology,