Interpretations: Relationship Between Sensation and Perception, The
Sensations, the raw data we encode from our physical environment, are just a random mix of sights and sounds, tastes and smells that provide little meaning in and of themselves. To construct the outside world inside our heads requires us to select, ...
Connections: Features Detected by Individual Neurons
In recent decades, researchers like David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel have been able to chart patterns of neural activity in relation to certain stimuli. Too often, however, research is focused on a single neuron rather than populations of neurons list...
Connections: Sensing the World: The Difference Threshold
Humans, as well as other animal species, have the ability to detect small variations in stimuli (the difference threshold) . The fact that sensitivity is reduced after sustained exposure to stimuli, like the clothes a person is wearing, allows a per...
Connections: World of Sensory Stimuli, A
As attuned as people think they are to the world, their senses take in only a fraction of the energy that surrounds them. Most animal species have many more than the five primary senses ascribed to humans. Many animals have polarized filters that al...
Endless Questions: Use of Animals in Psychological Research
The fact that experimentation with humans is restricted has led to animal research. Mice, for example, can be genetically bred to be identical allowing researchers to control all relevant conditions. Because mammalian species share certain princip...