assignment 8 Psychology 1

Running Head: PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF VISION AND OUTLINED COURSE OBJECTIVES 1

Shane Killebrew, AC1808471

Psychology 1

Assignment 8

June 14, 2019

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF VISION AND OUTLINED COURSE OBJECTIVES 2 Psychological dimensions of vision and outlined course objectives in reference to assignment 8

Part I: Describe the three psychological dimensions of vision

We retrieve the most information of the physical world that surrounds us from our eyes. Our eyes allow us to perceive and process exterior surrounding stimuli and provide us more information than any other sense organ on the human body.

Moreover, there are three distinct psychological dimensions of vision we will be analyzing in this report today. Hue is considered the be the dimension of vision related to specific colors and is related to what we know as the wavelength of light or the distance between crests of light (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017).

Additionally, the observation of Hue allows us to understand that shorter waves of light produce violet or blue colors and longer waves give us orange and red colors (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Hue is incredibly important to our visual perception of the physical world around us. Colors make us feel and act certain ways, without our ability to perceive them, the world would be a dull place devoid of a relation between psychology and color through the eye. Brightness is the second psychological dimension of vision we will discuss today. Brightness is related to the amount of light an object is emitting (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). In general terms the more an object emits light, the brighter that object tends to be.

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A complete lack of brightness would not allow our eye to visually see something, so its crucial that an object have brightness. Light passes through our pupil and without it we would be blind and unable to see the world around us. The final psychological dimension in relation to vision is Saturation. When we hear saturation, we think of the settings on our phones

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or TV’s that allow us to push the color to an unnatural vivid point. Saturation is the dimension of vision related to the complexity of light waves. Something that is rather interesting is the fact that in nature, what we classify as pure light or a form of saturation resulting from a single wavelength is extremely rare (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Saturation is key to the human’s ability of vividness and purity of color through the eye.

Part II:

Define circadian rhythms and explain how the body’s “biological clock” works and what happens when it doesn’t.

“Circadian rhythms are biological rhythms that occur every 24 hours” (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). One of the most well-known circadian rhythms is the sleep wake cycle, which is a biological clock in our brain that lets us know when to go to sleep and when to wake. But; there are also hundreds of other biological rhythms that affect our physiology and performance (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Some examples of these rhythms include the menstrual cycle, hormone levels, and even daydreaming (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). But what would happen if some of these biological clocks just stopped working? Well, if the sleep-wake cycle biologically began to no longer function, we would start to see hallucinations from sleep deprivation, or develop insomnia, which is a serious medical condition. Truthfully, this would only be the beginning, as we humans cannot go more than a few days without

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sleep without dying. Some serious consequences would arise, if our biological clocks began to not function properly.

Distinguish between the basic processes of sensation and perception, explain how the doctrine of specific nerve energies applies to perception, and discuss how synesthesia contributes to our understanding of sensory modalities.

Sensation is known as the detection of physical energy that is emitted by or also reflected by physical objects. Cells known to perform the detection needed to have sensation are called sense organs (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Conversely; perception within the construct of basic processes is the set of mental operations that categorizes sensory impulses into relevant usable patterns (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Now, the doctrine of specific nerve energies is applicable to perception because we see with our brains, not our eyes, and we hear with our brains not our ears. This is because the doctrine says different modalities of exists and thus signals received by sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). With this information we can correlate the connection between Synesthesia, a condition in which one sense can evoke a totally different sense and the doctrine of specific nerve energies. We perceive with our brain, although sensations may differ, what is going on and this allows us to tie in Synesthesia (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017).

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Describe the basic principles of classical conditioning, including the extinction and recovery of a classically conditioned response, how higher-order conditioning takes place, and the process of stimulus generalization and discrimination

Classical conditioning is when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that is already creating a response and then acquires even further capacity to another similar response (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Ivan Pavlov is famous for the salivary dog experiment where he learned that even a person delivering food or just the mere sight of the dogs food bowl, caused his dogs to begin salivating and he concluded that these were not inborn responses, so they must have been obtained through experience (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). A process known as extinction in regard to classical conditionings principles states that conditioned responses can occur for a few months or even years, but if the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without an unconditioned stimulus, then the conditioned response will weaken and may disappear (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Recovery is another guiding principal in classical conditioning. After extinction occurs, the conditioned response could come back spontaneously, this is known as spontaneous recovery (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Now, high-order conditioning happens when a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus. For example, jojo learned to salivate at the sight of her food bowl and then a bright flash is performed before presenting the bowl, and this is repeated, then jojo learns to salivate at the flashing light.

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Stimulus generalization happens when a stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus for a response, and now similar stimuli are producing similar reactions (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). There is an old English proverb that sums up the concept of stimulus generalization “He who hath been bitten by a snake fears a rope” (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017). Another part of classical condition is stimulus discrimination. Stimulus discrimination is the tendency to have a different response by two or more similar stimuli (Wade, Tavris, & Swinkels, 2017).

Compare social norms and social roles, and note how each contributes to the social rules that govern a culture.

Social norms are rules that are meant to regulate life. Norms include explicit laws and implicit cultural conventions. Social roles are social positions governed by sets of norms for proper behaviors. Each contribute to social rules in different ways. For instance, conversational distance is different for each culture and culture defines how people in certain communities behave and conduct themselves. Culture can at times dictate how laws are enacted and enforced in certain countries, such as religious autocracies that use the quran to invoke sharia law which has very harsh punishments for certain offenses which in turn ties this into explicit laws or norms. Furthermore, social norms, connections, and sex differences can shape how our adolescents are. It’s been observed and documented that families, friends, and schools make up a huge part of an

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adolescent’s behavioral health, so it is not always about the effects of social norms or roles on a large scale, but it can also be on a micro level (Lombardi, et al. 2019). Even something as simple as alcohol correlates to social norms. Social norms are even used as key predictors in college drinking. What seems to be an underlying theme however is social motives of alcohol consumption. Social roles and norms are vital to the fabric of culture and society (Halem, et al. 2012).

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF VISION AND OUTLINED COURSE OBJECTIVES 7References

Wade, C., Tavris, C., & Swinkels, A. (2017). Psychology. Boston: Pearson.

Lombardi, C. M., Coley, R. L., Jacqueline, S., Lynch, A. D., & R, M. J. (2019). Social Norms, Social Connections, and Sex Differences in Adolescent Mental and Behavioral Health [Abstract]. Journal of Child and Family Studies. Retrieved June 14, 2019, from

Halem, A., Hasking, P., & Allen, F. (2012). The role of social drinking motives in the relationship between social norms and alcohol consumption [Abstract]. Retrieved June 14, 2019, from