Week 4 · Readings & resources

Week 4 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Psychology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 4 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 63–77 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–21 min total)

① How faint can it be, and when does a change register? Thresholds and adaptation

Chapter 4, Section “Measure the edge of sensing: absolute and difference thresholds” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Absolute and difference thresholds” · Remember: the absolute threshold starts from nothing, the difference threshold starts from something already there, and both use the 50 percent rule.

Sensation and Perception: Crash Course Psychology #5 — CrashCourse — a fast tour of sensing versus perceiving, the absolute threshold, sensory adaptation, and Weber's law; it also mentions signal detection, which this course does not test. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Absolute Threshold, Difference Threshold, and Sensory Adaptation — The Psychology Brief — a short review that sets the two thresholds side by side and then explains why a steady stimulus fades from notice. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Difference Threshold — Simply Psychology — read the sections on Weber's original study, the everyday examples, and the comparison of absolute and difference thresholds; skip the formulas, and keep the chapter's definitions where the wording differs. (reading, 10–15 min)

② How do light and sound become signals? The eye, the ear, rods and cones

Chapter 4, Section “Follow light and sound inward: the eye, the ear, rods and cones” · Session 2, Segment 4, “The eye, the ear, rods and cones” · Remember: light reaches the rods and cones of the retina, sound reaches the hair cells of the inner ear, and both are transduced into neural signals.

How the Eyes Work — National Eye Institute — a short, plain walk from the cornea to the retina; where it says photoreceptors, read rods and cones. This builds on Week 3's work with neurons, the nervous system, and the brain. (reading, 2–4 min)
The Visual System: How Your Eyes Work — National Eye Institute, NIH — an animated tour of the parts of the eye working together, useful right after the reading above. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)
How Do We Hear? — National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders — a step-by-step path from the eardrum through the middle-ear bones to the hair cells of the inner ear; use it while working through the Week-4 module overview. (reading, 3–5 min)
Journey of Sound to the Brain — National Institutes of Health (NIH) — a short animation that follows a sound wave from the outer ear to the hair cells and on to the brain. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)

③ Why is what you see built, not copied? Grouping, constancy, and illusions

Chapter 4, Section “Catch perception in the act: constancies and illusions” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Constancies and illusions” · Remember: constancies and illusions are the evidence that the brain builds what you perceive instead of copying the world.

Perceiving is Believing: Crash Course Psychology #7 — CrashCourse — how the brain organizes what you sense, with grouping, depth, constancy, and illusions. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Gestalt Principles of Perception - With Examples — Michael Britt — a psychology instructor walks through the grouping principles one picture at a time; pause on each example and name the principle before the answer. (video, 11 min) (captions: automatic)
Distorted Room — Exploratorium — a science museum's exhibit page on the Ames room, where the brain assumes a slanted room is square, so the people inside seem to grow and shrink as they cross it; read it as knowledge and expectation shaping what you see. (reading, 2–4 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Brain Basics: Know Your Brain — National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke — a federal health agency's plain-language reference on the brain; read the part on the lobes for the occipital lobe's role in vision, and skip the rest unless you are curious. (reading, 5–8 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com