Chapter 2: Light and the Eye
For each of our senses, perception begins with a stimulus. We will begin the chapters on visual perception with a discussion of the physics of light and the anatomy of the eyeballs. Much of this chapter was originally created by Nura Ahmed, Ran Rice, Elena Shest, Jeeho Sohn, Kathryn Taterka, Joyce Thao, Sebastian Vile, Sarah Warden, Savannah Whisenhunt, Dheeraj Uppal, and Yeemeng Yang, who were students in Dr. Cheryl Olman’s Sensation and Perception course at the University of Minnesota.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the basic properties of light
- Describe different parts of a human eyeball and their function
- Describe the reason why we have a blindspot in each retina
- Describe the different layers and cell types in a retina.
- Know the differences between rods and cones.
- Describe the impact of synaptic convergence on acuity and sensitivity.
- Be able to describe the different stages of dark adaptation (time duration, luminance levels, etc.).
- Know the differences between scotopic and photopic vision.
- Understand what causes changes in dark adaptation
- Know what a center-surround receptive field is.
- Know what types of retinal cells have the center-surround receptive fields.
