PSYC 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Detection Theory, Phosphene, Axon

• School: UBC
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 101
• Professor: Janel Fergusson

Document Summary

Sensation: stimulation of sense organs converted to neural impulses, e. g. light hitting retina, sound waves hitting ear. Perception: selection, organization, interpretation of sensory input, constructed: prior experience, expectations, attention. Study of translation of physical stimuli into psychological experience. Threshold: strength of stimulus to be detected, absolute: intensity at which stimulus is detected 50% of time. Just noticeable difference: smallest difference in amount of stimulus sense can detect, weber"s law: size of jnd is constant proportion to initial stimulus. Signal detection theory: detection of stimuli involves decision & sensory processes, think something happened, hit: correct, false alarm: wrong, think something didn"t happen, correct rejection: correct, misses: wrong. Bias: liberal: likely to think signal present, conservative: likely to think signal absent. Sensory adaptation: gradual decline in sensitivity due to prolonged stimulation. Light pathway: light retina rod & cone cells bipolar neurons ganglion cell optic nerve brain. Rods & cones: photoreceptors that convert light into nerve impulses.