PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Gustav Fechner, Psychophysics, Taste

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 102
• Professor: Benjamin Dyson

Document Summary

Lecture 4: psychophysics and illusions sensation and perception. The study of how physical stimuli (sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste) are translated into psychological experience. We don"t just see something and correctly interpret it - we see something and interpret it from our past experiences. Psychologists in this are interested in sensation and perception of that stimuli. Sensation: detection of physical energy by the sense organs. (stimuli) Touch (tactile - senses all over the body) The process of converting an external stimulus into electrical signals within neurons. After being transduced, our brains then organize the sensory data into meaningful concepts. Perception: the brain"s interpretation of raw sensory data. But what counts as detectable depends on whom or what is doing the detecting. A dividing point between energy levels that do and don not have a detectable effect (either you see it or you don"t) Example, automatic lights turn on when a threshold is reached.