PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Visual Agnosia, Phi Phenomenon, Sclera
Document Summary
Sensation: detection of physical energy by sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue: sense organs relay info to the brain. Perception: brain"s interpretation of input from sense organs: gives meaning and coherence to raw data. Our perceptions don"t always match reality: e. g. , filling in, reconstruction, interpolation. Converts external stimuli into electrical signals with neurons: done by sense receptors specific to certain stimuli (sight, smell, touch) Sensory adaptation: activation is greatest when a stimulus is first detected: response diminishes over time to conserve energy. Study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics. Absolute threshold: the lowest level of a stimulus that we can detect 50% of the time. Just noticeable difference: the smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect: the stronger the stimulus, the bigger the change in intensity needed for us to notice it. Signal-to-noise ratio: harder to detect a signal clearly a background noise.