PSYC 303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cochlea, Earwax, Psychophysics
13 Sep 2018
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Fechner the first to study psychophysics - considered the (cid:1154)founder(cid:1155), though wundt was the first to study psychophysics in a laboratory setting. Psychophysics: the study of the relation between the physical stimulus and the psychological (subjective) sensation. To study how we perceive things we need to study: Higher-level processing which allows us to interpret the symbolic signals. Thresholds: finding the limits of what can be perceived. Detection: determining the minimum amount of a particular stimulus that is required for the individual to say that a stimulus is present. Asks the question, (cid:1154)how sensitive is someone to particular stimuli? (cid:1155) examples: What is the faintest sound you can hear? (a question about threshold) Is one sound more intense than the other? (a question about discrimination/difference) Absolute threshold: the stimulus energy above which the stimulus is detectable. Method of constant stimuli: fixed set of stimuli, ranging from rarely to almost always perceivable, are chosen in advance.
