PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Detection Theory, Absolute Threshold, Sensory System

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Christine Logel

Document Summary

Psych 101 - lecture 4 - sensation and perception. Sensation (biological hardware): process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment some cells = change response to stimuli. World is full of stimuli: light waves, sound waves, physical objects, chemicals to detect these stimuli, we have structures that change in response to stimuli (ex; anemometer) Bottom-up processing: starts at sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing. Top-down processing: constructs perception from the sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations. Three steps: receiving, transforming, and delivering info. to the brain. Psychophysics: study of relationships between physical characteristics of stimuli. Sensation and transduction = what sense organs do, stimulus turns into signal. Look for patterns, compare to memory, integrates information across senses. Perception = what your brain does, signals turn into something recognizable, meaning- making.