PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Absolute Threshold, Sensory Neuron, Limen

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Kenneth Campbell

Document Summary

Perception involves memory while sensation involves extraction of features. We all seem to have the same sensory receptors. Yet, what you and i call the experience or consciousness of the sensation seems to be quite different. Sensory receptors: different receptors for different senses (think visual and auditory, may vary within species. Transduction: receptor translate (or transduces ) the physical energy. Duration (how long?: energy (intensity) absolute threshold (limen) Minimum amount of energy required to detect the stimulus on 50% of trials. Difference threshold: detection of minimum change in energy, weber"s law deltai/i=k. The magnitude that a stimulus has to be increase (or decreased) in order for a change to be detected in a constant proportion (nots not a constant addition). The absolute threshold may vary for reasons that have nothing to do with sensitivity. Subjects might be more or less willing to indicate that they have detected a low intensity stimulus.