Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Auditory Cortex, Pith, Neural Adaptation

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Laura Reid

Document Summary

*perception selection, organization and interpretation of sensory input. *psychophysics the study of how physical stimuli are translates into psychological experience. Psychophysics: basic concepts: stimulus information in the environment that is picked up by the receptors in our ns, sensation begins with a detectable stimulus. Weber"s law the difference threshold (or jnd) is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made. Sensory adaptation (habituation) the diminishing sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time. Survival value attend to new stimuli in the environment. Subliminal stimuli: stimuli that register on our ns but are below our sensory threshold. 1950"s james vicary flashed, subliminal messages drink coke and eat popcorn. Auditory system: from pressure waves to nerve impulses. 2. certain cells only respond to very loud sounds. Frequency theory: nerve impulse per second sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound. Different frequencies stimulate different areas on basilar membrane.