PSYC 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Tuning Fork, Narcolepsy, Habituation

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Agnieszka Kopinska

Document Summary

Examples of absolute thresholds: vision: a candle flame seen at 50 kilometers on a dark clear night, hearing: the tick of a watch under quiet conditions at 6 meters, taste: five milliliters of sugar in 7. 5 liters of water, smell: one drop of perfume diffused into the entire volume of a six room apartment, touch: the wing of a fly falling on your cheek from a distance of 1 centimeter. A just noticeable difference (jnd) is the smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect. Signal detection theory proposes that the detection of stimuli involves decision processes as well as sensory processes, which are both influenced by a variety of factors besides stimulus intensity. Subliminal perception is the registration of sensory input without conscious awareness. There are 5 major senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell.