PSYC 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Gustav Fechner, Detection Theory, Absolute Threshold

• School: Binghamton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 111
• Professor: Lanora Duell

Document Summary

Sensation and perception are actually parts of one continuous process o. Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Bottom-up processing is analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain"s integration of sensory information. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, o enabling us to regencies meaningful objects and events. Top-down processing is information processing guided by our experience and expectations. All our senses perform three basic steps: o o o. The process of converting one form of energy into another that out brain can use is called transduction. Psychophysics is the study of how what we detect affects our physiological experiences. Gustav fechner identified an absolute threshold as the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.