PSY-2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Phineas Gage, Lumosity, Practice Theory
Document Summary
Thresholds: varying sensitivities to stimuli, absolute threshold. Minimum stimulation necessary to detect a stimulus 50% of the time: difference threshold. Minimum difference a person can detect between 2 stimuli 50% of the time. Increases with the magnitude of the stimulus: weber"s law. Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as different. Light change 8%, weight 2%, tone 0. 3: sensory adaptation. Diminishing sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. Helps stop attributing resources, so we can focus on informative changes in our environment: pain. Melzack and wall proposed that our spinal chord contains neurological gates that either block pain or allow it to be sensed. Large fiber pathway: all other types of sensation. Psychology the scientific study of behavior (what people do) and mental processes (how people process information) Men and women: much more alike than different. Vark learning styles: visual aural read-write kinesthetic, bullshit.
