PSYC 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Detection Theory, Absolute Threshold, Psychophysics
Document Summary
Set 4 the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information; enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. Bottom-up processing analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain"s integration of sensory information. Top-down processing information processing guided by higher-level mental process, as when we construct perceptions drawing out our experience and expectation. Psychophysics the study of relationship between the physical characteristic of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. Absolute threshold the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. Signal detection theory a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimuli (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assume that there is no single absolute threshold and that focuses more on the processing of briefly stored information. (e. g. what determines a hit,
