PSY 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Detection Theory, Visual Cortex, Subliminal Stimuli
1 May 2018
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PSY 1010 Exam 2 Notes
Chapter 4 – Sensation and Perception
• Psychophysics: Basic Concepts and Issues
o Absolute threshold: the minimum amount of stimulus necessary to perceive or measure a
response (ex: automatic car headlights sensing light outside to turn on)
o Signal detection theory: detection of a stimulus involves a decision/cognitive component; a
subject’s response in relation to an actual stimulus condition
+
-
+
Hit: a correct perception of a
stimulus
False alarm: a perception to
an absent stimulus
-
Miss: stimulus present but
no perception
Correct rejection: no
perception in the absence
of a stimulus
o Subliminal perception: the stimulus, regardless of an individual’s emotional state, is below a
threshold…unconscious awareness
o Sensory adaptation: we attend to certain senses at a given time and our senses adapt over time
o Sense modalities: we learn by using these (ex: seeing notes, hearing lecture, writing/typing notes)
The Visionary System and The Eye
• The Visionary System (light waves)
o Amplitude: the height of a wave, associated with the perception of brightness
o Wavelength: distance between waves, associated with the perception of color or hue
o Saturation: the relative amount of whiteness in a color; as whiteness declines, saturation (intensity
of a color) increases
• The Eye
o Cornea: the transparent window where light enters the eye
o Lens: focuses the light onto the retina
o Retina: neural tissue that absorbs the light and begins the process of interpreting the image by
travelling from the optic nerve, to the thalamus, to the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe
▪ Rods: receptors that allow for the perceptions of night vision
▪ Cones: receptors that allow for the perceptions of day vision and color
o Iris: the muscle around the pupil, makes up the color of our eyes, allows our pupils to
dilate/constrict
o Pupil: black center of the eye, constricts and dilates to either let more or less light in
• Vision (the least mature sense at birth)
o Nearsightedness: focus point falls in front of the retina, seeing better near rather than far
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