01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Detection Theory, Subliminal Stimuli, Sensory Threshold

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Mimi Phan

Document Summary

Sensation: process of detecting external events by sense organs and turning these events into neural signals. Ex. hearing a song you like in a store at the mall. Perception: attending to, organizing, and interpreting stimuli that we sense. Ex. (cont) entering the store that is playing the song that you like. Transduction: process in which physical or chemical stimulation is converted into a nerve impulse that is relayed to the brain. Sensory adaption: reduction of activity in sensory receptors with repeated exposure to a stimulus. Psychophysics: field of study that explores how physical energy such as light and sound and their intensity relate to psychological experience. Absolute threshold: minimum amount of energy or quantity of a stimulus required to be reliably detected at least 50% of the time it is presented. Absolute threshold will was be at point b (the red dot) Jnd: just notable difference (weber"s law)- smallest amount of difference in stimuli that the brain can detect.