PSY 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Tunxis Community College, Inattentional Blindness, Subliminal Stimuli

• School: Tunxis Community College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 111
• Professor: O'brien

Document Summary

To represent the world, we must detect physical stimuli in our environment and convert it into neural signals (or electrical information) a process called sensation. Sensation- occurs when special receptors in the sense organs are activated allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neutral signals for the brain to interoperate. The process of converting outside stimuli into neural activates is called transduction- sensory receptors that specialize neurons. Absolute threshold- minimum or lowest level of stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. Difference threshold- minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time, also called just noticeable difference (jnd) In humans difference thresholds (experiences as jnd) increase in proportion to the size of the stimulus. Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount), to be perceived as different weber fraction.