PSYC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Absolute Threshold, Neural Adaptation, Memory Span
Document Summary
Sensation (bottom up): gathering info; passive process of bringing info from outside world into body and to brain. Pyschophysics: psychological experience of physical stimuli, limits of human sensory systems, absolute threshold: smallest amount of stimuli that can be detected. Point at which level of intensity of stimulus lifts stimulus over threshold of conscious awareness. Hearing can detect signal 50% of time; e. g. ringtone: diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)tial th(cid:396)eshold: (cid:862)just (cid:374)oti(cid:272)ea(cid:271)le diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863), minimum difference we can detect. We(cid:271)e(cid:396)"s la(cid:449): the (cid:862)just (cid:374)oti(cid:272)ea(cid:271)le diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863) (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) two stimuli based on a constant proportion of the original stimuli (e. g. percentage) rather than on a fixed amount of difference: sensory adaptation. Disappearance of sensitivity to repetitive or unchanging stimuli. Adaptive- its more important to detect new stimuli (which may signify danger) than constant stimuli: perceptual organization. Meaning sensory data must be organized into meaningful wholes. Capacity to acquire and retain skills and information.
