PSYC 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Stimulus Modality, Absolute Threshold, Synesthesia

• School: University of Manitoba
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1200
• Professor: Dawson Clary

Document Summary

Perception: organization/interpretation/selection of sensory input psychophysics: study of how physical stimuli are converted into psychological experience. Sense organs: organs that convert energy from the world into neural signals sense receptors: allow us to transform energy out in the world into signals that the brain can interpret (allows us to perceive meaning) People experience different types o sensation because sense organs send signals to different parts of the brain. Synesthesia: stimulation of 1 sensory modality evokes sensation in another modality. Explains how different sensory modalities are experienced differently. Doesn"t explain different types of perception with same modality (red vs. Threshold: dividing point between energy levels that do and don"t have an effect. Absolute threshold: minimum amount of stimulation that an organism can detect (for a specific type of sensory input) a jnd from nothing. Jnd: smallest difference in amount of stimulation a specific sense can detect. Weber"s law: size of jnd is in constant proportion with size of initial stimulus.