PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Detection Theory, Absolute Threshold, Neural Adaptation

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Eleanor Resin

Document Summary

Sensation: receptors and nervous system receive and represent external stimuli. Perception: organizing sensory information; recognize objects/events in a meaningful way. Bottom-up process: starts at sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing. Top-down process: constructs perceptions from the input by drawing on our experience and expectations. Transduction: def: conversion of stimulus energies into neural impulses our brain can interpret, all our senses receive sensory stimulation, transform that stimulation into neural impulses and deliver the neural information to our brain. Absolute thresholds: minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time. Ex: can see a faraway light in the dark. Signal detection theory: predicts how and when we will detect a faint stimulus amid background noise; detection of a weak stimulus depends on strength of the signal and our experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. Subliminal: below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness; stimuli you cannot detect 50% of the time.