PSY100Y5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Subliminal Stimuli, Neural Adaptation, Retina

• School: UTM
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100Y5
• Professor: Dax Urbszat

Document Summary

Psycho-physicists use a variety of methods to relate sensory inputs to subjective perception! They have found that absolute thresholds are not really absolute! Weber"s law states that the size of a just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus! Fechner"s law asserts that larger and larger increases in stimulus intensity are required to produce just noticeable differences in the magnitude of sensation! The detection of sensory inputs is in uenced by noise in the system and by decision making strategies! Signal-detection theory replaces fechner"s sharp threshold with the concept of detectability and emphasizes that factors besides stimulus intensify in uence detectability! The effects of subliminal perception are relatively weak and of little/no practical concern! Prolonged stimulation may lead to sensory adaptation (reduction in sensitivity to constant stimulation. Light varies in terms of wavelength, amplitude, and purity! Light enters through the cornea and pupil, and is focused upside down on the retina by the lens!