PSYC 1010 Chapter : Psychology Unit 2

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Jennifer Steele

Document Summary

Chapter 4: sensation and perception: psychophysics: basic concepts and issues, study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience, thresholds looking for limits. Fechner: what is weakest detectable stimulus for any sensation: threshold: dividing point between energy levels that do and do not have detectable effects (light turning on when it gets dark) Fechner interested in people"s sensitivity to difference between stimuli. Jnd(just noticeable difference) smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect. Weber"s law: strength size of a jnd is constant proportion of the initial stimulus, called weber"s fraction. Psychophysical scaling: fechner used jnd as unit of measurement, fechner"s law : magnitude of sensory experience is proportional to the number of jnds stimulus is above the absolute threshold. Signal detection theory: detection of stimuli involves decision and sensory processes influenced by various factors, can be altered by noise.