PSY 217 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Insular Cortex, Brainstem, Basilar Membrane

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 217
• Professor: Jalene Ray

Document Summary

Sensation is the stimulation of sense organs. Perception is the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input. Psychophysics the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience. A threshold is a dividing point between energy levels that do and do not have a detectable effect. An absolute threshold for a specific type of sensory input is the minimum amount of stimulation that an organism can detect. Define the boundaries of an organism"s sensory capabilities. A just noticeable different (jnd) is the smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect. Jnds vary by sense, and the smallest detectable difference is a fairly stable proportion of the size of the original stimulus. Weber"s law: states that the size of a jnd is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus. Therefore, as stimuli increase in magnitude, the jnd becomes larger.