AUPSY101 Chapter 4: Psych Ch. 4 notes

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Augustana Faculty - Psychology
• Course: AUPSY101
• Professor: Timothy Parker

Document Summary

Synesthesia- a condition in which perceptual or cognitive activities (listening to music, reading) trigger exceptional experiences (colour, taste) Emotional synesthesia- a condition where specific stimuli are consistently and involuntarily associated with emotional responses. Perception- the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input. Psychophysics- the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience. Threshold- a dividing point between energy levels that do and do not have a detectable effect. Absolute threshold- for a specific type of sensory input is the minimum amount of stimulation that an organism can detect. Jnd (just noticeable difference)- the smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect. Weber"s law- the size of a jnd is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus (weber"s fraction) Signal-detection theory- the detection of stimuli involves decision processes as well as sensory processes, which are both influenced by a variety of factors besides stimulus intensity.