PSY100Y5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Moon Illusion, Phi Phenomenon, Cochlea
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PSY100Y5 Full Course Notes
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Ordinary people rely on three types of cues to determine which way is up: visual, gravity, and body direction. Perception is the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input. Psychophysics- the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience. A particularly important contributor to psychophysics was gustav fechner, who published a seminal work on the subject in 1860. Thresholds: looking for limits (what is the weakest detectable stimulus?) This question can be explained with the concept central to psychophysics: the threshold. 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) Absolute threshold is not really absolute (if it"s truly absolute the probability of detecting a stimulus is from 0 to 100%.
