PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Optic Chiasm, Detection Theory, Color Vision

• School: Humber College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Gerald Goldberg

Document Summary

Involves absorption of energy (ex: light, sound waves) by sensory organs (ears, eyes) Involves organizing + translating sensory input into something meaningful (ex: faces, stimuli) Psychophysics- study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience. Threshold- divdiving point between energy levels that do + don"t have a detectable effect. Specific type of sensory input (minimal amount of stimulation that an organism can detect) Defines boundaries of an organism"s sensory capabilities. Just noticeable difference (jnd)- smallest differences in amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect. Weber"s law- states that size of jnd is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus. Constant proportion (weber fraction)- different fraction apply to different types of sensory input. Magnitude of sensory experience is proportional to the number of jnds that the stimulus causing the experience is above the absolute threshold. Constant increments in stimulus intensity produce smaller and smaller increases in perceived magnitude of sensation.