PSYC 4031 Chapter : Chapter2 Book
Document Summary
The study of the relationship b/t properties of physical stimuli and psychological reactions to those properties is called psychophysics. The impact of the physical stimulus on the observer is labeled subjective experience. This dimension is largely unobservable to the outside world. What we mean by subjective experience is the person"s perceptual experience and the brain-cell activity produced by the stimulus. Although we can measure the physical stimulus with great precision, its effect on the observer is not so simple. According to figure 2. 1, the physical stimulus causes a range of subjective experience. This is intended to illustrate that many factors can lead the same stimulus to be perceived differently on different occasions. This variation produces a distribution of assorted levels of subjective experience over time. One of the first problems confronting the psychophysicist is the relationship b/t physical energy and subjective experience is not one-to-one, but one-to-many.
