PSYC 2390 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Birthday Cake, Gustav Fechner, Absolute Threshold

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2390
• Professor: Naseem Al- Aidroos

Document Summary

Gustav fechner (1801-1887): goal: both a philosopher and physicist. *discovering relationship between physics of the stimulus (external) and (internal) psychological reactions to them. A threshold is the divide between not sensing and sensing. Absolute threshold is the very faintest thing you can sense/ the least intense thing you can sense. If you have a high absolute threshold that means you have low sensitivity. If you have a low absolute threshold that means you have high sensitivity: findings related to absolute threshold. S(cid:373)oki(cid:374)g i(cid:374)(cid:272)reases your a(cid:271)solute threshold for taste (cid:894)(cid:272)a(cid:374)"t taste thi(cid:374)gs as well(cid:895) Alcohol effects increases your threshold to taste (especially bitter taste) Aspirin increases your absolute threshold for hearing (sound has to be louder for you to hear it) Females have lower threshold than men for a lot of things: estrogen decreases the threshold for smells and testosterone increases the threshold for smell.