PSY-2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Detection Theory, Jean Piaget, Change Blindness
Document Summary
Absolute threshold- lowest level of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time (the very lowest intensity that our sensory system is able to attend) (a candle light a mile away) You don"t need to know terminal threshold for the exam. Detection depends partly on: experience, expectations, motivation, level of fatigue. Just noticeable difference- minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time (the minimal difference that needs to occur for someone to detect a change) (ex: brightness when moving a light switch) 200lbs, when added 5 more lbs. you don"t notice it) Sensory adaptation occurs because: efficiency- reduced sensitivity to constant sensory info frees us to focus on informative changes in our environment. This echoes a key point about perception- we don"t necessarily perceive the world exactly as it is. Parallel processing- simultaneous/concurrent processing of multiple information stream by the brain: the brain engages in multiple subtasks at the same time.
