01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Detection Theory, Response Bias, Prosopagnosia

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Keiko Taga Brynildsen

Document Summary

Sensation: process by which sensory organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain. Perception: process by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets sensations: ex. prosopagnosia = able to sense faces, but cannot recognize (perceive) them. Transduction: translation of physical energy into electrical signals. Receptors: specialized nerve cells in sensory organs that are responsible for transduction. Bottom-up processing: starts with raw sensory data that feeds up to the brain: ex. see that pen is red, but do not know that it is a pen. Top-down processing: starts with observer"s expectations and knowledge: ex. already know it"s a pen. Absolute threshold: minimal amount of stimulation that can be detected half of the time: varies person to person, situation to situation, i. e. hearing tests (tones) Ratio of change required: weight: 2, light: 8, tone: 0. 3% Habituation and sensory adaptation: habituation: repeated presentation of a stimulus leads to less attention.