01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Detection Theory, Absolute Threshold, Neural Adaptation

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Dr.John Ackroff

Document Summary

Sensation is referred to as being bottom-up processing, detecting environmental stimuli from senses up to the brain. Sensing the world: some basic principles: an absolute threshold is the lowest amount of stimulus needed to notice it 50% of the time. For example, you turn down the radio to a point where you only hear the faint sound half the time. Then that loudness (decibel) is your absolute threshold for sound: but your detection of a stimulus also depends on your state of arousal, expectations, experiences, and motivation. This is described by the signal detection theory predicting when we will notice a weak stimulus (signal): a stimulus is subliminal if it is below your absolute threshold, you detect it less than 50% of the time. For instance, a microscopic cell is subliminal to you because you cannot see it with your naked eye.