PSYCH 10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Prosopagnosia, Achromatopsia, Railways Act 1921
Document Summary
Sensation: detecting physical stimuli and sending this info to the brain. Transduction: converting one form of energy to another. Sensory transduction converts physical stimuli to neural impulses. Bottom-up processing: perception based on physical features of the stimulus from basic level up to more complex. Top-down: how knowledge, expectations, or past experiences shape the interpretation of sensory info. Absolute threshold: the minimum intensity of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time (more than chance) Ex: a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in two gallons of water. People detect there"s a difference after one teaspoon. Difference threshold: minimum difference between two stimuli needed to detect a difference between them 50% of the time. Cutting hair--u ask to cut 1 inch, and get 1/4 inch cut. As intensity increases, we get less sensitive to change. Ex: harder to tell difference between 100 candies and 105 candies, rather than 10 and 5 candies.
