PSYC 213 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Computer Data Storage, Phineas Gage, Information Theory
Document Summary
Looking at how much information a stimulus will contain. If you choose a number from 1 to 10, say, 4 and someone guesses your number right, you may be a little surprised. If you choose a number from 1 to 1000, say, 91, and someone guesses your number right, you will be very surprised. Information theory is not about the stimulus itself, but about all of the possibilities that you could have chosen instead of that particular one. If someone says (cid:498)my favorite day of the week is ____(cid:499) If someone says, (cid:498)you wouldn"t believe what i saw on the street the other day(cid:499) The word that fills in the blank is a low information word because there are only seven choices. The answer to that is high in information because there is an infinite amount of answers. The more information, the slower the reaction time.
