PSYCH 2010 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Power Law, Detection Theory, Receiver Operating Characteristic

• School: Clemson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 2010
• Professor: Fred Switzer

Document Summary

**sensation = how our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energy. **perception = organizing and interpreting sensory info, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. There are two thresholds when talking about perception: Absolute threshold = the minimum stimulus that is able to be detected 50% of the time. **signal detection theory = predicts how quickly we can detect stimuli among background stimuli (measured on an roc curve) Difference threshold = the minimum difference between two stimuli that is able to be detected. Jnd = just noticeable difference the exact point at which a difference is noticed. We(cid:271)er"s law = the first approximation that used multiplicative relations. Fe(cid:272)hner"s law = an upgrade of we(cid:271)er"s law using e(cid:454)ponential relations, (cid:271)ut also shown to have flaws. Stephen"s power law = current version of jnd measurement using power relationships between intensity, sense exponent, and sense constant. **sensory adaptation = humans diminish sensitivity with constant stimulation.