01:830:301 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Gustav Fechner, Absolute Threshold, Treatment As Prevention
Document Summary
Approaches to the study of perception; psychophysical methods. How to approach the study of perception of any complex system: Study the system at different levels of analysis: Psychophysics - gustav fechner invented psychophysics in an attempt to relate changes in the physical world to changes in our psychological experiences. Fechner had 3 psychophysical methods: method of constant stimuli, method of limits, method of adjustment. Absolute threshold - minimum intensity needed to evoke a sensation - boundary between undetectable and detectable. Difference threshold - minimum change in intensity that leads to a noticeably different stimulus, boundary between look the same and look different . Weber"s law - the relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation that says the just noticeable difference is a constant fraction of the comparison stimulus. Each difference threshold corresponds to a just noticeable difference. Method of constant stimuli: a psychophysical method in which many stimuli, ranging from rarely to almost always perceivable are presented one at a time.
