PSYC 2220 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Absolute Threshold, Chemoreceptor, Psychophysics
19 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
We are constantly bombarded with visual, auditory, tactile, or chemosensory stimuli. Perception is a private experience thats cannot be exposed to anyone else, and therefore cannot be measured directly. To learn about perception, a quanti able relationship needs to be established between the two variables ( the physical stimulus and the resulting perceptual impression) Qualitative relationships have the advantage of providing an estimate of the perceptual quality of a stmulus in numerical terms so that it can be compared to other stimuli allow comparisons among individuals and even species. There are two approaches to obtaining the precise relationship between physical events and perceptual experiences. Asking subjects to rate the perceived intensity of a certain stimulus, at various physical intensities requires a measure of the smallest change in stimulus input that causes a just discriminable change in sensation. Absolute threshold- the intensity that a stimuli needs to reach before it is registered by the brain as a sensory event.
