Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Hermann Von Helmholtz, Basilar Membrane, Sensory Threshold

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Sensation: stimulation of the sense organs (looking with your eyes) Perception: selection, organization and interpretation of sensory input. (seeing with your brain) Psychophysics: the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience. Stimulus: information from the environment that is picked up by receptors in our nervous system. Absolute threshold: when a stimulus is detected 50 percent of the time. Difference threshold (aka just noticeable difference (jnd)): the minimal amount the stimulus needs to be increased (or decreased) to be judged as different from the original stimulus. Weber"s law: the different threshold (or jnd) is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made. Smaller the fraction, the more sensitive the sensory system is. Sensory adaptation (habituation): the diminishing sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time. (ie. adapting to the feel of a watch on your wrist or adapting to the heat of a pool)