Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Optic Nerve, Refractive Error, James Vicary

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Laura Fazakas- De Hoog

Document Summary

Perception: selection, organization and interpretation of sensory input. Psychophysics - the study of how physical stimulus are translated into psychological experience. Difference threshold: the minimal amount the stimulus needs to be increased (or decreased) to be judged as different from the original stimuli. Weber"s law: the difference threshold is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made (expressed as weber fraction) Receptors translate stimulus properties into nerve impulses (transduction) Neural representation is compared with previously stored info in brain. Matching process results in recognition and interpretation of stimuli. Sensory adaptation: the diminishing sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time. Survival value: attend to new stimuli in the environment. Subliminal stimuli: stimuli that register on our nervous system but are below our sensory threshold. Little effect on behaviour, only small effect on attitudes. Frequency: number of sound waves per second (pitch) Amplitude: vertical size of the sound waves (loudness)