Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Detection Theory, Sensory Threshold, Basilar Membrane

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

Document Summary

Our senses: hearing taste, smell touch, vision. Sensation- stimulation of the sense organs (you look with your eyes) Perception- selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input (you see with your brain) Psychophysics- the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience. Psychophysics: basic concepts: stimulus- information in the environment that is picked up by the receptors in our nervous system, sensation- begins with a detectable stimulus. Weber"s law- the difference threshold (or jnd) is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made. Signal detection theory is concerned with the factors that influence sensory judgments. Sensory adaptation (habituation)- the diminishing sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time. Subliminal stimuli- stimuli that register on our ns but are below our sensory threshold. Can they affect behaviour? (cid:883)95(cid:882)"s james vicary- flashed (cid:498)subliminal(cid:499) messages (cid:498)drink coke(cid:499) and (cid:498)eat popcorn(cid:499) Krosnick study (1992: emotional printing and attitudes, effect on attitudes.