PSYC 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Sensory Neuron, Limen, Electric Shock

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2220
• Professor: Laurie Wilcox

Document Summary

Stage 5- perception: occurs as a conscious experience. Studying perception (stimuli-perception: physiological approach measures the relationship between stimuli (steps 1-2) & physiology (steps 3-4) and physiology & behaviour (steps 5-7, the relationship between the physical and perceptual world can be studied using psychophysical methods. Psychophysics: the study of the relationship between the physical stimulus and our perception of the stimulus, developed by gustav fechner-the original set of psychophysical methods, to allow quantitative evaluation of sensory thresholds. In the 1800s it was thought that sensation was beyond the realm of science: absolute threshold, the smallest amount of energy that"s needed to detect a stimulus, ex. the lowest loudness that"s needed to just detect the sound. In addition to absolute thresholds, fechner described weber"s research on difference thresholds. Jnd & weber"s law: classic experience with weights, as stimulus size increases so does jnd, weber"s law: jnd/s=k, s=stimulus, k=constant, jnd=s*k. If k=5/100=0. 05 what is jnd if s =200: jnd=10.