[PSYC 100] - Final Exam Guide - Everything you need to know! (42 pages long)

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Penelope Kostopoulos

Document Summary

Sensation- detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send info to the brain. Illusion- perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn"t match its physical reality. Perception- the brains interpretation of raw sensory inputs. Process by which nervous system converts an external stimulus into electrical signals within neurons. Specialized cells called sense receptors convert external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system. Sensory adaptation: activation is greatest when we detect a stimulus, after this behavioral response declines in strength psychophysics- the study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics. Absolute threshold: lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50 percent of the time when no other stimuli of that type are present. Jnd (just noticeable difference): the smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect. Selective attention: process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring/minimizing others.