Sensation and Perception

Sensation: the stimulation of sense organs; ex. involves the absorption of energy by sensory organs
Perception: the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory organs; ex. organizing and translating sensory input into something meaningful
Psychophysics
1. Thresholds: Looking for Limits
  1. Absolute threshold: the minimum amount of stimulation that an organism can detect; i.e. as stimulus intensity increases, subjects' probability of responding to stimuli gradually increases (the stimulus intensity detected 50% of the time)
  2. the JND (Fechner): the smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect
    1. Weber's law: the size of a JND is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus
2. Fechner's law: the magnitude of a sensory experience is proportional to the number of JNDs that the stimulus causing the experience is above the absolute threshold
  1. constant increments in stimulus intensity produce smaller and smaller increases in the perceived magnitude of sensation; ex. three bulbs of the same voltage
3. Signal detection theory: the detection of a stimuli involves decision processes as well as sensory processes, which are both influenced by a variety of factors besides stimulus intensity
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	Created by cortneyatkinson over 11 years ago