Sensation and Perception Basic Issues
Icons:
tiny versions of things we notice.
Doctrine of specific nerve energies:
different nerves respond to different stimuli, and affect different parts of the brain.
Sensation:
how we notice information in the environment, and how this information is sent to the brain.
Perception:
how our brain selects, organizes, and interprets information from our senses - how we make sense of sensations.
Sensory Receptors:
cells on the ends of some neurons that respond to outside stimulation and cause the neuron to fire.
Transduction:
How sensory neurons turn outside stimulation into information neurons can transmit to the brain.
Psychophysics:
The relationship between outside stimulation and internal experience.
Absolute Threshold:
Amount of stimulus we need to consciously notice it.
Subliminal Perception:
stimuli that are too small for us to consciously notice may still affect us (scientists don't know if that's true).
Difference Threshold:
Amount of change in a stimulus needed for us to notice a change.
Weber's Law:
For each sense, there's a percentage increase or decrease we need to notice a change in the stimulus.
Sound pitch: . 3%
Light intensity: 1%
Loudness of sound: 15%
Taste: 20%
Sensory adaptation:
Over time, we notice an unchanging stimulus less.