Chapter 1 Flashcards
sensation
The ability to detect a stimulus and, perhaps, to turn that detection into a private experience.
perception
The act of giving meaning to a detected sensation.
qualia
In reference to philosophy, private conscious experiences of sensation or perception.
dualism
The idea that the mind has an existence separate from the material world of the body.
materialism
The idea that the only thing that exists is matter, and that all things, including the mind and consciousness, are the results of interaction between bits of matter.
panpsychism
The idea that the mind exists as a property of all matter, that is that all matter has consciousness.
psychophysics
The science of defining quantitative relationships between physical and psychological (subjective) events.
two-point touch threshold
The minimum distance at which two stimuli are just perceptible as separate.
just noticeable difference (JND) / difference threshold
The smallest detectable difference between two stimuli, or the minimum change in a stimulus that enables it to be correctly judged as different from a reference stimulus.
Weber fraction
The constant of proportionality in Weber’s law.
Weber’s law
The principle describing the relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation that says the JND is a constant fraction of the comparison stimulus.
Fechner’s law
A principle describing the relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation that says the magnitude of subjective sensation increases proportionally to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity.
absolute threshold
The minimum amount of stimulation necessary for a person to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
method of constant stimuli
A psychophysical method in which many stimuli, ranging from rarely to almost always perceivable (or rarely to almost always perceivably different from a reference stimulus), are presented one at a time. Participants respond to each presentation: “yes/no,” “same/different,” and so on.
method of limits
A psychophysical method in which the particular dimension of a stimulus, or the difference between two stimuli, is varied incrementally until the participant responds differently.
method of adjustment
A method of limits in which the participant controls the change in the stimulus
magnitude estimation
A psychophysical method in which the participant assigns values according to perceived magnitudes of the stimuli.
Steven’s power law
A principle describing the relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation that says the magnitude of subjective sensation is proportional to the stimulus magnitude raised to an exponent.
cross-modality matching
The ability to match the intensities of sensations that come from different sensory modalities. This ability allows insight into sensory differences. For example, a listener might adjust the brightness of a light until it matches the loudness of a tone.
supertaster
An individual who experiences the most intense taste sensations. Some stimuli are dramatically more intense for supertasters than for medium tasters or nontasters. Supertasters also tend to experience more intense oral burn and oral touch sensations.