Chapter 4 - Sensation and Perception

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

awareness of stimulus due to stimulation of a sense organ

Question 1

perception

Answer 1

organization, identification and interpretation of a sensation to form mental representations

Question 2

what are the traditional senses

Answer 2

touch, smell, sight, taste and hearing

Question 3

psychophysics

Answer 3

methods that measure strength of a stimulus and the observers sensitivity to that stimulus

Question 4

absolute threshold

Answer 4

the minimal intensity required to detect stimulus

Question 5

just noticeable difference (JND)

Answer 5

the minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50% of the time

Question 6

Weber’s law

Answer 6

JND is a constant proportion of the standard - this proportion is called the Weber fraction

Question 7

signal detection theory (SDT)

Answer 7

assumes that a stimulus is always presented against a background of noise.
- liberal response criterion: many hits, but also many false alarms
- conservative response criterion: many correct rejection but also many misses

Question 8

D-prime (D’ or d’)

Answer 8

a measure of sensitivity