Lecture 2 Flashcards
two-point touch threshold
closest distance 2 points of stimulation (touch) can be and still be perceived as 2 distinct points
just noticeable difference
the minimum intensity needed to perceive a difference between two stimuli [about 50% of the time]
Weber’s law
describes the relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation stating that the just noticeable difference is a constant fraction of the comparison stimulus
because of how webers law works larger stimulus values have _____ just noticeable differences and vice versa
larger
nominal scale
asked to categorize between two options that have no quantitative order
ordinal scale
asked to rank things on a scale to represent non-mathematical ideas
interval scale
defined as a numerical scale where the order of the variables and the difference between them is well known
ratio scale
produces the order of the variables but makes the difference between the known variables along with a true zero option
It is the only kind of scaling method that allows you to do many forms of statistics without jumping through hoops
ratio scale
Fechner’s law
perceived intensity of a stimulus increases logarithmically as the physical intensity of the stimulus increases; the difference has to increase exponentially
Fetch log; pneumonic for
Fetchner’s law
magnitude estimation (scaling method)
subjects assign values according to perceived magnitudes of stimulus
response expansion
the perception increases faster than the stimulus
response compression
perception increases slower than the stimulus
cross-modality matching
subjects are asked to match the intensities of sensations that come from different sensory modalities
if a subject says something ‘tastes like the sound of an engine’, they are participating in
cross-modality matching
noise
any competing stimuli
signal detection theory
body of research that studies the detection of signals in noise
Santiago Ramon y Cajal
created detailed drawings of neurons and neural structures; discovered the synapse
doctrine of specific nerve energies
states that the nature of sensation depends on which sensory fibers are stimulated not how they’re stimulated
there are ______ pairs cranial nerves
12
cranial nerves connect
sensory organs and muscles to the brain stem
there are ______ pairs of spinal nerves
31
each spinal nerve has a
sensory and motor component
cranial and spinal nerves come in pairs because
one of each pair is for each side of the body
