Lecture 3 - Psychophysical Measurements

Question 1

Physiological response

Answer 1

when we are looking at just the relationship and the stimuli and how it is perceived

looking for an operational definition: some overt behavior

psychological response to physical stimulus

Question 2

Psychophysics

Answer 2

trying to understand the relationship between physical stimuli and psychological states

Question 3

early responses, first stage in physiological response

Answer 3

what the physiology does immediately when you have some proximal stimulus interacting with receptors

the interaction occurring between the proximal stimulus and the sensory organ itself

how is the sensory organ interacting with that proximal stimulus?

Question 4

later response, second stage

Answer 4

what processing occurs after that initial response?

light hits the eye, starts interacting with the cells in the retina, travels back to the occipital CORTEX (a lot of processing)

Question 5

Qualitative Measures

Answer 5

are really DESCRIPTIVE

broad characterization of some phenomenon (phenomenological method)

however you want to characterize or describe what’s going on: it’s just your description, open ended

RECOGNITION: able to name the stimulus or identify what category it belongs to

Question 6

What are qualitative methods useful for?

Answer 6

are more useful in clinical settings to asses behavioral or sensory dysfunction

Question 7

sensory modality

Answer 7

the channel or medium in which the information is coming in

EX: a visual modality (light coming into the eye), auditory (air pressure coming into the ears)

Question 8

Quantitative Methods

Answer 8

what can it do? how sensitive is it? what are the thresholds?

Detection

Magnitude estimation

Visual search and reaction time

Question 9

Detection

Answer 9

absolute threshold

difference threshold

Question 10

absolute threshold

Answer 10

just how much signal needs to come in for that system to say “yes something is present”

smallest amount of stimulus energy required for detection

Question 11

Difference Threshold

Answer 11

is something that is relative

smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected

light (is one brighter than another), weight (is one heavier than another)

Question 12

magnitude estimation

Answer 12

once the light or sound is there, how big is it? how much seems to be there to that sensory system?

Question 13

visual search and reaction time

Answer 13

how quickly you can do something

how quickly you can search and find something