Week 7 Flashcards
What is the sensory system’s job?
It is the sensory system’s job to measure and transmit all different kinds of information, from visual, to auditory, to chemical, to physical.
What is transduction?
Transduction is converting outside information into action potentials.
What is sensation?
Sensation: process of gathering information through our senses
What is perception?
Perception: organize and understand the information taken in by our senses.
What is the basic process of sensation?
An external stimulus, a physiological response of receptor cells to the stimulus, then the cognitive analysis/ understanding of the stimulus.
Why do we have a sensory filter/gate?
Too much information could be overwhelming, which is why we sense only a limited spectrum of the world around us.
What is sensory adaptation?
Sensory adaptation is when the environment is static, senses tend to reset themselves to match this new static state, because this maximizes the chances of detecting a change in the environment.
What is sensory fatigue?
Sensory fatigue is when the senses typically adapt to being constantly presented with a stimulus by firing less often.
What is absolute threshold?
Absolute threshold is the smallest amount of stimulus that can be detected, different for different senses.
What is signal detection theory?
Signal detection theory focuses on the response bias of observers. That is, the motivation to find a signal versus the motivation to avoid making a mistake. (identifying a signal when there isn’t one).
How are observers’ responses categorized?
Hit (correctly detecting a stimulus), miss (miss a stimulus), false alarm (false hit when there isn’t a stimulus), and correct rejection (knowing that no stimulus is there).
What is psychophysics?
Psychophysics studies the relationship between an external stimulus and the perceptual experience that it evokes in the mind.
What are the common goals of psychophysics?
Determine the absolute threshold of each sense.
What was the minimum difference between two stimuli in order to detect a change called?
Just noticeable difference or difference threshold
What is Weber’s fraction?
Just noticeable difference (jnd)/ original intensity
