Lecture 1: Intro + Perception Flashcards

• The world is made up of
  • atoms: collide with one another
  • sensations: caused by these make contact with our sense organs

A receptor that converts physical energy from the environment into neural energy

• The ability to detect a stimulus + to turn that detection into a private experience.
• the result of the physical interaction between the world and our bodies

• The act of giving meaning to a detected sensation
• the processing and interpretation of sensations

a psychophysical theory that quantifies the response of an observer to the presentation of a signal in the presence of noise

The idea that the mind and matter are formed from, or reducible to, a single ultimate substance or principle of being

• The idea that physical matter is the only reality,
• everything including the mind can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.

• Another form of monism
• The idea that the mind is the true reality
• objects exist only as aspects of the mind’s awareness

• Originated by Descartes
• the idea positing the existence of two distinct principles of
  being in the universe
  • spirit/soul and matter/body

• Sensory systems provide a survival advantage
• Importance of type of energy in the environment
  for an animal determines which senses have
  developed
• Human senses are limited to only certain kinds of
  energy in the environment
  • Therefore, humans’ sense of reality is also limited

• A reduction in response caused by
  prior or continuing stimulation
• No change in stimulation = our senses
  adapt
  • we no longer notice the stimulation

• the mind produces ideas that are not derived from external sources
• we have abilities that are innate and not learned

both mind and body exist and are separate entities

• argued for mind-body dualism,
• the universe consists of spirit/soul and matter/body

• All knowledge comes through the senses (perception)
  
  • Opposed to nativism, which says that some
    knowledge is innate

• believed that everything that could ever be known or imagined had to be learned through the senses

• aim to explain how all thoughts, even complex ones, could be constructed from EXPERIENCE with a collection of sensations

• studied ways in which perception is limited to the information available to us through our eyes
  • All of our knowledge about the world must come from experience, (no matter how limited perception may be)

Finding the limits of what can be perceived.

Measuring private experience.

Measuring difficult decisions.

The biology of sensation and perception.

An image of the mind

Change across the lifespan.

• invented “psychophysics”
• considered to be the true founder of experimental psychology

The science of defining quantitative relationships between physical and psychological (subjective) events

• The mind has an existence separate from the material world of the body.

• The only thing that exists is matter
• all things, including mind and consciousness = interactions between bits of matter.

• The mind exists as a property of all matter
  • all matter has consciousness.
    

1. Two-point threshold
2. Just noticeable difference (JND)
3. Absolute threshold

• the minimum distance at which two stimuli (e.g., two
  simultaneous touches) can be distinguished

• The smallest detectable difference between
  two stimuli, or the minimum change in a
  stimulus
  • that can be correctly judged as
    different from a reference stimulus
  • also known as difference threshold.

• The minimum amount of stimulation necessary for a person to
  detect a stimulus 50% of the time.

• “Weber’s Law”
  • the smallest change in a stimulus (that can be detected) = a constant proportion of the stimulus level
• As stimulus level increases or
  decreases,
  • the magnitude of change must increase proportionately = remain
    noticeable

• principle describing the relationship between
  stimulus magnitude and resulting sensation magnitude
  • that the magnitude of subjective sensation increases
    proportionally to stimulus intensity (logarithm)

• many stimuli = rarely to always perceivable
• presented one at a time
  • "I don't hear it." => "I hear it."

• magnitude/difference btn 2 stimuli varied incrementally
  • until participant responds differently

• The participant assigns values according to the perceived magnitudes of the stimuli
• S = al^b

The participant matches the intensity of a sensation in one sensory modality
with the intensity of a sensation in another

• A psychophysical theory that
  quantifies the response of an observer to the presentation
  of a signal in the presence of noise

1. Hit
2. Miss
3. False Alarm
4. Correct Junction

• Stimulus is presented
• observer responds “Yes”

• Stimulus is presented
• observer responds “No”

• Stimulus is not presented
• observer responds “Yes”

• Stimulus is not presented
• observer responds “No”

• In studies of signal detection,
• the graphical plot of the hit rate as a function of the false alarm rate

• A principle describing the
  relationship between stimulus magnitude + resulting
  sensation magnitude
• the magnitude of
  subjective sensation = proportional to the stimulus
  magnitude raised to an exponent

• Twelve pairs of nerves (one for each side of the body) that originate in the brain stem
• reach sense organs and muscles through openings in the
  skull

• Olfactory (I) nerves
• Optic (II) nerves
• Auditory (VIII) nerves

• Oculomotor (III)
• Trochlear (IV) nerves
• Abducens (VI) nerves

• First person to measure the speed of neural impulses
• Invented the ophthalmoscope
• Wrote On the Sensations of Tone (1863)
  • one of the first studies of auditory perception

• Created incredibly detailed drawings of neurons and neural structure

The junction between neurons that permits information transfer

A chemical substance used in
neuronal communication at synapses

• method of constant stimuli
• method of limits
• SDT
• adaptive testing

• weber's law
• choice response time

• fechner's law (indirect)
• Stevens' Law (direct)

• information theory
• channel capacity
• identification time

the minimum distance at which 2 stimuli can be distinguished

• in studies of signal detection
• the graphical plot of the hit rate as a function of the false alarm rate
• good performance (high sensitivity) "bows out" towards upper left corner

• a values that defines the ease with which an observer can tell the difference between the presence and absence of a stimulus
  • difference between stimulus 1 and stimulus 2

• an internal threshold that is set by the observer
  • internal response above criterion => observer gives 1 response
  • below criterion => observer gives another response

• Johannes Muller
• nature of a sensation depends on what sensory fibers are stimulated
  • not how fibers are stimulated
• auditory nerves = auditory info