| Question | Answer |
| Number of senses? | 11 (5 basic senses, kinesthesis, weight, temperature, pain, time, & vestibular / balance). |
| Receptor neurons? | Cells specialized for each sense; the first contact point. |
| Transduction? | Transforming energy from one form to another. In the eyes, it involves the rods and cones. In the hearing, it's the hair cells in the inner ear. |
| Psychological v. Physiological analysis? | Psychophysical focuses on stimulus-perception relationship (Weber fraction), while Physiological focuses on stimulus-neuronal relationship (receptive fields). |
| Psychophysics? | |
| Psychophysical Tasks? | 1. Absolute Threshold Detection
2. Difference Threshold Discrimination
3. Stimulus Identification
4. Magnitude Estimation |
| Steven's Power Law? | Perceived Magnitude = KSn
-K is some constant
-S is stimulus intensity
-n is some power (usually less than 1) |
| Weber's Law? | DL / S = K, where
-DL is the Difference Limen / the just-noticeable difference (jnd)
-S is the value of the standard stimulus
-K is a constant that varies from one sensory modality to another.
Weber’s Law breaks down at extremes. |
| Psychophysical Methods? | 1. Method of Adjustment
2. Staircase
3. Yes/No vs. Forced Choice
4 Signal Detection (Proportion of Hits vs. False Alarms) |
| Subjectivity of Psychophysical Methods? | Forced choice eliminates subjective criterion (there is a correct answer). Magnitude estimation is inheriently subjective. |
| Effiency of Psychophysical Methods? | Method of Adjustment is most Efficient, but is subjective. Constant stimuli is least efficient. Forced-choice staircase is a good compromise of efficiency and objectivity. Signal Detection is less efficient, but it does give measures of threshold. |
| Signal Detection? | Either:
1. False Alarm
2. Hit
3. Miss
4. Correct Rejection |
| Detectability? | Related to the ratio of Hits and False Alarms (really difference between normal curves divided by standard deviation). |
| Criterion? | -Related to total number of Yes responses (Hits plus False Alarms)
-Different people may have different criteria
-Can be manipulated by changing payoffs. |
| Perceptual Processes? | -Environmental Stimulus
-Attended Stimulus
-Stimulus on the Receptors
-Transduction
-Processing
-Perception
-Recognition
-Action |
