PerceptionSensation: stimulus- detection process by which sense organs respond to & translate environmentstimuli into nerve impulses sent to the brainPerception: active process of organizing stimulus input and giving it meaning (brain interprets rawsensory inputs)The process of sensation to perceptionStimulus reception by sensory receptorsReceptors translate stimulus properties into nerve impulses – transductionFeature detectors analyze stimulus featuresStimulus features are reconstructed into neural representationNeutral representation compared with previous stored information in brainMatching process results in recognition and interpretation of stimuliSensation & DetectionBasic principles that guide sensation in all our sensesTransduction– process by which physical energy is converted to neural impulsesSense receptorsin each of the senses transduce specific stimuliPsychophysics is the study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics(Fechner)Detection of sensory input depends on the detectorEvery sense receptor has thresholds for detectionStimulus DetectionAbsolute threshold:lowest level of stimulus that we can detect fifty percent of the time; the minimumamount of stimulation that can be detected; what is the dimmest light, softest sound, weakest smell thatcan be detectedJust noticeable difference (JND):the smallest change in intensity of a stimulus that we can detect(involves Weber’s law); sometimes called difference thresholdWeber’s law: the size of a JND is a constant proportion of the size of an initial stimulus
