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What is Psychophysics
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Study of relationship between physical properties of stimuli and psychological responses
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What is transduction?
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Process of converting external energy into neural activity at sensory receptor, such as in the retina
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What is a sense receptor?
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Specialized cell for converting the external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system
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What is the absolute threshold?
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The lowest level of a stimulus we can detect on a 50% basis on its own
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What is the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)?
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The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus we can detect
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What is the signal detection theory?
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Has signal to noise ratio, harder to detect signal when background noise increases
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What are the Basic Neural Coding Mechanisms?
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Transduction, sensory coding, and adaptation
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What are the two types of sensory coding?
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1. Temporal coding ( firing pattern; usually signals intensity)
2. Anatomical coding (coded by specific receptor; quality of stimulus)
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What is adaptation?
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Many neurons are most responsive to change in level of stimulus
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What are the 6 parts of the eye?
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Lens, pupil, retina, optic nerve, fovea, blind spot
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What is the lens?
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Focuses near and far (accommodation)
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What is the pupil?
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Dilation and constriction
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What is the retina?
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Transduction
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What is the optic nerve?
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Takes visual information to the brain
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What is the fovea?
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Most sensitive part of retina, acuity, or sharpness of vision
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