Cognitive Psychology: Perception and psychophysics — Thresholds and Psychophysical Laws
How psychologists measure the faintest sensation and the smallest noticeable change, and why perception tracks ratios rather than amounts.
Try 3 questions
1. What does the field of psychophysics study?
- How mental illness changes behavior
- How brain cells consume energy
- How physical stimuli relate to sensations
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Answer: How physical stimuli relate to sensations
Psychophysics measures the lawful relationship between the physical intensity of a stimulus and the strength of what we experience.
2. Who founded psychophysics with his 1860 book Elements of Psychophysics?
- Gustav Fechner
- Sigmund Freud
- Ivan Pavlov
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Answer: Gustav Fechner
Fechner, a German physicist and philosopher, set out to measure the mind by linking sensation to stimulus intensity mathematically.
3. How is the absolute threshold usually defined in psychophysics?
- The weakest stimulus ever detected even once
- The strongest stimulus before it becomes painful
- The weakest stimulus detected 50% of the time
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Answer: The weakest stimulus detected 50% of the time
Because detection near the limit is inconsistent, researchers take the intensity a person detects on half of the trials.
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