Define Psychophysics and Summarize the Contributions of...

Define psychophysics and summarize the contributions of Fechner and Weber. Psychophysics is the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the behavior or mental experiences the stimuli evoke. Gustav Fechner was the most significant figure in history of psychophysics. He provided a set of procedures to relate the intensity of a physical stimulus (measured in physical units) to the magnitude of the sensory experience ( measured in psychological units). It has been determined that there are different thresholds. Absolute threshold is the smallest detectable level of stimulus. I can speak personally on this topic because I have taken many hearing tests, which is absolute threshold test. An issue that occurs is that at these†¦show more content†¦Simple cells respond to bars of light in the â€Å"favorite† orientation (Psychology and Life). Complex cells are the same as simple except complex cells like to keep moving. Hypercomplex cells require moving bars of a particular length, moving corners or angles. The cells provide types of i nformation to higher visual centers in the brain that ultimately allow the brain to recognize objects (Psychology and Life). Describe classical conditioning. Classical conditioning was introduced by famous Physiologist Ivan Pavlov. It involves presentation of neutral stimulus along with another significant stimulus â€Å"unconditional stimulus†. Pavlov came upon this theory because he was initially conducting another expirement were he put meat powder in the dogs mouth so he could measure digestive secretions and saliva. But with this he noticed that the dog would start salivating just by the site of the meat powder, the by the site of the assistant taking the meat powder, then as time went on anything that associated itself with the meat powder produced salivation in the dog. Pavlov went on to conduct his classical conditioning which was were he chained a dog to a machine that measured the quantity the dog salivated. At regular intervals a tone was sounded that was followed with a bit of food. The tone itself had no importance to the dog except for an orientating response that had the dog curious to find were the tone came from. Combining the tone with a bit of food