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Branches of Psychology

Psychophysics

Human Experimental Psychology

Psychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce. The field applies methods for studying perceptual systems, with particular emphasis on threshold measurement, ideal observer analysis and signal detection theory, and its insights are applied prominently in digital signal processing, where psychophysics guides the development of lossy compression models and methods that explain why humans perceive little quality loss during compressed audio and video transmission.

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Central Question
Psychophysics asks how physical stimuli translate quantitatively into the sensations and perceptions a person experiences, connecting the publicly observable world to a person's privately experienced impression of it. 1
Key Debate
Gustav Fechner's founding introspectionist approach, treating psychology as the science of consciousness, had to contend with the later Behaviorist approach, which held that even a verbal response is as physical an event as the stimulus that provoked it, an unresolved tension between studying observable performance and studying subjective experience. 1
Psychophysics
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1. Psychophysics
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section, opening sentence
    Psychophysics is the field of psychology which quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce.
  • Theoretical Debates discussion, Fechner versus Behaviorism
    the Behaviorist approach in which even verbal responses are as physical as the stimuli
Wikipedia: Stroop Effect
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Stroop Effect Experiments, Categories
Quote, Includes: Stroop Effect Experiments, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Stroop effect' is filed under Category:Psychophysics.
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Wikipedia: Contrast Effect
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Contrast Effect, Categories
Quote, Includes: Contrast Effect, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Contrast effect' is filed under Category:Psychophysics.
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Absolute threshold (Wikipedia)
Includes: Absolute Threshold, Categories
Quote, Includes: Absolute Threshold, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Absolute threshold' is filed under Category:Psychophysics.
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Wikipedia: Coriolis Effect (Perception)
Includes: Coriolis Illusion, Categories
Quote, Includes: Coriolis Illusion, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Coriolis effect (perception)' is filed under Category:Psychophysics.
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