1 | P a g e | © copyright 2024/2025 | Grade A+
SJSU PSYC 158 Exam 1 Questions
and Correct Verified Answers Latest
Version
sensation
✓ initial processes of detecting and encoding environmental energy
perception
✓ conscious experience of objects and their relationships (resulting from
psychological processes in which meaning, relationships, context,
judgment, past experience, and memory may play a role)
✓ -e.g., your awareness of seeing a cat
Psychophysics
✓ the study of the quantitative relationship between physical properties
of the world and our psychological perception of these properties
Gustav Fechner
absolute threshold
Master01 | September, 2024/2025 | Latest update
, 1 | P a g e | © copyright 2024/2025 | Grade A+
✓ the smallest amount of stimulus energy necessary to detect a
stimulus•e.g., What is the dimmest light that you can detect?
psychometric function
✓ curve of percentage detection versus intensity
I. Method of Limits
✓ begin with undetectable stimulus; gradually increase intensity until
subject detects it (and vice versa)•
✓
✓ subject responds yes or no
✓
✓ below threshold, you would never detect
✓
✓ above threshold, you would always detect
✓
✓
✓ absolute threshold is the intensity that is detected 50% of the time
II. Method of Adjustment
Master01 | September, 2024/2025 | Latest update
, 1 | P a g e | © copyright 2024/2025 | Grade A+
✓ •a variant of Method of Limits
✓
✓ •start with undetectable stimulus
✓
✓ •subject presses button to make stimulus stronger
✓
✓ •stop when they detect the stimulus
✓
✓ •(and vice versa - start with detectable and adjust until undetectable)
III. Method of Constant Stimuli
✓ •similar to Method of Limits, except stimuli are not presented in order of
strength (rather, random order)
✓
✓ •subject does not know what change to expect
Difference Threshold
Master01 | September, 2024/2025 | Latest update
SJSU PSYC 158 Exam 1 Questions
and Correct Verified Answers Latest
Version
sensation
✓ initial processes of detecting and encoding environmental energy
perception
✓ conscious experience of objects and their relationships (resulting from
psychological processes in which meaning, relationships, context,
judgment, past experience, and memory may play a role)
✓ -e.g., your awareness of seeing a cat
Psychophysics
✓ the study of the quantitative relationship between physical properties
of the world and our psychological perception of these properties
Gustav Fechner
absolute threshold
Master01 | September, 2024/2025 | Latest update
, 1 | P a g e | © copyright 2024/2025 | Grade A+
✓ the smallest amount of stimulus energy necessary to detect a
stimulus•e.g., What is the dimmest light that you can detect?
psychometric function
✓ curve of percentage detection versus intensity
I. Method of Limits
✓ begin with undetectable stimulus; gradually increase intensity until
subject detects it (and vice versa)•
✓
✓ subject responds yes or no
✓
✓ below threshold, you would never detect
✓
✓ above threshold, you would always detect
✓
✓
✓ absolute threshold is the intensity that is detected 50% of the time
II. Method of Adjustment
Master01 | September, 2024/2025 | Latest update
, 1 | P a g e | © copyright 2024/2025 | Grade A+
✓ •a variant of Method of Limits
✓
✓ •start with undetectable stimulus
✓
✓ •subject presses button to make stimulus stronger
✓
✓ •stop when they detect the stimulus
✓
✓ •(and vice versa - start with detectable and adjust until undetectable)
III. Method of Constant Stimuli
✓ •similar to Method of Limits, except stimuli are not presented in order of
strength (rather, random order)
✓
✓ •subject does not know what change to expect
Difference Threshold
Master01 | September, 2024/2025 | Latest update
