Which field studies how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experiences?

Psychophysics is the field that specifically examines the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce. This discipline investigates how characteristics of stimuli, such as intensity or duration, relate to the psychological experiences that result from them. For instance, it explores how the intensity of a sound affects our perception of its loudness or how varying wavelengths of light impact our experience of color.

Psychophysics employs experimental methods to quantify the relationship between stimuli and perception, often utilizing thresholds (minimum levels of stimulus detection) and scaling (how we gauge the intensity of our experiences). This focus on sensory perception and the quantification of psychological response makes psychophysics distinct and central to understanding the foundations of perception in psychological experiences.

In contrast, fields like neuroscience focus more on the biological underpinnings of behavior and mental processes, cognitive psychology examines higher mental processes like thinking and memory, and behavioral psychology centers on observable behavior rather than the processes behind sensory experiences.