Unit 3 Free Response

Unit 3 Free Response Directions: You MUST answer TWO questions below to receive full credit, please do not attempt more ONLY the first TWO will be graded. Please remember a paragraph per term (bullet point). Remember to first define the term and then apply the scenario. 1. Use the following terms to describe in detail how you visually perceive an object that you can see right now. Use the terms in order to correctly describe the sequence of events involved in your example of visual perception. The subject I'll be using to describe visual perception is a frog stuffed animal. To see your stuffed animal, light first must pass through your pupil. Light is electromagnetic radiation within a spectrum that our human eyes are able to see. A pupil is a small adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light passes. The light is then reflected back on the pupil, which activates neurons in the retina. The retina is a light-sensitive inner surface of the eye. In fact, the retina contains millions of those light-sensitive cells, which are called rods and cones. After the rods and cones, layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information. The retina sends this light information to our brain to your brain through your optic nerve, allowing us to see. Transduction is the process in which light energy is converted to a neural signal in a photosensitive cell containing a retinal photoreceptor. These energies are converted by electrical signals in the rod and cone cells, as I previously spoke about in the retina. Light waves that are reflected off the frog stuffed animal are changed into neural impulses through transduction at the point of the retina. Action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. Action potentials are then released once the neurons fire; due to the ganglion cells now being stimulated by the bipolar cells. sending off an electrical charge through the neuron. The retina has the cells which fire action potentials to the brain. Excitatory neurotransmitters are released once the action potential reaches the axon terminal. Excitatory neurotransmitters increase the likelihood that the neuron will fire an action potential, meaning that once the action potential reaches the axon terminal, there's a chance another neuron will fire. Neural Messages from the retina are then passed through the thalamus. The thalamus is located near the center of the brain, it relays motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex. The thalamus receives this information from the retina, where we previously spoke about action potentials; then routes the impulse to the cerebral cortex. We are then able to use our feature detector to understand who we’re seeing. A feature detector are neurons in the visual cortex. These neurons help us receive visual information and respond to certain visually stimulating features such as lines, angles, movements, etc. The feature detector is given the information from the thalamus which then allows us to understand what we’re seeing. • Pupil • Retina • Transduction • Action potential • Excitatory neurotransmitter • Thalamus • Feature detector 2. Psychologists who study the processes of sensation and perception often describe why we do perceive some stimuli, but equally important is the study of why we do not perceive some stimuli. Use the following terms to explain why we sometimes fail to perceive stimuli. • change blindness • inattentional blindness • absolute threshold • difference threshold • blind spot • sensorineural hearing loss 3. Use the following terms to describe in detail how you perceive music that you can hear. Use the terms in order to correctly describe the sequence of events involved in your explanation of audio perception. Our eardrum, otherwise known as the tympanic membrane is a layer of tissue that vibrates in response to sound waves. Instruments release sound waves and those waves travel through the auditory canal and hit our eardrum causing it to vibrate. The vibrations create a movement in the bones of the inner ear. Which causes the next part of the cycle to play. The bones of the inner ear contain the hammer, anvil, and stirrup; they concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window. As the bones move around, the stirrup presses into the thin membrane of the oval window. Due to this compression, the liquid inside the cochlea starts to move around, which then stimulates the hair cells. The hair cells are auditory receptors in the inner ear. The inner hair cells transduce those vibrations caused by sound waves into action potentials, whilst the outer hair cells amplify the vibrations. Transduction is the conversion of one form of energy into another. Different areas of the basilar membrane vibrate according to the frequency that the sound wave conducts through the fluid in the cochlea. The fluid inside the cochlea detects different wave frequencies at different areas of the membrane, which includes amplitude and frequency. Amplitude is measured by the height of wavelengths, the greater the amplitude, the louder the sound. In this situation, amplitude determines how loud or soft the sound is we’re hearing by how strong and tall the wavelengths are, and how long they have to travel to get to where the amplitude is measured in the ear. Pitch, also called frequency, is the degree of highness or lowness of a tone. The action potentials caused by the sound waves are then transmitted along an auditory pathway, which is transferred to the thalamus. In our situation, the pitch is determined by how fast the vibrations of that sound are produced. The thalamus is located near the center of the brain, it relays motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex. The thalamus is made with different nuclei that have different purposes to serve. These are relaying sensory and motor signals, along with regulating our consciousness and alertness. Taking into account our situation, after the soundwaves are done being in the thalamus, it travels to the temporal lobe of the brain for processing. The Temporal Lobe is involved in processing auditory information and with the encoding of memory. The temporal lobe is located right behind our ear and is the second-largest lobe in our brain. The auditory cortex is located inside the temporal lobe and is in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but will also help us understand the meaning of language between other people. Without the temporal lobe, we would not name objects, remember conversations, or recognize different languages. • Eardrum • Bones of the Inner Ear • Transduction • Amplitude • Pitch • Thalamus • Temporal Lobe 4. Your psychology teacher likes to quote song lyrics. One of his favorites is, “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” Part A: Explain this lyric in terms of concepts from this unit by focusing on students who claim not to hear that homework has been assigned, or seen it written on the board, or noted online. • Perceptual set • Schemas • Inattentional blindness Part B: Explain why the students might not realize there is homework assigned due to hearing loss as a result of listening to the music through the ear buds too loudly. • Sensorineural hearing loss • Decibels