AP psy u3 d4-5

Hearing/Sound

  • Frequency: the number of complete wavelengths that pass a given amount of time

    • Determines pitch: or a tone’s highness or lowness

  • Amplitude: determines loudness

    • 10 Decibels = 10x sound intensity

  • Place theory

    • the theory's that (a) sounds of different frequencies different places along the basilar membrane and (B) pitch is coded by the place of maximal stimulation

      • weakness: doesn’t explain low pitch sounds

  • Frequency theory

    • rate of never impulses travelling up auditory nerve matches frequency of a tone

    • suggests that whole basilar membrane vibrates

    • Weaknesss: can’t explain high pitch soudn’s

  • Volley theory

    • the principle that individual fibers in an auditory nerve responded to one or another stimulus in rapid succession .

  • place theory = high

  • Freq = low

  • Some combination of place and frequency handles middle pitches

  • How we locate sound

    • Volume in ears

    • Frequency shading

    • Time delay

    • Phase difference'

  • Types of hearing loss:

    • Sensorineural: nerve damage, damage to cochle’s receptor cells

    • Conduction: technical damage to the system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

  • Olfaction: the sense of smell, involving stimulation of receptor cells in the olfactory epithelium by airborne volatile substances called odorants

  • Olfactory cells: carry info to olfactory bulb

  • Olfactory bulb: activates prefrontal cortex

  • Pheromones

    • Some species orders used as a form of chemical communication

  • Gustation: the sense of taste

  • Types of taste

    • Sweet

    • Sour

    • Salty

    • Bitter

    • Umami (savoriness)

    • Oleo Gustus (a taste for fat)

  • Taste cell: receptor cell for gustatory stimuli

  • Non tasters are unable to taste the chemical propylthiouracil (PROP), a bitter compound

  • Medium tasters are people with an average number of taste buds; they taste the bitter prop at and avg/medium level

  • Supertasters are ppl who are extremely sensitive to taste, have a high number of taste buds. Women more likely.

  • Sensory interaction: without the sense of smell, taste sensations are mute

Touch

  • Warm/Cold receptors: basic skin sensations include cold, warmth, pressure, and pain. A part of central nervous which monitors temperature of core and organs.

  • Pain: experience evoked by harmful stimulus; directs our attention towards danger

  • Nociceptor: a sensory receptor that responds to stimuli that are painful or determinate to organism

  • Pain is not triggered by one stimulus, and at certain intensities other stimulus can cause pain.

  • Gate control theory: brain can only focus on one pain stimulus at a time

    • pain msgs travel along a set of spinal cord never fibers.

    • Fibers carrying pain messages have pain gates

    • the non-pain fibers however can sometimes close the pain gates if there is competing stimulation

  • Top-down processing can also occur during the pain experience because ur brain plays a key role in whether you will perceive pain and how that perception will occur.

  • Phantom limb pain: the person feels pain in area of amputated limb, often manifested as a tingling or painful sensation in missing limb

  • Phantom limb sensations suggest that the brain can misinterpret spontaneous center nervous system activity that till occurs even when normal sensory input

  • Vestibular sense: controls balance and is primarily detected by the semicircular canals and structures in the brain

  • Kinesthesis the sense of one’s body movement; provides information through receptors in the muscles tendons and joints enabling humans and other animals to control and coordinate their movements, including walking, talking, facial