Reading Assignment Unit 4: Sensation Part 1 Due Mon. 10/27

Unit 4: Sensation – Part 1


(10 pts): Due Monday, October, 27th

Bernstein Text Chapter 4, Part 1 – Pp. 104 -116 (through frequency-matching theory)

As you take your Cornell notes DRAW DIAGRAMS of important images. Your notes (and your brain) should contain the answers the following questions when you are done with this assignment:

General Sensation Pp. 104-109
1. What is a phantom limb?
2. Explain whether sensation is objective or subjective?
3. What is a “sense” and what is “sensation?”
4. Describe the difference between sensation and perception.
5. Define accessory structure, transduction, sensory receptor and adaptation.
6. What types of energy do our senses gather?
7. What role does the thalamus play in sensation? Which sense does not go through it?
8. Explain what “coding” is in sensory systems. Describe temporal and spatial coding.
9. Define the “doctrine of specific nerve energies.”
10. What is “contralateral representation?”
11. What is “topographical representation?”

Hearing Pp. 109-116
See http://www.medindia.net/animation/ear_anatomy.asp for good ear animation.
12. Define “sound.” Why is it true that, “In space, no one can hear you scream?”
13. Compare low-frequency and high-frequency sounds and their waveforms.
14. Describe physical characteristics of sound: amplitude, wavelength and frequency.
15. Describe psychological dimensions of sound: loudness, pitch and timbre (tamber).
16. Describe the ear’s accessory structures: pinna, ear canal, tympanic membrane
17. Describe the bones of the middle ear (malleus, incus, stapes), and the oval window.
18. Describe the structures on the inner ear: the cochlea, hair cells and basilar membrane.
19. What is the auditory nerve?
20. Describe different causes of deafness: conduction deafness and nerve deafness.
21. Where and what is the “primary auditory cortex?”
22. What are “preferred frequencies” and “frequency maps” in the auditory cortex?
23. Explain how intensity of sound is coded.
24. Compare “place theory” and “frequency matching theory” of frequency coding.