Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Unit 5 - Ch 4 Sensation - Post 1


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Scroll down for videos. There will also be a "Part 2" for this unit.                           

A.P. Psychology – Reading assignment and guide  
Unit 5: Sensation Bernstein Text, Chapter 4  Pp. 104-149        Unit Quiz on Wed.  Nov 20

Notes check (10 pts): Due: Tues. Nov. 12   (~7 pages per day)
Coloring Packet (10 pts) Due: Wed. Nov. 13
FlashCards Check (10 pts) Due: Fri. Nov. 15  (Work on these as you read…)                

Take Cornell notes as you read. As you take your notes remember to DRAW DIAGRAMS of important images, write your own examples, write your own mnemonic devices and write questions you think of.

Your notes (and your brain) should contain the answers the following questions when you are done with this assignment. These questions should guide your reading – you should be able to answer as many of them as possible in your head before you take the quiz! Bold ones are especially important.

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
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.

Light and Structure of the Eye Pp. 117-119
1.   Describe the physical dimensions of light.
2.   How do the physical properties of light relate to brightness and color?
3.   How does visible light fit into the electromagnetic spectrum?
4.   Describe and DRAW the major structures of the eye.
5.   Describe the accessory structures and sensory receptor of the eye.
6.   What is accommodation in vision?



Converting Light into Images & Visual Pathways Pp. 119 – 122
The above link is to an excellent animation which may help you understand some of the more complex aspects of visual processing in the retina.
7.   What is visual transduction and were does it take place?
8.   What are photoreceptors and photopigments? Where are they located?
9.   What causes your eyes to take time to adjust when you go from bright sunlight to a dark room? What is this adjustment called?
10. Compare the structure, function and distribution of rods and cones.
11. What is the fovea?
12. How does “lateral inhibition” improve the sharpness and contrast of our vision?
13. What do ganglion cells do? Why would vision be impossible without them?
14. How do ganglion cells correspond to the visual field?
15. Describe how the center-surround fields of ganglion cells improves vision.
16. Why does everyone have a blind spot?
17. Describe how the optic nerves separate and cross at the optic chiasm.
18. How is spatial coding demonstrated in the retina, the LGN and the visual cortex?
19. Explain how parallel processing can analyze different types of visual information from the same visual data in the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN.)
20. What are “feature detectors?”
21. Define the physical properties of color: hue, saturation and brightness.
22. Explain the “Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision.”
23. Explain the “Opponent-Process Theory of Color Vision.”
24. Describe and explain color blindness.
25. What is synesthesia

Smell and Taste – The Chemical Senses Pp. 131-136
1.   Define olfaction and gustation (and olfactory and gustatory senses)
2.   What triggers olfactory receptors?
3.   How many different types of olfactory receptors are there?
4.   Describe the path signals from the olfactory receptors follow as they enter the brain and are processed.
5. Which brain structure usually associated with sensation is NOT involved with olfaction? 
6.   Explain the function of  pheromones and the vomeronasal organ?
7.   What are taste receptors called and where are they located?
8.   How many taste buds are in a typical person? To what flavors are they sensitive?
9.   How are supertasters different from normal people?
10. What are the components of flavor?
11. What is anosmia?
12. What is capsasin? Explain one theory of why people eat spicy foods.
13. Explain some adaptive (evolutionarily advantageous) functions of smell and taste.

Somatic Senses and the Vestibular System Pp. 137-145
14. What are the Somatic Senses?
15. Describe how touch receptors are different from most other neurons.
16. Explain sensory adaptation of touch receptors. Why is it evolutionarily adaptive?
17. Explain how weight and location are coded in the sense of touch.
18. Describe an example of how touch and temperature can interact.
19. Compare A-delta fiber pain and C fiber pain.
20. How does pain cause arousal? What structure is activated which would wake you up if someone poked you with a pin while you slept?
21. Explain how Gate Control Theory and natural analgesics explain pain relief.
22. What evidence is there that acupuncture relieves pain?
23. Define proprioception and kinesthesia.
24. Describe the structure and function of the vestibular system.
The above link is to an excellent animation which will help you understand the vestibular system.

Fantastic animations about the eye, visual processing in the retina and the pathways that visual information travels in the brain.


This beautiful hand painted animation is a great overview.   https://youtu.be/EskTnxBoPoI



Pay close attention to the "center-surround" aspects of retinal processing in this Web Animation below. The narrator's voice is a bit boring, but it's a great video that explains the whole "center-surround" opponent process thing. 
http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/receptivefields.html
This animation shows how the photoreceptors, bipolar and ganglion cells of the retina are organized in "center-surround" arrangements that allow "bottom up" processing of visual information to begin in the retina. 



If a picture is worth a thousand words, an animation is worth way more. This animation really shows the visual pathway very well. Pay attention to how visual information is split in the Optic Chiasm and how it routs through the LGN of the thalamus as well as other areas specifically related to eye movement and the "biological clock" which controls circadian rhythms.

This excellent animation really explains how the visual information from the left and right visual fields makes its way to the right and left occipital lobes via the LGN of the thalamus. 

Check out this amazingly comprehensive video that covers the visual system in about 10 minutes. It's on YouTube, so it may be hard to watch at school. Link: http://youtu.be/AuLR0kzfwBU


What do you see in the circle?

This site sells glasses that are supposed to correct for some color blindness. I don't know how well they work, but they do have a really nice color blindness test. http://enchroma.com/test/instructions/ 

Do you have "SuperVision? Are you a tetrachromat - a person with 4 
types of cones rather than 3? This website has a test for you. 



Ever wonder what those little blobs floating around your visual field are? They'r caused by shadows of little chunks of debris floating around in the vitreous fluid inside your eye-ball.  This video explains it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6e_m9iq-4Q

And Hank's Crash Course Psychology is always good... 

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