Experiments
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What do you think your reactions will be if you
1.Rub your index fingers gently over a piece of very coarse sandpaper a few times and rate its coarseness on a scale from 1 (very soft) to 7 (very coarse). After a minute or two, rub the same finger over the paper and again rate its coarseness. Did your perception of the coarseness change? How?
2.Distribute one cup with sugar water and one with fresh water. Take a sip of the sugar water and swish it around in your mouth for several seconds without swallowing it; gradually, it should taste less sweet. After swallowing it (or spitting it back into the cup), taste from the cup containing fresh water. Did the taste of the fresh water surprise you? How?
3.Take about 15 index cards and a flashlight that is opaque on all sides (so that light shines only through the front) into a very dark room. After placing all 15 cards over the beam of light, slowly remove the cards one at a time until you can barely detect the light, and then count the number of cards that remain over the light. After a few minutes, the light should begin to look brighter. When this is the case, add a card and see if you can still see the light. Repeat this process of gradually adding cards over a 15-minute period. Were you able to detect an increasingly dim light the longer you spent in the dark?
Did you experience adaptation?
Fully describe the process and results of each step!!
What is adaptation? Explain adaptation as discussed in the text, not as a general dictionary definition.
Explain how adaptation is evident in each of your experimental results. Be sure to differentiate between sensory adaptation, which is due to either fatigue or recovery of receptors, and perceptual adaptation, which is due to the reticular system directing the focus of our attention elsewhere.
Comprehensively describe the sensory systems involved in these experiments, from the receptors all the way into and including the brain. Be sure to describe how we smell, touch, taste, etc. and how we smell, touch, taste, etc. Make sure that your discussion of the sensory system illustrates what you experienced in each experiment.
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Solution Summary
Based on the experiments, this solution explains three experiments and what a person's reaction might be.
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Hi,
Interesting experiments! I am wondering if you done the experiments yet? If not, you will need to do each of the experiments and record you exact results.
Let's take a closer look at each experiment.
RESPONSE:
What do you think your reactions will be if you?
1.Rub your index fingers gently over a piece of very coarse sandpaper a few times and rate its coarseness on a scale from 1 (very soft) to 7 (very coarse). After a minute or two, rub the same finger over the paper and again rate its coarseness. Did your perception of the coarseness change? How?
This experiment has to do with touch perception and sensory adaptation due to fatigue of receptors. You will do the experiment and write it up something to the effect:
The research/participant (you in this case) rubbed her/his index fingers gently over a piece of very coarse sandpaper a few times and rated its coarseness on a scale from 1 (very soft) to 7 (very coarse). After a minute or two, she/he rubbed the same finger over the paper and again rated its coarseness. Did your perception of the coarseness change?
When you do the experiment as described above, you should find that with repeated exposure to the course sandpaper you will rate the coarseness of the paper as being less course (e.g., first rating: 7; second rating: 4) (record you results). In other words, your perception of the degree of coarseness changed with repeated exposure.
Your perception is the interpretation of what you take in through your senses, in this case through your touch. In touch sensation, your receptors located in your sensory organs (finger) ...
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