Adaptation: Senses and Perception

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Please see response attached (see Posting 105968.doc) (also presented below), including an excellent APA resource. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

This is quite straightforward. The process is explained for each experiment and all you really need to do is follow the directions in each scenario, and record the results. You are expected to conduct the experiments (you acting as both researcher and the participant), and report the results in terms of adaptation. This is important for you to learn about the adaptation process. Your tentative outline might look something to the effect...

I. Introduction (about ¼ - ½ page, explain adaptation as discussed in the text, not as a general dictionary definition, introducing topic and purpose statement; see suggested definition below the outline)

E.g. provide a definition of adaptation, which generally means that your brain adapts to a stimuli over repeated exposure, which changes the sensation perception of the stimuli. (Check the definition in your text or class material and use that definition is possible).

II. Three experiments (using illustrative examples below).

· Experiment 1 (e.g. about ½ page: explain the experiment, the results, explain how adaptation is evident in each of your experimental results, provide a comprehensively describe the sensory systems (e.g., touch perception, taste perception, and so on) involved in these experiments, from the receptors all the way into and including the brain)).
· Experiment 2 (e.g. about ½ page; repeat the same process as for Experiment 1, as described below)
· Experiment 4 (e.g. about ½ page; repeat the same process as for Experiment 1, as described below)

III. Discussion and Conclusion (tie up main points e.g., brief explanation about adaptation and its impact on sensory perception (touch, etc.).

DEFINITION OF ADAPTATION:

The following definition is perhaps close to your text definition, but please use your text definition as suggested in the requirements for this assignment.

Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation...

It is a change over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant stimulus. It is usually experienced as a change in the stimulus. For example, if one rests one's hand on a table, one immediately feels the table's surface on one's skin. Within a few seconds, however, one ceases to feel the table's surface. The sensory neurons stimulated by the table's surface respond immediately, but then respond less and less until they may not respond at all; this is neural adaptation.
More generally, neural adaptation refers to a temporary change of the neural response to a stimulus as the result of preceding stimulation. It is usually distinguished from memory, which is thought to involve a more permanent change in neural responsiveness. Some people use adaptation as an umbrella term that encompasses the neural correlates of priming and habituation. In most cases, adaptation results in a response decrease, but response facilitation does also occur. Some adaptation may result from simple fatigue, but some may result from an active recalibration of the responses of neurons to ensure optimal sensitivity. Adaptation is considered to be the cause of perceptual phenomena like afterimages and the motion aftereffect. In the absence of fixational eye movements, visual perception may fade out or disappear due to neural adaptation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_adaptation).

Now let's look closer at the following experiments to help you fill in the above outline:

EXPERIMENT 1:

1. Rub your index fingers gently over a piece of very coarse sandpaper a few times and rate its ...