AP Psych Chapter 5

1. Use your understanding of absolute thresholds, sensory adaptation, and pain

control to argue that sensation is often influenced by our motives, expectations,
and psychological states of mind.

Psychophysics is the study of relationships between the physical characteristics

stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. Our
awareness of these faint stimuli illustrates our absolute thresholds; the minimum
stimulation necessary to detect a particular stimulus. Our absolute thresholds are
incorporated into the signal detection theory; which demonstrates how our
experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness are incorporated to what we want
to sense. Signal detection theory is defined as a theory predicting how and when we
detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Take for
instance why exhausted parents of a newborn will notice the faintest whimper from
the cradle but fails to notice louder, unimportant sounds. Each person’s signal
detection chances as their consequences change thus illustrating why motives are
important with one’s sensation.
One’s difference threshold is the minimum difference between two stimuli required
for detection 50 percent of the time. The difference threshold is directly related to the
Weber’s law which is the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must
differ by a constant minimum amount. Weber’s law means that we have the ability to
get used to a certain stimuli. This ability is defined in sensory adaptation; the
diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
Although sensory adaptation reduces our sensitivity, if offers the benefit the enables
us to focus on informative changes in our environment. Meaning if our motives
wanted to direct us to study, our sensory adaptation would help us focus on that
motive even amidst distraction.

2. You are the president of a corporation that owns several large department stores.
A board member has a plan for preventing shoplifting: IN each store play musical
soundtracks containing sub audible and consciously imperceptible verbal
messages such as “don’t steal” and “shoplifting is a crime.” Carefully discuss your
reasons for supporting or rejecting this proposal to engage in subliminal
persuasion.

Subliminal stimulation is based off of our knowledge of absolute thresholds and the
signal detection theory. Absolute threshold being the minimum stimulation needed
to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. The signal detection theory
is a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid
background stimulation. There has always been controversy about whether or not
subliminal messaging works. Subliminal means below one’s absolute threshold for
conscious awareness. Research has shown that subliminal messages can only prime
ones response but it can’t exactly give a powerful, enduring effect on the mind. For
instance, when the word bread were flashed, many people would detect butter as the
related world. So it is possible for one to process information without being aware of
it. Still, subliminal messaging cannot promote persuasion.

3. In what sense is there a correspondence between the experiences of hue and

pitch? Discuss how the Young-Helmholtz theory of color vision and the place
theory of pitch perception are conceptionally similar or different.

Both experiences of hue and pitch are illustrated by waves. Hues are the dimension
of color that is determined by the wavelength of light. Wavelength is the distance
from one peak of a light/sound wave to the peak of the next. Hues that have a great
amplitude will create bright colors and loud sounds. The amplitude of a wave is the
height of it. A smaller amplitude creates duller colors. Short wavelengths yield bluish
colors and long wavelengths yield reddish colors. Both hue and pitch go through a
series of parts in the eye and ear to be signaled to the brain. Hues must enter the
pupil, iris, lens, and retina and pitches must the outer, inner ear and the cochlea.
Pitches are also determined by wavelengths and amplitude. Short wavelength creates
high frequency which then creates high pitched sounds. Great amplitude creates loud
sounds and small amplitudes create soft sounds.
Colors are explained in the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory while pitch is
explained with place theory. The Young – Helmholtz Trichromatic theory is a
theory that the retina contains three different color receptors – one most sensitive to
red, one to green, one to blue – which when stimulated in combination can produce
the perception of any color. Place theory in hearing, is the theory that links the pitch
we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated. Place theory
presumes that we hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger
activity at different places along the cochlea’s basilar membrane. The Young –
Helmholtz Trichromatic theory also talks about waves, stating that any color can be
combined by light waves of three primary colors – red, green, and blue.

4. A friend believes that the five human sense – seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
and feeling—are distinct and independent. Explain what is wrong with your friend’s
belief.

Sensory interaction is the principle that one sense may influence another, as when
the smell of food influences its taste. Smell plus texture plus taste equals flavor.
Similarly we correctly perceive the location of the voice directly in front of us partly
because we also see that the person is in the front of us, not behind, above, or
beneath us. If we see a speaker saying one syllable while hearing another, we may
perceive a third syllable that blends both inputs. Seeing the mouth movements for ga
while hearing ba we may perceive da – a phenomenon known as the McGurk effect.
In detecting events, the brain can combine simultaneous touch and visual signals,
thanks to neurons projecting from the somatosensory cortex back to the visual
cortex. So sense interact to help us interpret the world.