Ch 6- Textbook

Question 0

What is frequency?

Answer 0

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (I.e per second)

Question 1

What are the characteristics of sound waves?

Answer 1

• Vary in shape
• The Amplitude determines their loudness
• Their length, or frequency, determines the pitch we experience

Question 2

What is pitch?

Answer 2

A tone’s experienced highness of lowness; depends on frequency

Question 3

What does the ear do?

Answer 3

• transforms vibrating air into nerve impulses, which our brain encodes as sounds, begins when sound waves enter the outer ear.

Question 4

What does the middle ear do?

Answer 4

• Picks up vibrations and transmits them to the cochlea.

Question 5

What is the cochlea and what does it do?

Answer 5

• Coiled, fluid-like tube in the inner ear

- Sound waves travelling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses

Question 6

What are hair cells?

Answer 6

“Quivering bundles that let us hear” thanks to their “extreme sensitivity and extreme speed”

• a cochela has 16 000 hair cells

Question 7

What causes sensioneural hearing loss?

Answer 7

• Damage to the cochela’s hair cell receptors

Question 8

What causes conduction hearing loss?

Answer 8

• Damage to the mechanical system that conducts waves to the cochlea

Question 9

How can the brain interpret loudness?

Answer 9

• From the number of activated hair cells

- We only differ in our sensation of soft sounds

Question 10

What is place theory?

Answer 10

• Presumes that we hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger at different places on the cochela’s basilar membrane
• Best for explaining high pitches

Question 11

What is frequency theory?

Answer 11

• The theory that the rate of nerve impulses travelling up to the auditory nerve matches the frequency of the tone, thus enabling us to sense it’s pitch
• Best for explaining low pitches

Question 12

What is the volley principle?

Answer 12

• Neural cells can alternate firing by firing in rapid succession, they can achieve a combined frequency above 1000 waves per second

Question 13

What are nocireceptors?

Answer 13

• Sensory receptors that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals.

Question 14

What influences pain?

Answer 14

• Psychological influences
• Socio-cultural influences
• Biological influences

Question 15

What is the gate control theory?

Answer 15

• Theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” and when tissue is injuired, the small fibres activate and open the gate, and then you feel pain
• Large- fiber activity closes the gate, blocking the pain signals and preventing them from reaching the brain

Question 16

What is sensory interaction?

Answer 16

• The principle that one sense may influence another
• Our senses are not totally separate information channels- in interpreting out world, our brain blends their inputs
  Ex: Taste+ smell+ texture= flavour
  Ex: McGurk Effect

Question 17

What is embodied cognition?

Answer 17

• The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements

Question 18

What is synasthesia?

Answer 18

A rare condition where one sort of sensations (such as hearing a sound) produces another (I.e seeing colour)

Question 19

Why can smells evoke feelings and memories?

Answer 19

A hotline runs between the brain area recording information from the nose and the brain’s ancient limbic centres associated with memory and emotion- ex: when you put someone in a foul smelling room, they will express harsh judgements

Question 20

What is kinesthesis?

Answer 20

• The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Question 21

What is vestibular sense?

Answer 21

• The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance