The sense of balance informs you that you are walking in an upright position. What you are sensing is the relationship of your body, and in particular your head, to the Earth’s gravitational field. The sense of balance is made possible by receptor neurons located in the semicircular canals. Located in the inner ear, the canals are tubular bones filled with fluid. The movement of this fluid stimulates the firing of receptor neurons within the canals, and the information is transmitted to the brain.
The sense of balance is also known as the vestibular sense. A vestibule is a small antechamber or passageway. This is one way to describe the semicircular canals, important components of the apparatus involved in the sense of balance.
TEST
1. Sensation refers to
a. organized experience
b. thinking and concept formation
c. meaningful knowledge
d. the raw data of experience
2. The waves to which we give the name “light11 are a narrow band of
a. the electromagnetic spectrum
b. radio waves
c. ultra-violet waves
d. infra-red waves
3. The trichromatic theory proposes that we have
a. three kinds of optic nerves
b. a triad of lenses
c. three kinds of cones
d. three kinds of rods
4. A sound wave
a. can travel through outer space
b. cannot travel through water
c. has frequency, but not amplitude
d. requires a medium such as air or water
5. What structure in the ear is similar in function to the eye’s retina?
a. The basilar membrane
b. The auditory nerve
c. The tympanic membrane
d. The oval window
6. The four basic taste sensations are
a. sweet, salty, bitter, and hot
b. sweet, bitter, burned, and salty
c. sour. add. sweet, and mint
d. sweet, salty, bitter, and sour
7. One of the following is ног a skin sense.
a. Light touch
b. Incongruent pleasure
c. Deep touch
d. Temperature
8. The receptor organ that makes smell possible is called the
a. vestibular membrane
b. olfactory epithelium
c. odor membrane
d. synaptic epithelium
9. What sense makes it possible for you to touch the tip of your nose with your eyes closed?
a. The vestibular sense
b. The cardiovascular sense
c. Kinesthesis
d. Synthesis
10. The vestibular sense lets you know when
a. a signal is present
b. a figure is perceived against a ground
c. you are walking upright
you have a subliminal perception
True or False
T F The word sensation refers to the raw data of experience.
T F The trichromatic theory of color perception hypothesizes that we have three kinds of cones, differentially sensitive to three wavelengths of light, in the retina of the eye.
T F A sound wave has the remarkable property of being able to travel through a vacuum.
T F The units that make taste possible are clusters of neurons located on the tongue called taste buds.
T F You have no receptor neurons in the joints of your body.
Self-check
differentiate among sensation, perception, and cognition;
describe key aspects of the visual process;
explain the trichromatic theory of color perception;
describe key aspects of the hearing process;
identify principal features of the processes associated with taste, the skin senses, smell, kinesthesis, and the vestibular sense.
Match the terms with their definitions
| а) | |
| absolute threshold | the weakest amount of a stimulus that a person can detect half the time |
| difference threshold | the smallest change in a physical stimulus that can be detected between two stimuli |
| perception | the organization of sensory information into meaningful experiences |
| psychophysics | the study of the relationships between sensory experiences and the physical stimuli that cause them |
| sensation | what occurs when a stimulus activates a receptor |
| signal-detection theory | the study of people’s tendencies to make correct judgments in detecting the presence of stimuli |
| Webers law | the principle that for any change in a stimulus to be detected, a constant proportion of that stimulus must be added or subtracted |
| b) | |
| auditory nerve | the sense of movement and body position |
| binocular fusion | the nerve that carries smell impulses from the nose to the brain |
| kinesthesis | three semicircular canals that provide the sense of balance located in the inner ear and connected to the brain by a nerve |
| lens | the nerve that carries impulses from the inner ear to the brain, resulting in the sensation of sound |
| olfactory nerve | the differences between the images stimulating each eye |
| optic nerve | the process of combining the images received from the two eyes into a single, fused image |
| pupil | the nerve that carries impulses from the retina to the brain |
| retina | the innermost coating of the back of the eye. containing the light-sensitive receptor cells |
| retinal disparity | a flexible, elastic, transparent structure in the eye that changes its shape to focus light on the retina |
| vestibular system | the opening in the iris that regulates the amount of light entering the eye |
