Lecture 5

Question 1

What is Sensation?

Answer 1

The stimulation of a sensory receptor that gives rise to Neural impulses resulting in an experience or awareness of conditions inside or outside the body
External forces–>brain

Question 2

What is perception?

Answer 2

The process of organisation of the sensory image, and the interpretation that it has been produced by the 3D world
taking experience’s information –> enabling response

Question 3

What are examples of Perception?

Answer 3

Sense, Understanding, Identify, Label and Prepare to Respond

Question 4

What are the 5 main senses?

Answer 4

Sight/vision- most complex and stimulating
Hearing/auditory processes
Smell/Olfaction
Taste/gustation
Touch/cutaneous

Question 5

What is the Stimuli for the main sense of Sight/Vision?

Answer 5

Light stimulus via our eye
Most complex and highly developed sense
Be aware of and respond to the environment
Complementary to Hearing/auditory

Question 6

What is the Stimuli for the main sense of Hearing/Auditory processes?

Answer 6

Vibrating air molecules/sound via our ears
2nd most Highly developed
Be aware of and respond to the environment
Complementary to Sight/Vision

Question 7

What is the Stimuli for the main sense of Smell/Olfaction?

Answer 7

Odourant molecules in air mostly via our nose

Evocative(taps into memory) and Physical affects (nauseous when food is off, survival technique)

Question 8

What is the Stimuli for the main sense of Taste/Gustation?

Answer 8

Flavouring of food and other molecules mostly via tongue
sweet, sour, bitter, saline, umami
(decreased taste with blocked nose)

Question 9

What is the Stimuli for the main sense of Tough/Cutaneous?

Answer 9

Presssure, warmth cold via skin

nerve endings

Question 10

What are other sense outside of the main 5?

Answer 10

Vestibular sense
Kinaesthetic sense
Pain

Question 11

What is the Stimuli for Vestibular sense?

Answer 11

Balance, spatial orientation

How one’s body is orientated with respect to gravity

Question 12

What is the Stimuli for Kinaesthetic sense?

Answer 12

Body position and movement of body parts relative to one another
Strength employed in movement

Question 13

What is the stimuli for the Pain sense?

Answer 13

Body response to harmful stimuli
Intense enough to cause/ or threaten damage to tissue
Critical for survival

Question 14

What are our Sensory Capacities at birth?

Answer 14

Taste, smell and touch
Hearing
Vision

Question 15

What are our Sensory Capacities of Taste, Smell and Touch at birth?

Answer 15

Our senses are present at birth
Survival - attracted to smell and taste of mother’s milk
Touch central to the development of relationships - infants and parents
Provide comfort and warmth
Rooting Reflex- turn check towards fingers when rubbing on check and make sucking movement in anticipation of the mothers breast = attracted to odour and taste of milk
These senses are key to survival, hence why they start to develop first

Question 16

What are our Sensory Capacities of Hearing at birth?

Answer 16

Babies hear well before birth
Preference for mother’s voice to unfamiliar woman - evolutionary advantage to recognise who will be providing your comfort and food for survival
Preference for complex sounds - voices and noises v.s. pure tone
Newborns can discriminate sounds - loudness, duration, direction and pitch (will turn its head in the direction of a sound from just a few days old)
Over first year organise sounds into more complex patterns -particularly human speech v.s. non-speech sounds, -can detect changes in tempo (2-4 months), Can Lose sensitivity to sounds not in native language (screens it out) - makes it harder to learn non-native language as you grow older

Question 17

What are our Sensory Capacities of Vision at birth?

Answer 17

Least developed sense at birth, but becomes the one you rely on the most and most complex sense
Limited Focus
Poor Acuity (20 cm) - retinas ability to focus
Difficulty discriminating colour - less intense
Rapid is development - by 2 months Focus as well as an adult. - by 11 months Acuity near-adult level

Question 18

What is the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Scale?

Answer 18

IDEAL methamphetamine (parental exposure) study
Evaluates early sensory development
Baby eye tracking at 24 hours old, detect brightly coloured ball, detects change in brightness, make a noise and see if they turn their head
Development in comparison to normal population

Question 19

What does the Early vision of babies consist of?

Answer 19

Prefer Faces overall
Pattern perception :Contrast sensitivities - Prefer Contour, Contrast and Movement
Prefer complex over simple patterns as get older

Question 20

What does the Pattern and Facial Perception of babies consist of?

Answer 20

Perception of faces is not innate (even though thy prefer)
1month –> 3 month development
Perception of face supports infants earliest social relationships - recognise and respond (especially on parents faces)

Question 21

What is a 1 month old baby’s Pattern and Face Perception like?

Answer 21

Infants can scan separate parts of the human face

Rely on high contrast outer Features

Question 22

What is a 2 month old baby’s Patterns and Face perception like?

Answer 22

Can begin to integrate characteristics of the human face

Prefer Mother’s face to strangers

Question 23

What is a 3 month old baby’s Pattern and Face perception like?

Answer 23

By 3 months, can discriminate between photos of 2 similar strangers

Question 24

What is the Visual Cliff experiment?

Answer 24

Depth Perception
Motion first depth cue (developed by 3-4 weeks)
Binocular depth cues (developed by 2-3 months)- blends images from 2x eyes
Pictorial depth cues (developed by 4-5 months)
Independent movement enhances ability - experience + biological
Plexiglas covers deep and shallow sides. By refusing to cross the deep side and showing preference for the shallow side, infant demonstrates ability to perceive depth

Question 25

Do babies feel pain?

Answer 25

Yes CNS immaturity - may feel pain more intensely - measured by changes in HR, stressed high pitched crying, muscle tension, brain activity during painful procedures Risks of pain medication - anaesthetic avoided in painful procedures due to risk of administration Pain relief from : Breast milk, sugar solution, comfort from holding (by mother and father- touch releases endorphins(natural pain killer))

Question 26

What happens to our human Vision as we age?

Answer 26

Harder to focus on nearby objects (presbyopia), see in dim light and perceive colour -increases in sensory threshold- have to wear glasses Cornea is more translucent and scatters light - blurred vision and increased sensitivity to glare Lens contines to yellow - impairs colour discrimination - by 70, 9/10 people will need corrective lenses to see properly From middle to old age Cataracts increase - results in foggy vision and results in blurred vision and can lead to blindness - can be treated successfully

Question 27

What are Vision difficulties human's experience?

Answer 27

Impaired eyesight due to a reduction in light reaching the retina - yellowing of lense, shrinking of the pupil, clouding of the vitreous (may still be able to read smaller print but need brighter light to do so) Visual acuity worsens, with a sharp drop after the age of 70 Main cause of macular degeneration, Dark adaptation is harder (dark --> light change), due to hardening of blood vessels in centre of the retina decreases blood flow Extensive vision loss can impact Leisure Pursuits and can be isolating Can impact on older people's self-confidence - e.g. driving confidence

Question 28

What happens to our hearing as we age?

Answer 28

Declines Rapidly = Presbycusis - age related hearing loss due to decrease in blood supply and cell death in ear, stiffening of membranes, degeneration of neural pathway Greater than visual impairments More Men affected than women Decrements greatest at high frequencies Detection of soft sounds diminishes at all frequencies Responsiveness to startling noise lessens More common than visual impairments

Question 29

What are Hearing difficulties human's experience?

Answer 29

Impacts self-care less than visual impairment Still affects safety and enjoyment of life - don't hearing warning e.g."watch out for that car" compensated through hearing aids and ability to not hear background noise Use facial expressions, gestures or lip movements to make up for deficits - decline in speech perception has the greatest impact of life satisfaction ability to detect content and emotion declines - impact enjoyment and quality of life

Question 30

What happens to our taste and smell as we age?

Answer 30

After 60 - reduced sensitivity to four tastes - sweet, salty, sour and bitter - cause=Environment (not biological/taste bud sensitivity) - smoking, dentures, medication, pollution Decreased ability to identify foods by taste The decrease in smell receptors after 60, contributes to the decline in Sensitivity to odours such as floral, musky, fruity, or sweet Decline in enjoyment of food - increased likelihood of deficiency, diet, lead to malnutrition Safety - harder to detect food that's "off", smoke, fumes - implication on health

Question 31

What happens to our touch as we age?

Answer 31

Crucial for certain adults, such as the severely visually impaired -sharp decline in the sensitivity on hands- fingertips particularly -after 70 all adults affected - sluggish blood circulation in our extremities also become less sensitive to temperature and mild/not severe pain

Question 32

Which tastes do you have reduced sensitivity to after the age of 60?

Answer 32

sweet salty sour bitter

Question 33

What are the odours of which you have decreased sensitivity to after the age of 60?

Answer 33

floral musky fruity sweet

Question 34

What happens if there is an impairment of our Vestibular and Kinaesthetic senses?

Answer 34

Incredibly difficult to co-ordinate movement normally | Perception problems

Question 35

What is the development of babies like when applied to the Biopsychosocial Lifespan model?

Answer 35

Perception = Psychological part Sensation = Biological part There is a big overlap A lot of developmental changes that go along with these process Capabilities change = ability to organise our perceptual capacity Changes as we respond to the environment and perceive things in a different way - due to differences in knowledge

Question 36

What is the basic sequence of cognitive development in relations to Neural connections?

Answer 36

1. Sensory Pathways (Vision, Hearing) - 4 months 2. Language - 9 months 3. Higher Capacity Function - 1-3 years

Question 37

What are the four ways which Newborns can discriminate sounds?

Answer 37

Loudness Duration Direction Pitch

Question 38

What happens to our sensation and perception as we age?

Answer 38

Decline in early adulthood More noticeable at 40's Typical decline by 65 Gradual and minor decrease in normal Behavioural compensations to loss of sensory sensitivity Sensory Threshold increases with age - Pain, Light - point at which a stimulus can be detected

Question 39

What is Presbycusis?

Answer 39

Age related hearing loss

Question 40

What is Presbyopia?

Answer 40

Harder to focus on nearby objects see in dim light and perceive colour due to increased sensory threshold