perception exam 3

Question 1

melody

Answer 1

a sequence of pitches that are perceived as belonging
together

Question 2

cognitivist approach

Answer 2

proposes that listeners can perceive the emotional meaning of a piece of music, but that they don’t
actually feel the emotions

Question 3

emotivist approach

Answer 3

proposes that a listener’s emotional
response to music involves actually feeling the emotions

Question 4

evolutionary advantages to music

Answer 4

Darwin: humans sang before they spoke, so music served the important purpose of laying the foundation for language
-role in social bonding and group cohesion (bands, parties, concerts)
-emotion and language

Question 5

why music is special compared to other senses

Answer 5

music seems special because we associate memories and emotions with music. Music also makes us move, while our other senses do not do this for us

Question 6

Music-evoked autobiographical memory (MEAM)

Answer 6

-when a piece of music triggers a memory for something that you have experienced in the past
-MEAMs are often associated with strong emotions like happiness
and nostalgia
-Music is being used as a therapeutic tool for people with Alzheimer’s disease

Question 7

babies dancing to music/beat

Answer 7

-5- to 24-month-old infants moved their arms, hands, legs, torso,
and head in response to the music more than when they were
listening to speech
-There was some synchronization between the movements and
the music
-More synchrony might have occurred to music with a more
pronounced beat.

Question 8

taste receptors

Answer 8

-taste receptors differ from other receptors
-taste receptors are exposed to the environment (on the tongue), while other receptors are under the skin, in the ear, or in the back of the eye
-molecules stimulate receptors that are exposed to the environment

Question 9

receptor lifespans

Answer 9

-olfactory receptors: 5-7 weeks
-taste receptors: 1-2 weeks
-receptors undergo neurogenesis: constant renewal of receptors
-receptors constantly exposed to chemicals, bacteria and dirt
-undergo a cycle of birth, development, and death

Question 10

gatekeepers

Answer 10

the chemical senses are the gatekeepers of the body
-Identify things that should be consumed for survival
-Detect things that would be harmful and should be rejected
-Cause good and bad affective responses
-Strong emotional component

Question 11

olfactory mucosa

Answer 11

-located on the roof of the nasal cavity
-airborne molecules enter the nose and stimulate receptor neurons in the olfactory mucosa
-important for olfaction

Question 12

cognitive aspects of pain

Answer 12

pain can be affected by a person’s attention and expectations
examples
expectations:
- In a hospital study in which surgical patients were told what to expect and were instructed to relax to alleviate their pain, the patients requested fewer painkillers following surgery and were sent home 2.7 days earlier than patients who were not provided with this information
-think of placebo effect here as well: patient believes that the substance is an effective therapy. This belief leads the patient to expect a reduction in pain, and this reduction does, in fact, occur
attention:
-Child scrapes their knee, sees nothing and they dont cry. 10 mins later, see blood, and begin crying because he just realized he was in pain

Question 13

active vs passive touch

Answer 13

active: object being touched
passive: sensation on skin
-Humans use active rather than passive touch to interact with the
environment

Question 14

Pacinian corpuscle

Answer 14

one of the 4 touch receptors - located deeper in the skin
-fires only when a stimulus is first applied and when it
is removed
-associated with sensing rapid vibrations and fine texture

Question 15

Merkel receptors

Answer 15

one of the 4 touch receptors - located close to the surface of the skin
-fires continuously while stimulus is present
-responsible for sensing fine details, slowly adapting

Question 16

Ruffini cylinders

Answer 16

one of the 4 touch receptors - located deeper in the skin
-fires continuously to stimulation
-associated with perceiving stretching of the skin

Question 17

Meissner corpuscle

Answer 17

one of the 4 touch receptors - located close to the surface of the skin
-fires only when a stimulus is first applied and it is removed
-responsible for controlling hand-grip, rapidly adapting

Question 18

somatosensory cortex

Answer 18

-region of neocortex specialized to represent and process touch, which includes light touch and proprioception, as well as temperature and pain
-homunculus: a ‘grotesque creature’ depicting the proportional representation of the human body on the primary somatosensory cortex
-cortical magnification: sensory receptors are distributed differently depending on behavioral significance, so that more significant sensory cortical areas have a greater number of receptors
ex: Area of S1 (somatosensory cortex) associated with the thumb is as large as the area for the forearm. This is an example of cortical magnification

Question 19

duplex theory of texture perception

Answer 19

-Katz (1925) proposed that perception of texture depends on two
cues.
-Spatial cues are determined by the size, shape, and distribution of
surface elements.
-Temporal cues are determined by the rate of vibration as skin is moved
across finely textured surfaces

Question 20

phantom limb

Answer 20

-one of the problems with the direct model pathway
-Roughly 80% of amputees have some phantom limb sensations
-The brain does not need sensory input from a body part in order to
generate pain
-Signal originates in the brain

Question 21

gate control theory

Answer 21

proposed idea that spinal nerves act as gates to let pain travel through to reach the brain — or close these gates and prevent pain messages from getting through at all
-Illness: opens the gate (feel more pain)
-Being happy, in good mood: closes the gate (feel less pain)

Question 22

direct pathway model

Answer 22

theory from 1950’s-60’s that proposed that nociceptors in the skin are stimulated and send their signals directly from the skin to the brain
problems with this theory:
-Pain can be affected by a person’s mental state.
-Pain can occur when there is no stimulation of the skin.
-Pain can be affected by a person’s attention.
-Phantom limbs

Question 23

multimodal nature of pain

Answer 23

Pain is a multimodal phenomenon containing a sensory component and an affective or emotional component
3 types of pain:
-Inflammatory pain: caused by damage to tissues and joints or by tumor
cells
-Neuropathic pain: caused by damage to the central nervous system; Brain damage caused by stroke; repetitive movements
-Nociceptive: signals impending damage to the skin; Respond to heat, chemicals, severe pressure, and cold; Threshold of eliciting receptor response must be balanced to warn of damage, but not
be affected by normal activity