Study Questions for Test 3 – Make sure that you draw all graphs and diagrams. Ch. 12,13,14

1.What is a phoneme? How are consonants and vowels produced (in detail)? Give examples. What are some of the problems posed by the speech stimulus (segmentation problem, variability problem)?

2.Draw a spectrogram and label and define ALL of the parts. What are the first and second formats related to?

3.What is the motor theory of speech perception and the data for this? What is the data that suggests speech is special? What is the theory against this model (what do they think speech is)? How do they use music to support their theories?

4.How do we use higher order processing (cognitive dimensions of speech perception or top down processing) in order to understand speech? Give examples.

5.Draw a picture of the skin and label its parts. What are the 4 encapsulated endings for touch and how do they work (what do they respond to, etc.)? 

6.What are the 2 pathways to the brain for the cutaneous senses and how do they differ? How do our absolute and difference thresholds change over the skin and why might you see these differences (at skin and brain level and passive vs. active touch)? NOTE: In this question, you do not need to go into the kinethesis receptors to answer the passive/active touch part of the question.

7.Why is temperature perception important? How are warm, cool, and hot sensed (make sure to discuss the fibers in detail)? What factors influence our ability to sense temperature (threshold and adaptation)?

8.What is the gate control theory of pain perception (include a diagram as well as a discussion of how it works)? What are the cognitive factors that influence our sense of pain?

9.How are we able to keep our sense of balance through the kinesthetic and vestibular senses? Make sure you describe the different receptors and their purpose and how they are related to vision. Give an example of how the vestibular system is related to vision.

10.What are the characteristics of the olfactory receptors (where located, what look like, etc.)? What are the neural brain pathways (neural code) and what does each code? Discuss the current theory of smell perception. Why has it been so difficult to develop this theory? 

11.What factors influence our sensitivity to smell (absolute and difference threshold, self and cross adaptation)? What kinds of differences do you see among individuals? What is the lack of smell called and what factors cause this to occur?

12.Humans can use odor for many things such as person recognition (family, self, gender), reproductive behavior (pheromones), mood, identifying illness, etc. Describe the experiments and the results that demonstrate these behaviors.

13.Draw what the tongue looks like. Include the various papillae and neural connections made to the tongue. What pathway might this information take to the brain? What are the characteristics of the taste buds?

14.How are we able to perceive taste (discuss chemical differences, theories of coding, etc.)?

15.How do all of the senses, experiences, genetics, etc. work together to get the perception of flavor? What area of the brain is important for linking the different senses together to be able to experience flavor?

BONUS QUESTION – worth up to 10 points.

This question MUST be completed and turned in in class on Monday, July 25. I will not accept it at a later time. Points will be given based on completeness of the answer.

All term I have been discussing how Sensation and Perception can be applied. Now I want you to set up a scenario which uses a multimodal (more than 1 sense) sensory experience. Make sure to explain the different sensation and perception factors and how they are being used here. The example must be different than an example given in class. Some examples (but you are not limited to these) include:

Developing a product, toy, place, car, or web site for a child, older person, or someone with a neurological problem, designing a building for a movie, restaurant, plays, gambling, etc., use in a courtroom (why people see different things), going into space, designing an amusement park ride or movie, any sporting activity, human factors, etc.