“Thanks for almost
everything, Dad”
Genetics
– study of how living things
pass on traits from one generation to
the next
• Take a minute to think and share with
a neighbor the characteristics you
have in common with your parents
and the characteristics you do not.
Genotype – Our unique genetic
makeup
Phenotype – outward expression of a
trait – determined by both genetics
and experience
Read
page 75
With Neighbor – Thinking Critically
About Mirror Neurons questions
Answer questions page 76
1. Design an experiment
• Methods, what are you doing and how?
• IV, DV, Experimental Group, Control
Group
Answer number 3
 Study
psychology from a genetic
perspective
 Animal Behavior Genetics
• Strain Studies – Close relatives are
inbred
Why?
• Selection studies-breeding animals with
other animals that have the same trait
 Human Behavior Genetics
• Family studies – if genes influence trait –
close relatives should share the trait
more often than distant relatives
 Subliminal
– below our level of awareness
 Read ‘The Roots of Subliminal Perception’
• Underline supporting evidence
• circle disproving evidence
 Independent
scientific studies show that
hidden messages OUTSIDE the laboratory
have no significant effect on behavior
• In a controlled laboratory setting people can
process and respond to information outside of
awareness
http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking/
Sensation –
begins when energy stimulates a receptor cell in one of
the sense organs
 Absolute threshold –
 least amount of energy that can be detected as a
stimulation 50% of the time.
• Hearing – tick of a watch from 20 feet in quiet conditions
• Vision – A candle flame seen from 30 miles on a clear,
dark night
• Taste - .0356 ounces of table salt in 500 L of water
• Smell – One drop of perfume diffused throughout a
three-room apartment
• Touch – the wing of a bee falling on the cheek from a
height of 1 cm


 Difference threshold (jnd) –
 the smallest change in stimulation
that can be
detected 50% of the time
• Would adding 1 pound to 5 pounds be the
same as adding 1 pound to 100 pounds?
 Weber’s law –
 different threshold is a constant fraction or
proportion of the original stimulus
 To produce a JND • Hearing – very sensitive – change in sound
.3%
• Taste – 20%
• Weight – 2%
 According
to Weber’s law – if you are
lifting a 50-pound weight, how much must
the weight change before you will notice
that it is lighter or heavier?
• A. 1 ounce
• B. 8 ounces
• C. 1 pound
• D. 2 pounds
 If
you had to give up one of your senses
what would it be and why would you
choose this sense?
According to psychologists For humans, vision
is the most important sense – so it has
received the most attention from
psychologists.
1. Why is it the most important sense?
2. It has been suggested that in humans,
vision is such a powerful sense that it will
override information from other senses –
humans will respond to visual stimuli even when
hearing (taste or touch) tells them otherwise.
Have you had experiences of this sort?
 light
enters through the cornea (transparent
protective coating over front part of eye)
 light then passes through Pupil –
opening in center of iris
 Iris –
colored part of eye
 Retina
lining of the eye
Containing receptor cells
That are sensitive to light
 Retina
contains receptor cells that are responsible
for vision!
• 1. Rods:
• Responsible for night vision and perception of
brightness
• 2. Cones:
• responsible for color vision
 Work in a more limited area of our visual field
 Seeing
with one eye is difficult
 With partner – try to quickly touch the tip of a
pencil with one eye close – then with both eyes
• Easier to accurately judge depth with two eyes
– with only one eye the brain knows what it is
seeing, but it does not give an accurate
indication of depth perception
I
cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The pweor
of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rseaerch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deson't mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can
sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a
wlohe. Amzanig huh?
Do you have "X-Ray Vision?" You may be able to
see through your own hand with this simple
illusion. Roll up a piece of notebook paper into a
tube. The diameter of the tube should be about
0.5 inch. Hold up your left hand in front of you.
Hold the tube right next to the bottom of your left
"pointer" finger in between you thumb (see
figure below).
 Look through the tube with your RIGHT eye AND
keep your left eye open too. What you should see
is a hole in your left hand!! Why? Because your
brain is getting two different images...one of the
hole in the paper and one of your left hand.

• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/f
un-senses-tests-visual-hearingreaction-disgust/
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
Julian Beever side walk 3D art
 Writing
Response Individually:
• First, create a list (5) how losing your
hearing would impact your life
• Second, create a list (5) how losing
your sight would impact you
• Circle the one you would choose to
live without if you had to
 Hellen
Keller – blind and deaf – regretted her
inability to hear more than anything else
• “I am just as deaf as I am blind. The
problems of deafness are deeper and more
complex, if not more important than those
of blindness. Deafness is a much worse
misfortune. For it means the loss of the
most vital stimulus –
the sound of the voice that brings
language, sets thoughts astir and
keeps us in the intellectual
company of man.”
Echolocation
– high pitched chirps
that bounce off nearby objects –
neurons in auditory system collect
information from echoes
Some animals depend more on their
hearing than on their sight
 Should
doctors do everything possible to restore
hearing in children who are born deaf or
become deaf at an early age?
 National Association of the Deaf – argues no
because many procedures only partially
restore hearing
• What would their argument be against
partially resorting hearing?
• Deafness is not a disability but form of human
diversity – can lead to a sharpening of other
senses
Recall – Researches focus mostly on vision
and then hearing – humans rely primarily
on these two senses to gather info about
their environment
Chemical senses – smell and taste
Smell – weaker in humans than most animals
but still 10,000 more acute than taste
 Taste
buds- receptor cells for sense of
taste located here
• Sweet, sour, salty, bitter
• Decreases with age
• Adaptation
 Tip
of tongue- sweetness and saltiness
 Back- bitterness
 Sides- sourness
 Supertasters
 Adaptation
– odors gradually become
less noticeable
 Anosmia–
complete loss of smell (usually
under estimated)
Consequences?
 Chemicals
that communicate information to
other organisms through smell
 Mammals have this second sensory system
used for communicating sexual, aggressive,
or territorial signals.
 Writing Response:
• Independent and dependent variable
• Experimental and control group
• Results
 Flavor
– complex interaction of taste and
smell
 Plug nose when you eat – only
experience taste (sweet, sour, salty,
bitter)
 Largest
sense organ – if you are 6 feet
tall you have about 21 square feet of skin!
• Protects us from the environment
• Receptors for sense of touch – important role in
human interaction and emotion
• Most comforting sense
 Skin
receptors give the rise to sensations
of pressure, temperature, and
pain
 Found
to be beneficial:
• Infant studies
• Importance of affectionate touch
Phantom limb: 85% amputees – patient continues
to feel the missing limb is still there (itch, tickle,
cramp, pain)
 Biopsychosocial theory
• Biological mechanisms – degree to which tissue
is injured & Genetics play a role
• Psychological mechanisms – thoughts, beliefs,
and emotions affect pain
• Social mechanisms – degree of family support
 Cultural expectations

 Placebo
effect: pain relief that occurs
when a person believes a pill or
procedure will reduce pain
• Source of relief – endorphins
A
positive or negative thing?
 Article
• Video
 Writing
response: Report the
consequences and implications on
someone’s life.

Taste buds decrease with age
 Odor sensitivity –
• Gender: Female
• Age: 20 – 40 years old

Sound:


Males greater noise exposure – explains why men’s
hearing on average less accurate than females
Mosquito sound: older people cannot hear above 1314KHz range (frequency)

Cell pones & stores to discourage young folks
 Perception
vs Sensation
 Perception: the brain’s process
Of organizing and making sense of
sensory information
-(recall) While sensation – raw sensory
date the brain receives from our senses
 Inattentional
blindness: failing to see visible
objects when our attention is directed
elsewhere
• Test your awareness
• Card Trick
 Change
blindness: failing to notice changes
in the environment
• Movie perception
• Gradual change
 Choice
Blindness
 Emotions
& Motivation
 Examples:
• Walking destinations look farther away to those
who have been fatigued by prior exercise
• A hill looks steeper to those wearing a heavy
backpack, or just exposed to sad, heavy classical
music rather than light, bouncy music.
• A target seems farther away to those throwing a
heavy rather than a light object at it.
• Softball appears bigger when you are hitting well