sensory interaction

experiment

explanation

So what were the reactions of the people who heard the video with sound and people who heard the video without sound?

This reaction occurred because your brain was conditioned to expect something to pop up, but without the intense and loud sound along with it.

That's why the people with sound had a more fearful and surprised reaction versus the reactions of people who heard the video without sound.

Scary video

reaction test

Sight and Sound

Sight and sound have a relationship different from the other senses. Most of it is not based on the chemical side of the perception.

• When you are presented with a visual stimulus, like running water, you often also look for the sound connected to that image. It helps you create imagery.
• It also has an emotional connection
• when you see something that has a sound to it...the emotion is intensified.
• For example if you see a person crying but not making a sound, you doubt that they are actually upset.
• This works with fear as well.

Sight and Touch

Sight and touch can give us an image of what makes sense

For example, if you had a piece of sandpaper, but couldn't touch it, you would assume that it's rough.

However once you touch it, you might find that it is fine grit paper, and therefore very smooth to the touch.

"Handy" illusions

experiment

explanation

Sensory

Interaction

The majority of the class was unable to figure out what flavor they were eating right away...why?

While the eyes are closed, you are unaware of what you are placing into your mouth. This eliminates any preconceptions of what you are about to eat.

Could you tell the lifesaver had a sweet taste? Again, taste by itself can distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Without your sense of smell, there is no further perception of flavor.

Taste and Touch

When we touch something, we learn whether that item is hard or soft, hot or cold etc. We "touch" our food using our mouths and, for certain foods, we use our fingers. Handling it can affect how we think of that food even before we taste it.

• Texture does not describe flavor, but rather the feel of the food
• Based off of prior experiences, you expect a food item to be a certain way and if it feels different, it may give you the idea that you won't like it. The actual feel of the food does not really change the way it tastes.
• Exception: temperature can change the way food tastes. Can you imagine eating cold soup?

Lifesaver experiment

1. Plug your nose and close your eyes

2. Open your hand, and your partner will place

a lifesaver of a random flavor in it

3. Place the Lifesaver in your mouth and try

to figure out the flavor

Taste, Smell,

and sight

Taste & Smell

Taste & Sight

People tend to interpret what something will taste like just by looking at it.

• Sight is a large factor in restaurant advertisements that strive to make their food as physically appealing as possible.
• Notice how restaurant dishes are sometimes decorated with flowers on the side or arrange fruit in a pattern?
• Many times, food will appear gross and actually taste delicious (mashed potato test)
• Our mind interprets food based on what we have eaten before.
• Hunger also plays a role in taste-- If food is greatly desired, it will taste better, regardless of whether or not you actually like it.

Purpose of taste: to assist the brain in food recognition, enhance digestion, and to distinguish between harmless & harmful food

• Taste is solely responsible for detecting if food is sweet, salty, sour, bitter, or umami
• Smell is necessary to fully perceive the food being eaten
• Sense of smell is 10,000x stronger than sense of taste

Taste illusion and visual perception

Neurological and

Chemical side

• Chemicals in food are detected by the taste buds that stimulate sensory cells. This signal reaches the ends of nerve fibers that send impulses to the brainstem’s taste regions. From here, they travel to the thalamus & cerebral cortex .
• Airborne odor molecules are detected by sensory neurons in the mucus membrane lining the nose. Axons of the cells enter the olfactory bulbs, located underneath the frontal lobe.
• A neural response is elicited by the stimulation of receptor proteins located on cilia at the tips of the sensory cells. This impulse is then sent to the olfactory bulb & to the primary olfactory cortex
• This information combines at the cortex with taste information for necessary taste perception

Definition

• Sight, touch
• Taste, touch

Sensory Interaction - the interaction of the senses and how they influence each other.

There are a total of 10 sensory interactions, but we are only covering the main ones.

• Taste, smell, sight
• Sight, sound

Madison Thompson,

Jessica Ganim,

& Caroline Crosley

Extra Fun