About This Chapter
Human Senses - Chapter Summary
Improve your knowledge of the human senses by watching the video lessons in this chapter. Instructors explain the parts of the body that give us the ability to see, hear, taste, smell and touch. You'll explore perceptual, visual and auditory processes as well as examples of sensory adaptation and habituation. After studying all of the chapter's engaging video lessons, you should be able to:
- Explain how vision and depth perception works
- Understand how visual processing works through pathways in the brain
- Identify the parts of the ear and their functions
- Describe how auditory processing impacts how the brain processes information
- Define somatosensation
- Explain how the body perceives sensations, tastes and odors
- Distinguish between the kinesthetic and vestibular senses
- Recognize the purpose of sensory adaptation and habituation
- List the stages of perception and identify influences that affect the process
- Discuss the principles of Gestalt perception
Our video lessons are typically just a few minutes long so that you can easily fit learning into your schedule. Once you've watched a video all the way through, you can use our video tags to rewatch key points. Our lessons include transcripts of the videos as well, which provides you with another way of studying the concepts covered in this chapter. Once you feel ready, take the multiple-choice quiz that we include with each lesson. This is quick way to check your understanding of the human senses.
1. How Does Vision Work?
How do your eyes and brain work together to turn light into images? You'll learn about the working components of the eye and take a look at two theories of color perception.
2. What is Depth Perception? - Definition, Cues & Examples
How do our brains make 3-D images out of 2-D inputs? In this lesson, you'll explore various visual cues that require either one eye or both eyes. Prepare to look at depth perception in a new way.
3. Visual Processing and Pathways
How do we see? Seeing is actually a very complex process, and it's really amazing that the brain can process visual data so well. In this lesson, we'll explore the visual pathways that allow for seeing and check out a few basic visual processes.
4. Function & Structure of the Ears
Watch along as we follow a sound wave into the ear and learn about the structures it encounters. Also, did you know that your ears do more than hear? Learn about the role your ears play in keeping your balance.
5. The Parts of the Ears
Your ears are made up of three main parts, the external ear, middle ear, and internal ear. Sound waves move into your external ear causing the eardrum to vibrate, which moves the tiny bones of your middle ear, and then it's on to the internal ear.
6. How Auditory Processing Affects Brain Processes
Hearing is much more than receiving sound. It also involves the brain's ability to process sound waves into usable information. In this lesson, we're going to explore the impact of the auditory process on the brain's ability to recognize the world around us.
7. Somatosensation: Definition & Process
Can your brain really hurt? You'll find out in this lesson as we go over the definition of somatosensation and its many aspects, like thermoreception, mechanoreception, and nociception.
8. Taste, Touch & Smell: Proprioception & the Somatosensory System
How do taste, touch and smell work? Also, what is proprioception? Throughout this lesson, you'll get a detailed description on each of these remarkable senses.
9. Vestibular and Kinesthetic Senses
In this lesson, we will learn about our kinesthetic and vestibular senses, which are responsible for things like movement and balance. We'll talk about what each of these senses do, and why we need them.
10. Sensory Adaptation & Habituation: Definition & Examples
Ever notice how, after a while, a dark room seems less dark? Watch this lesson to find out about sensory adaptation and habituation, why we become desensitized to stimuli after a while, and what happens when things change.
11. Steps of the Perceptual Process
Did you ever wonder how we choose what we see? In this lesson, we will learn about the perceptual process. In the perceptual process, we will learn how we select, organize, and interpret visual information.
12. Gestalt Principles & Concepts
In this lesson, we will learn about Gestalt principles and concepts. We will learn that we cannot always trust what we see. We will learn how our perception and reality may be very different.
13. How Environmental Variables & Other Factors Influence Perception
Have you ever wondered why people can look at the same thing and see it completely different? What things influence that difference? In this lesson, we will learn what some of those variables are that affect our perception.
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