THE MUSCLES

Another response system of the body is that which consists of muscles. As has
been pointed out, our bodies are called upon to perform an action, many different
organs and systems must work together to make the necessary responses. When you
are presented with a stimulus, your sense organs send a message through the nervous
system to the muscles and glands. This message tells the body how to respond to the
stimulus. Thus, the nerve impulse has travelled from the point where the stimulus
originated, to the brain and then to the response systems of the body.
Striated Muscles
These muscles are so- called because they look striped under the microscope.
They are also often called skeletal muscles because they usually connect the body
skeleton. Striated muscles function in pairs: one muscle of the pair contracts while the
other expands. These muscle pairs are known as antagonistic muscles. They are used
for movements of the joints in walking, dancing , or in free-flowing movement.
Smooth muscles
These muscles control our internal organs. They get their names from the
relatively smooth surface. Smooth muscles contract more slowly than do striated
muscles but their response lasts longer. After a tension-filled argument, your stomach
may be in not long after your body relaxed.
Cardiac Muscles
These are the muscles of the heart. They combine the features of striated and
smooth muscles. They are striated like skeletal muscle. But, like smooth muscles, they
contract more slowly, and their response lasts relatively longer. The heart muscles are
the strongest muscles in the body.
THE SENSES
There are more than eight senses that we use to explore and learn about the
world. Each of these senses has a specific sense organ within which are receptor cells
or receiving mechanisms that are sensitive to certain stimuli in the environment.
The Eye
The eye which is the organ of vision, is sometimes compared to a camera lens
because it works roughly the same way as the latter which focuses images of objects at
various distances on the film as it moves toward or away from the place of the film. The
lens of the eye focuses light images on a sensitive surface. This surface in the eye is
the retina, which is composed of rods and cones, the photosensitive cells (mor photoreceptors) that covert light energy into neural signals.
The cones, which are conical in shape and more than six million in number,
allows us to see the different wavelengths of light as different hues or colors. We can
also distinguish differences in brightness and in saturation of colors.
The rods, which are cylindrical and number about 100 million, do not distinguish
colors but are more sensitive to light than are the cones. The rods are better in dim light
and the cones in bright light. Visual acuity ( ability to see fineness in detail) is better with
the cones than with the rods.
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Hilgard presents the process of seeing, thus: light enters the eye through the
cornea, a tough transparent membrane. The amount of light entering the eye is
regulated by the diameter of the pupil, a small hole in front of the eye formed by the iris.
The iris consists of a ring of muscles that can contract or expand, thereby controlling
pupil size. The iris gives the eyes their characteristic color. From the pupil light passes
through the aqueous humor, a watery fluid and then the lens focuses the light on the
sensitive surface, the retina, passing through the vitreous humor, a transparent jelly
filling the interior of the eye. The impulses travel out of the eye along the optic nerve
and into the brain.
The Ear
The sense organ for hearing is the ear, which is sensitive to sound waves, the
mechanical vibrations in the ear. There are three parts of the ear: the outer ear, the
middle ear, and the inner ear.
The two main sensations in hearing are those of pitch (a qualitative dimension of
hearing correlated with the frequency of the sound waves that constitute the stimulus)
and loudness (an intensify dimension of hearing correlated with the amplitude of the
sound waves constituting the stimulus).
Deafness
Can result either from injury to the auditory nerve or from interference with
conduction through the middle ear.
Inability to hear the sound properly.
The outer ear consists of the pinna (or concha), the protruding part of the ear
which catches sound waves. These sound waves pass through the tubular auditory
canal leading the ear drum (or tymphanum), a movable diaphragm activated by sound
waves. On the inner side of the eardrum is a cavity housing the bony transmitters of the
middle ear (a system of bones called ossicles the hammer (malleus), the anvil
(incus), and the stirrup (stape). The hammer is attached firmly to the eardrum and the
stirrup to another membrane, the oval window. The oval window conducts the sound
waves to the cochlea, the auditory portion of the inner ear. Because the oval window is
much smaller than the ear drum, small movements at the ear drum are condensed into
a magnified pressure on the cochlea. Pressure changes in the fluid displace the basilar
membrane in the cochlea on which the organ of Corti rests. This displacement
stimulates receptors in the hair cells of the organ of corti, which are connected with the
auditory nerve. The pathways of the auditory nerve travel to both cerebral hemisphere,
terminating in the temporal lobe.
The Tongue
The sense of taste or gustatory sense is excited by substances in solution in the
mouth. The taste receptors are found in the taste buds, on the edges and toward the
back of the tongue, the sense organ for taste.
At the bottom of these buds are the taste cells which are sensitive to the taste
stimuli. These taste cells are connected to nerve cells, so that when they are
stimulated, a nerve impulse is sent to the brain. There are four different qualities of
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taste: salt, sweet, sour and bitter. In general, sensitivity to sweet is most felt at the tip
of the tongue, to sour on the sides, to salty on the tip and along the sides, and to bitter
at the base or on the back.
Each of the approximately 10,000 taste buds in the human adult tongue has 15
to 28 taste cells arranged in bud like form on its tip. These taste cells continuously
reproduce themselves every seven days. It is believed that as we get older, the number
of our taste buds decreases. Hence, older people are less sensitive to taste than do
children.
Ageusia inability to taste/disorder of the sense of taste.
The Nose
The stimuli for the sense of smell or olfactory sense are gases that enter the
nose. As we inhale, air stimulates the receptors in the olfactory epithelium causing
nerve impulses to go to the brain. Adaptation is a process in which a sense organ
gradually ceases to respond to a constant stimulus. For example, strong odors that
bother us at the beginning are no longer noticed after a short time; our sense of smell
has become adapted. All our senses are capable of such adaptation, but smell is
especially so.
Sensory Adaptation the lessening of the sensitivity of the receptor organ due
to prolonged exposure with the stimulus.
Both taste and smell are often classed as the chemical senses since they are
stimulated by chemical substances. As has been pointed out, in taste, the chemicals
are in watery solutions bathing the tongue and surfaces of the mouth. In smell, they are
in gases that can be absorbed by the receptor cells of the nose.
The Skin
Largest receptor of any sensory system in the human body.
There are four skin or cutaneous senses: pressure (touch), pain, warmth,
and cold. The sense organs for the cutaneous senses are very small free nerve
endings (dendrites) in the skin. When they are stimulated, nerve impulses are tripped
off and they travel to the spinal cord and brain. These receptor organs are not equally
distributed in the skin.
Our cutaneous senses are said to be our reality senses such that when we feel
something with our skin, we are convinced that something is really there.
Three layers of the skin
1. Epidermis outermost layer serves as protection
2. Dermis mediate layer
3. Subcutaneous adipose tissue innermost layer

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INTERNAL SENSES
1. Proprioception
Proprioceptors
The general term for our sense of body position, involve two senses: the
kinaesthetic sense, (whose receptors are in our muscles, tendons, and joints) and the
vestibular sense, which is located in the part of the ear which is not concerned with
hearing.
Kinaesthetic Sense (Sense of Movement)
We know we are walking, sitting, or lying down because of feedback from our
kinaesthetic sense (sense of movement). There is no one specific organ of kinesthesis.
This vital sensory capacity is located in cells in the muscles, joints, and tendons
throughout the body. Kinesthesis tells us when our muscles are straining, when our
arms are out of control, and when our torso is unbalanced. Without kinesthesis, we will
have great difficulty in maintaining posture.
Generally, the receptor cells are simple neurons that branch off from the central
nervous system and lead into muscles, tendons, and joints linings. Kinesthesis
receptors join with nerve fibers from the organs of the skin and go through the spinal
cord to the brain.
Vestibular Sense (Sense of Balance)
This static sense organ or vestibular sense (also called equilibratory or
labyrinthine sense), deals with the total body position in relation to gravity and with
motion of the body as a whole. It is located near the cochlea in the inner ear. In the
cochlea are three semicircular canals which contain a fluid which moves whenever we
turn or rotate our head. Lining these canals are small hair cells that respond with a
nerve when the fluid pushes against them. When these impulses reach the central
nervous system, they participate in maintaining equilibrium.
Our experience of dizziness and falling after twirling around and around is an
example as we accelerate or decelerate in our twirling, we stimulate some of the
organs of balance. Alcohol may also interfere with synaptic transmission of nerve
impulses in the central nervous system and cause a loss of equilibrium. Seasickness, in
part, is a result of the peculiar motions set up in the fluids of these canals by the motion
of the ship.
In addition to the semicircular canals, the sense organs of balance include two
other cavities in the bone near the cochlea. These cavities are filled with small crystals
that respond to gravity (static sense). These receptors respond to the change in
position or tilt of the head.
2. Organic Sensitivity
Throughout our bodies, wherever blood vessels go, there are free nerve endings
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that act as receptors. Some of these are for pain reception, and others are for various
other kinds of the sensations such as the feeling of nausea or an upset stomach or
other different feelings that seem to come from inside us. All these sensations are
grouped together are called organic sensitivity.
Interrelation of the Senses
All our senses send information to the central nervous system where it is
coordinated and used. Because we are not conscious that this coordination is going on,
we are able to concentrate on meeting the whole situation that we are confronted with.
For example, in learning about the gustatory sense, we note how orders, temperatures,
sights, and sounds can all contribute to what we commonly call taste. This is one
example of the interrelation of our senses. In order to adjust to our environment, we
need all the information we can get. We coordinate the working of all our senses as we
perceive (interpret) data.
CHAPTER IV
Sensation and Perception
Sensation is the necessary starting point for any study of behavior and experience since the
organism must be able to obtain information about the world around him and inside him. We have our
levels of sensation and perception to process this sensory information that we use to learn and think with
as we get it from the outside world into our heads. Since human beings perceive the world through all
their senses, they have perceptions, corresponding to each sense, visual perception, auditory perception,
and so on.
Definition of Sensation
Through our senses we make contact with people, objects and events around us. Our sense
organs, working with the nervous system enable us to receive and to interpret stimuli from our
environment.
The sense organs are advanced scouts in the sensory processes, the nervous system provides
the pathways and message runners, and the brain is the headquarters and the decision maker. The brain
tells us whether what we eat is fresh or stale, or whether the cost of the shoes we bought is cheap, too
expensive or just right,
Sensation briefly refers to the physiological arousal of a sense organ by a stimulus.
Characteristic of Sensation
a. Specificity of sensory stimulation
Each sensory organ is stimulated by a specific form of external or internal energy. For example,
the eye is stimulated by the electromagnetic energy called light waves; the ear is stimulated by sound
waves; and the skin senses of touch and pain are stimulated by pressure.
b. Transduction as the transmission process to the brain
The process by which the information is transmitted to the brain is the same for all senses. For
example, as we have learned, the eye responds to the light waves and the ear responds to the sound
waves, but light and sound are foreign language to the brain. Thus, for our sensation to be useful, the
energy, whatever its form, must changed by the sense organs into a form that the brain can understand.
This conversion process is called transduction. It takes place at the receptor cells, which receives the
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energy produced by the stimulus and convert it into electrochemical energy, the brains language.
c. Thresholds
Threshold is the approximate point at which a stimulus becomes strong enough to produce a
response in an individual. This is an important psychological measurement that generally refers to the
amount of physical energy needed to activate the sense organ.
The Absolute Threshold is the least amount of stimulus necessary to produce a response in a
person. See various senses in the table.
Some Approximate Absolute Thresholds
Stimulus
Light
Sound
Taste
Smell
Touch

Thresholds
A candle seen at 30 miles on a dark clear night
The tick of a watch under quite conditions at 20 feet.
One teaspoon of sugar in 2 gallons of water
One drop of perfume diffused into a 3-room apartment
The wing of a bee falling on your cheek from a distant of 1cm

Difference Thresholds
are the smallest changes in that a person is able to detect, often referred to as jnd or just
noticeable difference. For example, a single stimulus such as a violin note, is presented to a subject, and
then is changed by a very small amount. The minimum amount of change in the stimulus necessary for
the subject to be able to detect it is called the just noticeable difference.
Definition and Function of Perception
The process of interpreting sensations making them meaningful is called perception. Our task as
observer is to interpret information in the light of relevant memories from past experience. We must make
sense out of a shifting jumble of nerve impulses. We must convert it into meaningful information. This is
what we do when we perceive. Perception then is the organization of sensory output into meaningful
experience.
Function of Perception can be briefly summarized as:
1. Perception serves the function of converting raw sensory input into useful information.
It helps us to know what is out there and what is going on within our own bodies. In short,
perception enables us to deal more effectively with our environment in relation to our motives. It serves
as a guide to our action.
2. Perception serves as an encoding process.
In order to simplify our perceptual load, we have to encode sensory input. To encode something
is to put it in a category. We see a building and encode it as a house, or we see some people shouting
and struggling and encode the event as a fight.
3. A strategy in perceiving.
We live in a world of objects and people that confront us with a tremendous and ever-changing
array of information and stimulation, far too much for us to assimilate and use. We do not perceive
everything at once; rather we select certain objects to perceive while ignoring others. The direction of
perception toward certain selected object is called Attention. Attention is determined by personal factors
as well as a number of stimulus conditions that help determine its direction.
Attention and Perception
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For the most part, we perceive only those aspects of environment. To which we attend. Attention
is the readiness to perceive, a pre-perceptive set of expectancy based on one's interests and
motivations, as well as the nature of the stimuli which impinge upon us.
Adjustments in Attending. The attentive process may be viewed on three standpoints:
a.
Adjustments to the sense organs maybe readily observed in the tracking of movements of the
eyes of the observer at a baseball games as the ball is hit by the batter: the movement of our head to
facilitate reception of sound sensation; sniffing is in obvious adjustment in smelling.
b.
Adjustment of posture is especially evident when one strains forward in his seat during a lecture
or stoops to look at something on the ground.
c.
Muscle Tensions are involved in any adjustment of posture although these changes are at times
not obvious for general observations. For example, when efforts are made to distract subjects attending
to a task, there is an expected decrease in their energy expenditure to compensate for the distraction,
some of which are attributable to heightened muscle tension.
Determiners of Attention
1. Nature - By nature, we may mean for example, whether the stimulus is visual, auditory and whether it
involves words or pictures, people or animals ( picture attract attention more readily than words; a
rhyming auditory passage attracts more attention more readily than the same passage presented as
narrative)
2. Location - The best location of visual stimulus for attracting attention is directly in front of the eyes in
the center of a page. (A position in the upper portion of a page is more favorable than one in the lower
portion, and the left-hand side receives more attention than the right hand side.
3. Novelty - Most of us attend to anything that is strange or unusual. Sounds, smell and tastes to which
we are accustomed may go unnoticed but a strange stimulus is observed immediately.
4. Intensity - Illustrated by the blaring loudspeaker or a brilliantly light sign.
5. Size - Proportion of the stimulus.
6. Colors - Certain colors are more attention-getting than others.
7. Mobiles - Apparently moving objects attract more attention when compared with a stationary one.
However, all these factors are potent only to the degree that they arouse or pertain to internal
states. These states stem from complex conditions of the organism known as motivation. The man who
wants to assume a more dominant role is likely to attend to advertisements concerning power.
Interests.
The immediate or long-term interests of an individual and his various dominant motivational
systems are clearly potent internal determinants of attention for him. Thus, for example, he hair stylist will
most likely notice quite different aspects of a person's hair and face than with the voice of a teacher.
Set or Expectation:
Expectation or set of people affects their perceptions of ambiguous stimulus.
Visual Perception
All perceptions always convert sensory information into objects. If you look around the room, you
will easily mention specific people or objects. We intend to perceive things rather than the sensory
features that describe them. Detached sensory features, such as for example, blueness, squareness,
or softness can be perceived but they are usually perceived as the qualities of objects. A wailing sound
in the distance is heard as an approaching ambulance. Thus, people always perceive objects, not just
sensing or collecting stimuli.
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Perception of Movement
Assumed that your eyes are focused on a point below eye level on the trunk of a tree across the
road from you. At first, some cells in your retina are stimulated by the brown of the tree trunk. Then as the
bus passes between you and the tree these same cells are suddenly stimulated by the light reflected to
your eyes from the passing bus; after the bus passes, they are again stimulated by the tree trunk. Any
individual retinal cells receives one stimulus at one time (from the tree), a different one at another time
(from the bus), then the first one again (from the tree). So at one time any nerve cell fires more or less
vigorously that at another. How can we then under these circumstances perceive any movement?
The retina receives information from a broad visual field. The bus stimulates cells on one side of
the brain before it stimulates others; and cells at higher stations in the nervous system receive inputs
from different parts of the retina. Hence, information about movement is provided by the relative timing of
stimulation at different retinal positions.
Auditory Perception
To a great extent, depth perception is also a function of the auditory sense. Both distance and
direction can be accurately perceived by the sense of hearing alone. In fact, hearing without vision is
more acute than it is with vision. Each of our sense probably becomes keener when it cannot depend on
the help of other senses. For example, blind people usually have a very keen sense of hearing, while
deaf people develop an acute sense of vision. Without visual cues, our perception of sound is greater,
music is more powerful; and human voices reveal more tonal quality.
Set or Perceptual Set
Is a readiness to perceive in a certain manner. It is a way of interpreting stimulation which is
determined largely by past experience. The influence of context is important also, but it too, is dependent
upon past experience. Set influences perception not only in normal awareness but also in altered states
of consciousness.
Past Experience
Is so influential in the development of personal traits particularly, attitudes, values, interests, and
prejudices, and thus, it has an inescapable influence on the way we are prepared to perceive the world.
Past experience determines to a large degree, our interpretation of what we perceive, as is apparent
when people are strictly partisan. It is for this reason, among others, that there are referees, judges, and
marriage counsellors, whose past experience may not place them in favour of one party or another, and
therefore, they can perceive the situation in an unbiased manner.
Context
The immediate situation also is influential in determining what we perceive of ones family,
friends, and other social groups may play strong but subtle role in determining the manner in which one
perceives the world. People find in their environment the things they are looking for, the sorts of things
which they are motivated to see. In testifying about the same event, witnesses and experts often differ
dramatically not necessarily because they wish to deceive, but because distortions are imposed upon
them by their hopes, fears, and other personal inclinations. Each of us filters the world somewhat
differently, due to personal biases.
Role of Perception in Learning
1.
Several theorists have pointed out the reinforcing (response-strengthening) role of perception.
Reinforcement, more popularly translated as reward is considered by many to be a key factor in
learning. Thus, perception becomes one of the determinants of learning. Organisms are motivated to
perceive or more broadly, to know hence, successful perception is intrinsically rewarding.
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2.
What we perceive, especially under consistent or chronic conditions, seems to be somehow
incorporated within our personal value systems. That is, we tend to learn the standards that we
experience. For example, the crucial role of the religious and social standards to which one has been
exposed provides guidelines that bias subsequent behaviors, including perceptual processes.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
The concept of extrasensory perception implies a form of perception that does not involve the
stimulation of any known sensory receptors.
Most ESP research has focused on four phenomena:
1. Telepathy refers to the transfer of thoughts between individuals.
2. Clairvoyance refers to the perception of objects or events that are not available to the senses such
as seeing the message inside a sealed envelope.
3. Psycho kinesis is the ability to influence the movement of material bodies by the power of thought
alone. Examples, projecting an imaginary image onto unexposed photographic film to make the
image emerge when the film is developed or making a plant grow taller through mental means.
4. Precognition is the ability to foretell future events.
Parapsychology
is a science devoted to investigations of psychical phenomena. The majority of parapsychologists
tend to believe in the reality of the ESP phenomenon but most other psychologists remain more or less
sceptical.

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