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Mattea Cox

Mrs. Stevens

Life Science

21 February 2020

Which Sense Has the Greatest Impact On Test Scores?

There I was, sitting and contemplating the meaning of life. I was thinking about the most

intelligent entities on planet Earth: human beings. Humans are essentially complex, wired with

the utmost care. Then it hit me: how big would the impact of the human senses be on test scores?

Would it be enough to put my final exams in jeopardy? The proverbial lightbulb illuminated the

oldest, mustiest corners of my dark headspace. Thus, my science experiment was birthed! I

thought that if ten participants take the same test when certain smells (coffee beans) were

diffused, then the test score average will be higher than the other averages.

How Do Senses Work?

The five senses are instruments that use neurons to instigate awareness of our

environment. How this works is that the neurons switch off sensory messages and carry the

neurons throughout the body. One example would be hearing. The outer ear carries sound waves

into the ear canal. Sound waves then turn into signals with a chain reaction that thus helps us

identify the certain sound. Yet to see different colors, light needs to enter the eye. Color is made

when the light focuses on the retina, where the visual information is tranformed by rods and

cones into signals that travel to the brain. Smelling and tasting are both connected, since at the

end of the nasal cavity and the back of the tongue are nerve receptors that are triggered when a

specific chemical lands on them. Feeling, or touch, has its own system called the somatosensory

system that can sense through the outer layer of skin using different receptors. In the relativity of
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the sensually disabled, such as the deaf or blind, is cross-modal plasticity. This means that if you

lose one sense, then it could mean a different sense is further enhanced. The neurons reorient

themselves to make new connections, making up for the loss of a sense. (Burke)

How Are Senses Connected?

When one sense drops out, another can pick up the slack. One connection between senses

is identifying emotions in other people with tone of voice and body language. There is also a

sensory affection called synesthesia, or “cross-sensing.” In synesthesia, activating one sense

immediately triggers another, such as chicken tasting like triangle, a symphony smelling of

baked bread, or words basking in a halo of red, green, or purple. Certain emotions and memories

can also be associated with different senses. What you hear can also depend on who you’re

looking at during a conversation. (Groeger)

How Do Senses Impact Perception?

In the 1950s-60s, when computers weren’t as highly developed, scientists thought that

they could create a computer that could sense everything a human can. Basically, they wanted to

program the computers to be able to anticipate what comes next, such as if a human reached for a

glass or listened to a sentence. That’s what scientists aspired to create computers to be.

Prediction and perception can easily be related to common sense. For example, if you see your

doctor out of uniform, it takes you some time to recognize them. Predictability is easy for the

human brain to process but unpredictibility is inevitably harder because everything relies on

expectations. An idea called “bottom-up processing” is the idea that basic data from any sense

starts with the information, goes to analyzing, reasoning, and identifying. Although

neuroscientists think that the process can go both ways, from identifying the data to its simple

root information. Essentially, perception is the process of building up reality using your senses.
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(Denworth)

Are Certain Senses Sharper In Males or Females? Why?

It’s scientifically proven that women are more sensitive than men, meaning that they feel

more accurately. This is because the norm of society is that women are usually more equipped to

perform basic home economics, such as laundry, cooking, etc. These practices equip women to

be able to tell the minute difference between two things. For instance, the difference between

two shades of color. Although men are more likely to be color-blind, they are more skilled at

classifying sudden movement, or fast-moving objects. When it comes to touch, there really isn’t

a gender barrier. Smaller hands usually are more sensitive to touch. If you compare a man’s hand

and a woman’s hand, whichever hand is smaller is more sensitive. This is determined by the

individuals being compared. There are no specific gender roles. But, by default, women are just

smaller overall. With hearing, men are five and a half more times likely to lose their hearing than

women, although this depends on the environment the individual grew up in. Studies have shown

that women have more tastebuds than men. About 35% of women have stronger tastebuds than

the average human. Women in childbearing ages have also been shown to taste stronger than

younger or older women. (MacMillan)

What Are the Different Learning Styles, and Why Are There Different Learning Styles?

There are four different learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing.

These styles all together are known as the VARK Modalities Theory. Visual learners retain

information best when they are presented with something that displays the material, drawing

diagrams, or writing down notes. Reading/writing learners can be grouped with visual learners

occasionally. Auditory learners learn best with discussions about the subject, or with oral

presentations such as lectures. Kinesthetic learners usually do something to keep them active,
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and that also transfers over to learning, too. They learn best when they are doing hands-on

projects, such as science experiments. (Elrick)

How Do Grades Impact Learning?

When students focus on grades and how they are performing, learning may not result.

During the transition from high school to college, students tend to focus more on graduating with

a high GPA to get into a good college than remembering the content they have learned. When a

student receives a higher grade than what he expects, given the amount of effort he puts into it,

he feels more intelligent. If the student receives a grade lower than the amount of effort he puts

into it, it lowers his confidence on his intelligence. Focusing on learning creates a direct

relationship with input to outcome: the more effort they invest, the greater the opportunity to

learn. If you set your intention on learning and not grades, then you will experience the true joy

of learning. (Holtgrieve)

Conclusion

I thought that if ten participants take the same test when certain smells (coffee beans)

were diffused, then the test score average will be higher than the other averages, and I found out

that this theory was right! On average, 40% of the participants scored at least 50% on the coffee

bean test. For the taste, sight, and hearing tests, 30% of the participants scored at least 50%. The

coffee bean test had the highest average of 25%, and the other three tests all had averages of

20%. At the end of the experiment, what had happened was that while the participants smelled

the coffee beans during their test, the smell helped them think better and come up with the right

answer. In conclusion, my theory that coffee beans improve test scores was correct.

Works Cited

Burke, Meredith. “The Five Senses: How Neurons Work throughout the Body.” The Ithacan,
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The Ithacan, 16 Apr. 2019, theithacan.org/columns/the-five-senses-how-neurons-work-

throughout-the-body/.

Denworth, Lydia. “The Five Senses and the Nature of Perception.” Psychology Today, Sussex

Publishers, 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-waves/201411/the-five-

senses-and-the-nature-perception.

Elrick, Lauren. “4 Types of Learning Styles: How to Accommodate a Diverse Group of

Students.” 4 Types of Learning Styles: How to Accommodate a Diverse Group of

Students | Rasmussen College, Rasmussen College, 9 Aug. 2018,

www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/types-of-learning-styles/.

Groeger, Lena. “Making Sense of the World, Several Senses at a Time.” Scientific American, 28

Feb. 2012, www.scientificamerican.com/article/making-sense-world-sveral-senses-at-

time/.

Holtgreive, Joseph. “Inside Higher Ed.” Students Focus Too Much on Grades to the Detriment of

Learning (Essay), 2016, www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/08/16/students-focus-too-

much-grades-detriment-learning-essay.

MacMillan, Amanda. “5 Surprising Ways Men and Women Sense Things Differently.”

Health.com, 26 Mar. 2015, www.health.com/mind-body/5-surprising-ways-men-and-

women-sense-things-differently.
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