Biological Influences-U2-IP - Essay Example

Biological Influences-U2-IP Experiment After rubbing the sand paper gently with the index finger the coarseness was felt. As it was unused sand paper it is very coarse and can be rated as 7. After sometime when the coarse paper was rubbed gently with the same finger the coarseness felt was little bit decreased.Experimenting with the same sandpaper the coarseness perception was decreased in the second attempt. It is due to the adaptation of the skin to the coarseness of the sand paper. The adaptation depends both on body organ (skin) and stimuli from mind.

When rubbed for the first time the there is no perception of the sandpaper's coarseness for the mind and effect of it on the skin. So the mind received the maximum effect of coarseness and sent stimuli to feel that. After a minute or two (not for a long time) if again rubbed, the time is not sufficiently large enough to forget the coarseness of the sand paper. This time the sand paper was rubbed with index finger having a perception about its coarseness. This type of adaptation of the mind to the situation decreases its extent of stimuli and as a result the perception of coarseness is up to less extent when the sand paper was rubbed for 2nd time.

Here the adaptation was evident by touch.Experiment 2: Take two cups of water. The first one will be sugar mixed water and the second with fresh water. Now the sip of the sugar mixed water was taken and swished around in the mouth for some time. This action made the water to mix with saliva in the mouth. As a result the sweetness of it was decreased. Another factor also may contribute to the decrease of sweetness of the sugar water. (When swished (liquid) or chewed (solid) the sugars in the substance will be disintegrated to smaller molecules of sugar and the carbohydrates also to the level of smaller molecules of sugar.

This makes the sweet food to taste less sweet and the carbohydrate food a little bit sweeter after chewing it for some time.)By the time the sugar water tastes less sweet than its real taste the taste buds were adapted to its sweet taste. The mind also sends the stimuli of sweetness. When the fresh water was tasted the stimuli sent by the mind and the state of adaptation of taste buds make one to feel the sweetness in ordinary water. After swishing the ordinary water in the mouth like it was done with sweet water that adaptation was removed and the water tasted ordinary again.

Here the adaptation was evident by taste.Experiment 3: When a unidirectional light was focused on the index cards in a dark room the light was felt by our eye by the incidence of it on the cards. When we remove the cards one by one, the incidence of light on the cards is decreased and the light spreads in the dark room. Till now the pupil in the eye was adapted to receive light incident on small place (index cards are small when compared to room). Now the light was felt dim by the eye. When the pupil in the eye was adjusted to view the light expanded over a large surface by contracting, we will be able to detect the light in the room.

When the cards are added again in the way of light, it was incident on the smaller surface again and the eye can feel the increase of light. This feeling of decrease and increase of light is due to the way of receiving the light by the pupil. The fainter light is received by contraction of the pupil and the brighter light is received by expansion of the pupil. This was done by the signals sent by the mind. So the eye will be adapted to the intensity of the light and some time will be taken to adjust to the new situation (increase or decrease of intensity).

Experiment 4: Three medium sized bowls were taken and they were filled with hot, cold and lukewarm water respectively. The left hand was put in hot water and the right hand was put in cold water for a few minutes. By this time the temperature of the hand in hot water was increased and the temperature of the hand in cold water was decreased. After this adaptation the feeling of hot ness and cold ness was decreased. When the hands were removed from both the bowls and were put in lukewarm water the left hand felt coolness and the right hand felt hot ness as they were adapted to the hot and coldness till now.

When they were put in water of different temperature, the hand with higher temperature felt the coldness of it and the hand with lower temperature felt the hotness of it. This is due to the comparative hotness and coldness of the substance. The stimuli act according to the degree of comparison and it will be according to the adaptation. References1. Banes & noble, 2006, Learning and conditioning, 2-09-06, Spark notes, http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/learning/section3.rhtml2. Susan Kramer, 2001, Practices to extend perception, ,2-09-06, Social Conscience Digest/Forum, http://susankramer.

com/PerceptionPractices.html