Assignment 4 Hide Assignment Information Instructions Directions: Be sure to save an electronic copy of your answer before submitting it to Ashworth College for grading. Unless otherwise stated, answer in
complete sentences, and be sure to use correct English, spelling, and grammar. Sources must be cited in APA format. Your response should be four (4) double- spaced pages; refer to the "Format Requirements” page for specific format requirements. Part A: Animal Experimentation The authors of your textbook are proponents of using animals for scientific research to gain insight into human medical, mental, and behavioural issues. They maintain that animal experimentation is a necessary part of that research. Write the following: Present two (2) reasons the authors use to justify the use of animals in psychological research. Provide at least two (2) specific examples to support each argument, citing your sources. Part B: Genetic Research Methods Genetic research methods are extremely useful to the study of the physiology of behavior because they help researchers understand the role of genetics in physiological differences across individuals. Write the following: Identify two (2) genetic research methods and explain how the methods are used to study genetic factors. Give one specific example for each method you described, citing your sources. Part C: Hit in the Ear Imagine you are a news correspondent, and you are broadcasting at the World Series. Suddenly you are hit in the ear with a baseball. What are some of the difficulties you may experience when going to work on Monday? This is the reading lecture: Welcome to Lesson 4! You're nearing the halfway point in the course. Good job! Audition Let's begin this lesson with a hearing (also known as "audition") experiment you can conduct at home. Using tape or chalk, make an X on the floor. Measure distances in a straight line in increments of 5 ft. (1.5 m) from the X and label each of these points (5 ft., 10 ft., 15 ft., etc.) Now for the test! Place a blindfolded subject on the X. Now, you stand on one of the points away from the X. Say the subject's name. The subject must now tell you which line you are standing on. 5 ft.? 15 ft.? Try it when the subject uses one ear and both ears. Make it harder with shorter distances from the X, such as 2 ft. and 3 ft. Are two ears better than one in judging distance? (University of Washington, n.d.) Now let's try this fun experiment to test your hearing acuity: Collect 10 or more U.S. pennies-the more pennies you collect, the better. Recently, I noticed that the U.S. government changed the metals it uses to make a penny. Pennies are not 100 percent copper. For one thing, newer pennies look different: they are shinier. To me, new pennies also SOUND different. Try to figure out when they changed the formula of the penny. Take your collection of pennies and drop them, one at a time, on a hard surface-a table or floor will work well. Newer pennies have a "tinny," dull sound. Older pennies have a fuller, "ringing" sound. Keep track of the pennies you think are old and which ones are new. How did you do? And when do you think they make the switch to the new penny formula? My guess, based on my perceptions of the penny sounds, is that 1982 was the last year that they made pennies with the old formula. From 1983 on, I think they made pennies out of copper-plated zinc. What answer did you come up with? Rinne's and Weber's tests are helpful in determining whether a patient has conductive hearing loss (CHL) or Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SHL). Often hearing problems caused by conduction problems are mechanical in nature, such as cerumen impaction (earwax). Other more serious, often irreversible hearing damage can occur as a result of damage to the inner ear structures. Also, people age, the hairs of Corti-especially in men-that transmit the vibration of sound to the inner ear degenerate and are lost, decreasing hearing. How to Perform Weber's Test To perform Weber's test, strike a tuning fork against your knee or elbow, then place the base of the fork in the middle of the patient's forehead, up high. It is important to steady the patient's head with your other hand so that reasonably firm pressure can be applied. Then ask the patient, "Do you hear the sound louder in one ear than the other? If so, in which ear is it louder?" If the patient is unclear, you may ask if they hear it "everywhere." Be careful not to ask the question in a leading manner. (Oxford Medical Education, 2017.) Here is a great image of the ear from WebMD: (Hoffman, 2020) ©2020 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved. The link below will take you to the image above and explain the structure of the ear. It also lists some ear conditions (Hoffman, 2020). Picture of the Ear Somatosenses The somatosenses provide information about what is happening on the surface of the body and inside it. Cutaneous senses are the skin senses, and have receptors that respond to several types of stimuli: touch, temperature, and pain. Mechanoreceptors and some free nerve endings detect pressure or vibration in the skin. Changes in temperature are detected by two categories of free nerve endings: those that respond to coolness and those that respond to warmth. Chemicals released due to tissue damage activates free nerve endings in the skin to detect pain. There are three types of pain receptors, called nociceptors. You can review the four types of mechanoreceptors at this link: Mechanoreceptors The Evolution of Taste The tongue, palate, pharynx, and larynx contain about 10,000 taste buds! Taste buds along with specialized receptors communicate information about taste to our brain. Scientists have discovered we recognize six distinctive qualities regarding taste: bitter, sour, sweet, salty, umami, and fat. Several different areas of brain are involved in gustation (taste), including the amygdala, hypothalamus, and basal forebrain. The next time you enjoy a satisfying meal, think about all the parts of your body that are working to help you enjoy the sense of taste! Sweet taste receptors are made of a heterodimer of taste 1 receptor member 2 (T1R2) and taste 1 receptor member 3 (T1R3). There is overwhelming evidence that supports the notion that the sweet taste receptors are found everywhere throughout the body. Sweet taste receptors are in areas such as the gastrointestinal tract and the hypothalamus. These taste receptors play a major role in triggering metabolism, nutrient sensing, and igniting the behavioral responses that help maintain energy balance and monitoring changes in energy stores. Taste receptors are also influenced heavily by external and internal factors. When an individual has a dysfunction in one or more of receptor, the person may develop diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (Lee & Owyang, 2017). Read the following article to learn more about the sense of taste. It's interesting to learn that the classic textbook pictures most of have seen in the past showing separate taste areas on the tongue are wrong! How Does Our Sense of Taste Work? The Olfactory System The major structures involved in the olfactory system-the system relating to the sense of smell--include olfactory receptor cells and olfactory bulbs. Different types of molecules can activate different regions of the olfactory bulb. Different odorants bind to the receptors, at different rates and patterns, thereby creating the differences we detect in numerous odors. Play this video on smell to learn how the olfactory bulb processes information from the olfactory receptors: Olfactory Receptor The Control of Movement Let's consider for a moment how the brain helps facilitate movement. This isn't as easy as sending a message from the brain to the muscle to make it "move." Messages are sent from the outer portion of the brain called the cortex. Several cortical areas are involved in controlling movement, including the primary motor cortex, supplementary motor areas, and premotor cortex. However, before movement takes place, the signal makes a pit stop by the basal ganglia. We would not be able to function if every message created was sent directly to the muscles. During this stop, a decision is made on which action will be executed and which action would be inhibited (Quora, 2017). The spinal cord is also involved in the regulation of movement:
