Sensation/Perception Extra Credit - 2 Points for the term, due by midnight, January 25, 2012

[Mr. Simon]

You must travel to the Museum of Science in Cambridge. Visit the
exhibits "Take a closer look," "The Lighthouse" and "Seeing is
Deceiving." Post on this discussion one thing you learned about three
different senses. Include a brief description of the exhibit and how
it informed you about sensation and/or perception. You may not post
the same "I learned" concept that has been posted by two other people.
Along with your write-up you most post a photo of you at one of the
exhibits. If you travel with classmates, you may take a group photo.
The museum normally costs $22. You can also reserve a pass from the
Wellesley Free Library for $7 or the Boston Public Library for free
but there are a limited number of passes and you must reserve them for
a specific day. You can find information online for both.
Any quuestions or concerns about this assignment should be brought to
your teacher's attention immediately.

[Maica]

Hearing: People are better at identifying familiar sounds, even when
lots of other sounds are present. Parents can often instantly
recognize the cry of their own child on a busy playground, and people
can hear their own name easily at a noisy party. The display played
three songs together on a piano, and the first time you heard it it
sounds like a jumble. Then you listen to each song individually before
playing the mix again. Now the second time hearing the mix it is
easier to recognize at least one of the songs with in the mix because
it is more familiar even after only hearing it once.

Sight: You do not see light unless there is an object to reflect light
into your eyes. Without this object the space looks dark. For example,
in the "dark void of outer space" is actually filled with starlight,
but there is nothing in the vacuum of space to scatter the light to
our eyes. This means that when looking into space all we see is the
starlight that travels straight from the star to our eyes. In the
display two tubes appear dark but when you put your hand in one you
discover it is actually lit because you have now given the light
something to bounce off of.

Touch: Our fingers are much more sensitive than the backs of our hands
and our wrists. This sensitivity makes it possible for us to grip
objects precisely. In the display you have to turn a large knob on a
shaft to move a circular plunger in and out of the shaft. As you turn
you feel with your fingertip across the tops of the plunger and stop
when it feels even with the end of the shaft. You then repeat this
with the back of your hand and then with your wrist. (With the back of
my finger I was only 1.8 units too far out of the shaft. However, with
the back of my hand i was 4.5 units too far out, and with my wrist I
was 2.6 units too far out.)

[Abi Cooper]

Sight: brain cells specialize in detecting motion, even if other cues are missing, such as contrast between colors, outlines, or changes in texture.  This comes from the fact that in the wild, humans would need to detect other animals moving, an encounter which would trigger the fight or flight response.  The exhibit demonstrated this principle through showing a pattern on a screen.  The viewer would press a button, and part of the pattern in a certain shape would move.  This shape went undetected when it was not moving, but was clearly visible when moving.

Touch: vibrations are most readily detected in the fingertips and palms, because nerve endings are most densely packed in those locations.  The user of the exhibit could manually change the frequency of its vibration, and compare his or her fingertips with other less sensitive areas, like the arm.  Humans are most sensitive to vibrations between 100 and 200 beats per minute.  Vibrations are useful because they keep a person's attention, unlike steady pressure, which a person will adapt to.  People use feedback from vibrations to play instruments, drive, speak, and balance.

Smell: smell is much more subjective than hearing and sight - there is not a linear progression of perception.  There are over 10,000 different chemical molecules that can combine to form a scent.  People may perceive the same scent differently either because they did not inhale all possible molecules, or because their bodies are not as sensitive to the distinctions.  This ability to distinguish also diminishes with age.  The ability to detect certain scents also decreases significantly when different smells are mixed.

[Anna Kasok]

Sight: I learned that it is easier for humans to recognize the general
images from afar. When humans look at something closeup, they
recognize the fine details, but the brain and eye are unable to see an
image as a whole, they way they can from farther away and with
sweeping glances. I learned this from the "Seeing is Deceiving"
exhibit. In the station, there were four pictures. One looked like a
bunch of words with different shading, one was like a dartboard of
circles, one was like a grid of squares, and the other was just a lot
of lines of different shades and thicknesses. Up close, that was all
I could see. However, when I stepped 10 feet back, I was able to see
that the 4 pictures were of faces. The faces were the general shapes,
and the lines, circles, words, and squares were the fine details.

Touch: I learned that our bodies react to changes in temperature
because the temperatures change affects homeostasis. In the hot or
cold station in the "Take a closer look" exhibit, there were three
metal surfaces on the table. The one on the left was hot, the one on
the right was cold, and the one in the middle was neutral (room
temperature). I placed my left hand on the hot surface and my right
hand on the cold surface for 15 seconds. I then put both of my hands
on the neutral surface for 10 seconds. When I did this, my left hand
that had been on the hot surface felt cold and my right hand that had
been on the cold surface felt hot. This is because my sensory nerves
were responding to changes in temperature by creating new definitions
of homeostasis. When I put my hands on the neutral surface, my new
homeostasis was disturbed. The station also compared this to jumping
into a cold lake on a hot day. It's a shock at first, but then your
body gets used to it. Later when you get out of the lake, the air
feels very warm because you're used to the cold lake.

Hearing: I learned that it is easier to distinguish where sounds come
from when the come from the right or the left of you than it is to
distinguish when they come from in front of or behind you. This is
because the right ear can easily distinguish sounds from your right
side and your left ear can easily distinguish sounds from your left
side. Because we don't have ears in the front of our faces and behind
our heads, it can be difficult for us to determine sounds coming from
those directions. In the station in the "take a closer look" exhibit,
there was a table of red buttons. The purpose of the activity was to
press a button and guess where the sound came from. To check, you
would press the white "check it" button as well as the red button. My
guesses were more accurate when the sounds were coming from my right
or left than they were when coming from in front of me or behind me.
This is why when talking to someone in front of us, we often tilt our
heads so that one ear is closer to the other person, which makes it
easier for us to hear them.

[Lucy]

Vision:
In the exhibit “Take a Closer Look,” I visited a booth in which images
were flashed on a screen for either .1 seconds, .05 seconds, or .01
seconds. The image, when shown for .1 seconds, was easily nameable and
recognizable (a chicken). The next image, shown for .05 seconds, I
found distinctly recognizeable and I was certain it was a human face
of some kind; it turned out to be Uncle Sam. When the image flashed
for .01 seconds, I could perceive that I had seen something new, but
had no guess as to what exactly it was.When I revealed the image
flashed for .01 seconds, I was suprised to find that it had shown a
bold, printed word. The exhibit demonstrated the surprising accuracy
with which the human brain can process and name a familiar image (I
easily saw and named the chicken,) and showed that there exists a
point at which one can recognize an image semi-consciously without
being able to fully identify or name it, and that the brain is skilled
at recognizing the human face (Uncle Sam).That I could not recognize
or even the nature of the image at .01 seconds also emphasized the
disparity between the brain’s ability to recognize visual images
versus its ability to read and decode words.
Time:
Unlike the other exhibits in take a closer look, I found a section
devoted to the brain’s internal timing mechanism. I learned that there
is a part of the brain devoted to maintaining an accurate sense of
short-term time (related to but not identical to circadian rhythm),
which becomes attuned to the pre-established time standards that we
create (for example, the second, the minute, and the hour.) The booth
had a timer that kept track without revealing the seconds in between
start and stop, and instructed the user to approximate one minute,
without counting, simply based on a ‘sixth sense’ of the passage of
time. When I tried, my “internal minute” was only 39 seconds long:
However, when watching Abi and a stranger perform the same task, they
both fell short, at 41 and 37 seconds respectively. (time was passing
slowly for all three of us.)That made me wonder if our internal clocks
fail when we concentrate on approximating time, because we were
focused on the exhibit and nothing else.
Touch:
The last exhibit I visited dealt with homeostasis and the perception
of temperature. I learned that the brain detects change in temperature
more rapidly than it does “objective” temperature (that is, how warm
or cold something truly is.) There were three metal plates; the left
hand plate was warm, the right hand plate was cool, and the middle
plate was room temperature, and comfortable to the touch. After
placing both hands on their respective plates at the same time for 15
seconds, I moved both hands to the middle plate. Instead of feeling an
equal temperature on both hands, my left hand felt very warm, and my
right hand very cool, despite the exposure of the hands to the exact
same temperature, which was neither of the two extremes. Although this
phenomenon of relative temperature is very common (walking into room
temperature feels very warm after being outside in the cold,) the
exhibit “tricked” the body by exposing it to “extreme” heat and cold
simultaneously, and then providing a neutral surface.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Lisa Hsieh]

Smell: People can detect thousands of smells, although they may not always be able to name the smell. Furthermore, the sensibility to a certain smell varies from a person to person. The display I visited was in the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit. It contained several bottles with different fragrances, and one had to identify as many smells as he/she could. I was able to name most of the flower and fruit fragrances – rose, coconut, apple, etc. –, but could not recognize the smell of grass. Conversely, I asked my father to try the smell test, and although he was also able to tell apart many of the smells, unlike me, he was able to identify the smell of grass but not apple.

 

Hearing: It is easier for people to distinguish sounds if some visual cue is included when the sound is being played. In another display from the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit, I listened to a recording of a birdcall. Next, from sample recordings of three birds, I had to guess which of the birds made the same call. It was very difficult to even guess which bird it was. Next, the original birdcall recording played a second time, but this time there was a spectrogram included while it was playing. The spectrogram was a graph that visually represented the sound spectrum of the birdcall, so I could actually “see” the sound and its texture. When the samples from the three birds appeared this time around, it was much easier to tell which bird matched with the given birdcall. Therefore, because two sets of senses (hearing and vision) were used the second time the birdcall was played, it was now much easier to distinguish which of the birds matched it.

 

Sight: The brain assumes that moving objects retain their shape as they change position. In a display called the Breathing Square in the “Seeing is Deceiving” exhibit, four gray squares created four changing shapes of a single white square turning behind them. As each of the four edges of the white square rotated from horizontal and vertical to 45 degrees, their visible length increased. Therefore, my brain automatically concluded that the area of the square was expanding and contracting as it rotated – even though it actually didn’t change at all –, and this made the square look like it was “breathing”.

[Emily Dothe]

Sight: People look at certain images relative to its surroundings. In the exhibit "Seeing is Deceiving," there was a display that showed how a color can appear like two different colors because the eye sees the color relative to other colors around it. On this display, there was a checkerboard consisting of blue, red and light green colors. The blue squares surrounded by the green squares, from far away, appeared to be a lighter shade of blue than the blue squares surrounded by red squares. When I stepped closer, however, I realized that the blue squares were all the same shade of blue, but only appeared to be different because I was viewing them relative to the color squares around them. 

Hearing: Humans can hear sounds that vibrate between 20 and 20,000 times per second, and the ability to hear high frequency sounds diminishes with age. In the "Take a Closer Look" exhibit, there was a display that allowed people to experience the lowest and highest ranges of their hearing ability. The set-up consists of headphones that emitted a sound at a certain frequency, controlled by a knob that moves from low to high frequency sounds. The lowest frequency that I could hear was that of a jet stream, and I could not any frequencies lower than that. I could also hear a dog whistle, which had a very high sound frequency, but I could not hear anything with a higher frequency than that. However, although humans have a finite range of sound frequencies, there are other animals who can hear higher frequencies, such as bats and porcupines, and there are other animals who can hear lower frequencies, like elephants. 

Time: Humans have an altered sense of time passing depending on what they are doing. In the exhibit, "Take a Closer Look," there was a display that asked people to estimate the passing of one minute in their head. After pressing the start button, the machine started to time the seconds passing without indicating anything on the screen. The participant was asked to press the stop button when he/she thought one minute had passed and was then told the number of seconds that had actually done by. When I first tried to do this, I was completely unoccupied while estimating the minute, and what I thought was one minute turned out to be only 33 seconds. The time seems to move slowly due to my lack of activity. The second time I tried it, I was talking to my pal Sheila while estimating the minute, and this time, the minute seemed to go by much faster than the first time-- what I thought was one minute turned out to be 1 minutes and 13 seconds. Finally, after experience both ends, I tried a third time, and got a result of 56 seconds. 

---

From: Mr. Simon <jsim...@gmail.com>
To: Sperry AP Psych <sperry-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 9:34 AM
Subject: Sensation/Perception Extra Credit - 2 Points for the term, due by midnight, January 25, 2012

[Michael Rolincik]

Sight: I learned that humans can only see complete images that are
made up of little parts from a distance. The example consisted of
four images that, up close, looked like fonts of different weights,
scattered lines, concentric circles, and a grid. When viewed from
further away, these jumbled shapes made faces.

Hearing: I learned that it is much easer for people to distinguish
between sounds originating from left or right, but more difficult when
they come from the front or back. The exhibit had an activity where a
partner sits across from you with a circle of buttons, corresponding
to the location of a speaker. He or she would push one of the buttons
and you would have to point to which speaker you think the sound came
from. More often, I was correct when the sounds came from my left or
right. This is because our ears are on our right and left, and sounds
coming from our front and back are registered in both of our ears,
which is what makes the origin of those sounds much more difficult to
pinpoint.

Touch: I learned that some parts of our body are much more sensitive
to feeling than other parts. For example, the tips of our fingers are
much more sensitive than our wrists. The activity that went along
with this had you feel a surface with your fingers and turn a knob
until the surface was flush. The activity then had you repeat the
task, except this time with your wrist. The first trial I got the
surface to be almost perfectly flush, but during the second trial, the
surfaces were much further off than I expected.

[Tess Harrington]

Sight: Researchers study how our brains interpret illusions to
understand how we process visual information in everyday life. Next to
the “Seeing is Deceiving” exhibit, I went to a live presentation
called “Cool Concepts: Mind Games and Optical Illusions.” I learned
optical illusions are one way scientists study the brain by exposing
the brain to a certain set of circumstances; illusions, delusions, and
confusions. Illusions expose ones senses, whereas confusions expose
ones brain. Delusions are what one thinks of when they think of
magicians, magic tricks, etc.

Touch: In the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit I mainly looked at the
touch and smell activities. There, I learned about Geerat Vermeij, a
Dutch evolutionary biologist. Because he was blind, most of his work
is about touch; texture and shape observations. Geerat’s work was done
with mollusk shells, and what they felt like. He found a certain
species of mollusks with thicker and stronger shells. In turn, their
predators evolved to be better able to kill them, leading him to
discover that not only large-scale environmental factors, but species
as well influence other species. These unique observational skills
helped him “see” with his hands, things that other people missed with
their eyes.

Smell: Although we rely more on eyes and ears, a lot of information is
received through the sense of smell. As sensitive as our noses and
fingers are, there are limits here, too. I learned that although
having sensitive fingers is critical to grip objects and measure
roughness, in the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit, I learned that smell
(olfaction) contributes to flavor, and while the tongue can only
distinguish between five qualities of taste, the nose can distinguish
among hundreds.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Tess Harrington]

[Tess Harrington]

/Users/Tess/Desktop/IMG_4423.jpg

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Emily Weinstein]

Sight: I learned that light is only visible to people when it is
scattered into our eyes. When light is not directed at our eyes, it is
invisible. At the exhibit "The Lighthouse" there was a demonstration
where a beam of light was being directed at about knee- height. The
beam of light was not visible, until a wand was waved in front of the
light, and the image of a horse appeared. Waving the wand in front of
the light scattered the light in the beam, and some of this light was
reflected off of the wand and towards our eyes. When the wand was
waved quickly, the many different parts of the image were sent to our
eyes at the same time, and this allowed us to see the whole image at
once.

Touch: I learned that our skin is most sensitive to vibrating
frequencies between 100 and 200 beats per second. In the exhibit "Take
a Closer Look" there was a demonstration called "Vibrating
Sensations". At this demonstration, you placed your finger on a
vibrating object, and the frequencies of the vibrations were altered.
When the frequencies were above the 100-200 beats per second range,
you could not detect the vibrations. As the frequencies increased, it
became more and more difficult to feel the vibrations.

Hearing: At the "Take a Closer Look" exhibit, there was a
demonstration where you pressed a button and three songs were played
at once. Then, you were told to press three individual buttons, and
each button played one song from the original mix. After listening to
all three songs individually, it was then easier to identify the three
songs in the original mix when that was played again. This taught me
that we are generally much better at identifying familiar sounds from
unfamiliar sounds. We can identify familiar sounds even when there are
lots of other sounds in the environment around us.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[emily weinstein]

[Marina Guigli]

Sight: In the “Seeing is Deceiving” exhibit I learned the brain can
readjust its definition of normal when exposed to a new stimulus.
During a live show in the exhibit, there was a demonstration which
involved glasses that modify your vision, changing the location of
one’s surroundings (either relocating the items slightly to the left
or to the right). When the glasses were worn, one’s brain could
readjust and consider the new field of vision as normal. One is then
able to throw a ball or set a glass on a table by making the
adjustments according to the new location of the objects.

Hearing: In the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit, a metal plate would
produce sound when stroked by a bow. Sand grains on top of the plate
would bounce up and down and collect in nodes, which are areas where
the plate is barely vibrating. I learned sound is perceived through
different patterns and speeds of vibrations. The concept of “the bow”
is applied to several musical instruments such as the violin or the
piano.

Time: In the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit, drops of milk would drip
through a container which could only be seen with light. When exposed
to a strobe light the milk would essentially appear as though it froze
in time. I learned that strobe lights flash in less than 1/10,000th of
a second causing one’s perception of time to slow down and appear as
though moving objects are frozen.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Dan Elfman]

Sight: From the Whirling Watcher exhibit in seeing is believing I
learned that when you eyes see several individual pictures in a quick
succession, it can appear as if those images are moving. The Whirling
Watcher had you peak through slits on a wheel, and when you spin it,
it appears as though the hummingbirds on the opposite end of the wheel
are moving in a mirror when in fact they are not. The phenakistoscope
was used to create a series of pictures that appeared to be in motion

Hearing: I discovered that it is hardest for an individual to hear
sounds coming from behind them. In the exhibit "Take a closer look"
several sounds were played and you were supposed to guess if they came
from in front of you, to the left or right of you, or from behind
you. When you can see what's going on in front of you, it makes it
easier to hear, and it was easier to hear sounds coming from the right
and left. Once you pressed check you were able to view exactly where
the sound came from.

Touch: I discovered that certain parts of the body are warmer than
other parts, such as the torso is warmer than the limbs. I found this
fact out at the Thermal infared exhibit. People would walk by, and a
thermal infared image would appear on a screen. It clearly indicated
that some parts of the body are warmer than others, and it explained
that thermal infared imaging is useful when trying to find someone at
night because there body temperature would be displayed. It's also
useful at detecting moisture in walls.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[peter crane]

Sight: The exhibit "Seeing is Deceiving" focused on the trust that we
have with our eyes and most often believe what we perceive, however,
sometimes our perceptions mislead us. In the exhibit, I learned about
the apparent size of objects depends on different factors including
the size of other objects nearby. Specifically, when the rising full
moon is low on the horizon it seems much larger than when it is high
up in the sky. However, the image of the moon projected in the back
of the eye is that same size whether it is low or high in the sky.

Smell: At "Take a Closer Look" I learned about the different smells
that individuals experience. Although you can detect many different
smells you cannot always name what you are smelling. This was
particularly addressed at the exhibit where it tested your knowledge
of what exactly you were smelling. I found it interesting to learn
that your sense of smell requires the ability to identify thousands of
different molecules, all of which have a wide variety of three
dimensional shapes, therefore, there is no single linear scale for
smells.

Hearing: Also at the "Take a Closer Look" exhibit I learned through
experimenting with a machine about the travel of sound waves. At some
frequencies, the sound waves traveling down the tube reinforce the
sound waves reflecting back, forming a "standing wave." Along the
standing waves were places where the air is vibrating rapidly called
antinodes and where the air is not moving at all called nodes. This
device measured something invisible: sound. The distance from one
antinode to the next one is half of the wavelength. A German
scientist by the name of August Kundt invented a similar machine to
measure the speed of sound in the 1800s.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[K. S]

One activity I enjoyed at the Take a Closer Look exhibit was a playing video of a shape having the same color as the background, but which was moving around on the screen. Since it was moving, I was able to distinguish the shape despite its camouflage. I learned this is because vision reacts to change in our environment. The shape's movement led to my eye receiving new information and new recording new stimuli and therefore I was able to distinguish the shape.

 

Another activity at the Take a Closer Look exhibit demonstrated the concept of sonar. It talked about the ability of some visually impaired humans to use a form of sonar but tapping the ground with their walking stick. Not only did this exhibit demonstrate the strength of trained human ears, but it also showed how the loss of one sense tends to increase the strength or reliance on other senses.

 

The tactile sense was also examined in the Take a Closer Look exhibit. Two metal cylinders, one inside the other, were used in one of the displays. A metal knob adjusted the height of the two cylinders. The activity was to close your eyes and turn the know until the metal felt flush and flat. The purpose was to demonstrate your tactile "go below" threshold. I learned that although your fingers are very sensitive to stimulus, a "go below" threshold still exists.

[Mark mulligan]

Sight: In the Seeing is Believing section, I learned about the
perception of color from the same difference exhibit. In this exhibit,
one could observe that the brain changes its perception of color
through how it sees the colors next to it. The exhibit had two large
"X"'s. and each strand was clearly shown as the same color when you
looked at it closely. However, each line appeared to have two
different colors. Thus, the surrounding colors, which were different
for each strand, changed my color perception.


Hearing: I learned about the form of sound waves in one exhibit. It
was in the Take a closer look section, and the exhibit was called
Seeing Sound Waves. In this exhibit, we were able to see what
frequencies elicited sound waves that were strong enough to move the
seed like material inside the tube in waves. This was informative,
because it made sound waves, which are not visible, clearly visible to
see how fast they move and the wavelengths. The exhibit also discussed
the parts of the sound wave, like the nodes, antinodes, and splashes.


Time: One exhibit tin the Take a closer look section relating to time
was called Whirling nurturer. When looking through a moving wheel with
slats of a bird in different positions, one could spin the wheel with
the slats faster and slower, and observe the birds moving at faster
and slower speeds. From this, I learned that our perception of time is
greatly influenced by how we see images. The slower I turned the
wheel, the longer it took for the birds to move, so thus they were
dependant on my actions. Thus, the sense of time is heavily influenced
by our surroundings.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[peter crane]

[Justin Chow]

Sight: In the “Seeing is Deceiving” section, there was an upside down
picture of a face that looked normal at first, but when turn rightside
up, was disturbing. At first we recognize the face with a general
pattern of a nose, a mouth, and two eyes, but when the picture is
turned the right way, we automatically see the defects in the face.
This is because we hardly see a face upside down so when we do, our
mind focuses on the main characteristics, like the mouth, nose, and
eyes. This picture also taught me that looking into someone’s eyes can
provide me with an idea of their emotional state.

Smell: In the “Take a Closer Look” section, there was a station where
you were given various bottles that contained a different fragrance.
You had to take a whiff of the smell and try to guess what the smell
was. I learned that because the olfactory sense is closely connected
to the hippocampus, certain smells could be remembered more clearly
than others. The only one I recalled was the strawberry smell.

Touch: In the “Take a Closer Look” section, there was a station where
you had to stick your hand in a chamber and feel an object and guess
what it was based on what you were feeling. I learned that although
you can not see an object you can use your fingers to perceive the
outer surface of an object. By moving your hand around a 3-D object
you can feel the curves and bumps allowing yourself to make a mental
picture and eventually identifying the correct object. I identified
the lobster quicker than all the other objects.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[noa...@verizon.net]

Sight: In the “Seeing is Deceiving” exhibit one demonstration which
had a rotating board shaded so that it looked like rather than
rotation all the way around it was wobbling back and forth. It
explained that because we a so used to seeing parallel lines and
predicting what they result in that our brain assumes that the board
was not spinning. However, the display stated that some cultures which
are less urbanized, having less big cities constructed with lots of
right angles of straight lines, are not fooled by this optical
illusion. I saw this as demonstration that sight is very much
influenced by previous experiences and assumptions that your brain
uses to animate the disjoin images you see.
Touch: In the “Take a Closer Look” exhibit ones of the displays had
three plates one hot one cold and one of a middling temperature. You
placed your hands on the hot and cold plate for a period of time then
moved them both to the middle. The hand on the hot plate thought that
the middle was cold and the hand on the cold plate thought the middle
was hot. This demonstrated that all sensation is relative, much like
after being outside in the snow for a while, running your hands under
even faucet cold water feels warm.
Sound: Another exhibit in “Take a Closer Look” combined both sound and
sight. In this display you heard a sound of a bird and were asked to
determine which bird had made the sound. Initially only the sound was
given, however after the first guess, a picture of the sound waves
made by each bird accompanied the sound. This vision and sound allowed
me to correctly identify the bird on the second try. This showed how
the senses are connected and being able to reinforce something with
multiple senses makes it easier to both identify and recall.

On Jan 11, 9:34 am, "Mr. Simon" <jsimon...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Allen Mannheim]

 Sight: In the Whirling Watcher exhibit in the “Seeing is Believing” section someone could look through holes on a spinning wheel, on the inside wall of the wheel there are various silhouettes of a bird flying, as the wheel spins the bird appears to be flapping its wings as if flying. When actually the different images are just going around the wheel, but the viewer’s eye makes the connection between the different images and the changes in position of the bird to trick the brain into thinking that the bird is moving as the wheel spins around it.

Hearing: At one station in the “Take a Closer Look” section, there were a set of headphones, and dials. The setup allowed participants to test their hearing and to see how high and low of a frequency they could here. From this station I learned that average human ears can hear sounds that vibrate at 20 to 20,000 times per second, also that as we get older we lose the ability to hear such a range of sounds. The station as told me that many other animals have hearing that is better than ours and can hear sounds with much higher frequencies, such as bats. And animals that can hear lower frequencies such as elephants.

Touch: In the “Take a Closer Look” section there was an exhibit about a biologist named Geerat Vermeij. Who amazingly, for what he does, is blind. He spent most of his life studying mollusks, but he could not see, so he had to handle them himself. Even without his vision he was able to feel the texture and thickness of the shell and was able to conclude that the shells of mollusks were very thick, and this made it nearly impossible for marine predators to kill them, Vermeij concluded that the mollusk’s hard shells led to predators evolving penetrating teeth. Vermiej shows that even without visions humans are able to adapt in order to live their lives.