Chapter 5, pt.1

Question 1

What are taste buds?

Answer 1

Organs of taste transduction containing 5,000–10,000 receptors across the tongue, mouth roof, and throat.

Question 2

What are the three types of tasters?

Answer 2

Tasters, nontasters, and supertasters — individual differences in taste perception and texture/spice tolerance.

Question 3

How do we perceive flavour?

Answer 3

Each food molecule dissolved in saliva triggers specific patterns in the five taste receptors; flavour is multisensory (taste, smell, texture).

Question 4

How are taste and smell linked in the brain?

Answer 4

The gustatory and olfactory cortex are interconnected; taste information is passed directly to olfactory cortex.

Question 5

How can vision and sound influence flavour?

Answer 5

Colour and auditory cues affect taste perception (e.g., coloured drinks tasting different).

Question 6

What is spatial acuity?

Answer 6

Visual ability to distinguish two close features in space.

Question 7

What is temporal acuity?

Answer 7

Auditory ability to distinguish two stimuli close together in time.

Question 8

What is multimodal processing?

Answer 8

When multiple senses are stimulated simultaneously to perceive an event (e.g., seeing and hearing speech).

Question 9

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 9

Processing starting from sensory input (data-driven); used when interacting with new or unfamiliar objects.

Question 10

What is top-down processing?

Answer 10

Interpretation of sensory input using prior knowledge and expectations (e.g., recognizing objects in a dark room).

Question 11

What is the McGurk effect?

Answer 11

A visual-auditory illusion where seeing lip movements changes what we hear (example of top-down influence).

Question 12

What is back-masking in songs?

Answer 12

When lyrics heard backwards sound different if we know what to expect — shows brain’s top-down interpretation.

Question 13

Define consciousness.

Answer 13

Subjective experience of the world and the mind.

Question 14

What is phenomenology?

Answer 14

Study of how things seem to the conscious person and their lived experience.

Question 15

What is the “problem of other minds”?

Answer 15

The difficulty of knowing whether others are conscious or how their experiences feel.

Question 16

What two dimensions are used to judge other minds?

Answer 16

Capacity for experience and capacity for agency.

Question 17

What is the mind–body problem?

Answer 17

How the mind relates to the brain and body.

Question 18

What did Descartes propose?

Answer 18

Dualism — mind and body are distinct; they interact via the pineal gland.

Question 19

What is the modern (materialist) view?

Answer 19

Mind = brain; mental events are brain events (“Mind is what the brain does”).

Question 20

What does the Libet study show?

Answer 20

Brain activity for movement appears before people report deciding to move — suggesting doing can precede thinking.

Question 21

What are the four basic properties of consciousness?

Answer 21

Intentionality, unity, selectivity, transience.

Question 22

Define intentionality.

Answer 22

Consciousness is always directed toward an object.

Question 23

Define unity.

Answer 23

Ability to integrate sensory information into a coherent whole.

Question 24

Define selectivity.

Answer 24

Capacity to focus on some stimuli but not others (e.g., cocktail party phenomenon).

Question 25

Define transience.

Answer 25

Consciousness is constantly changing — the “stream of consciousness.”

Question 26

What is dichotic listening?

Answer 26

Listening to two different auditory messages in each ear while focusing on one.

Question 27

What is the Turing test?

Answer 27

If a computer can imitate a human so well that an evaluator can’t tell the difference, it “passes.”

Question 28

What are other machine consciousness tests?

Answer 28

Marcus test (understand TV shows), Lovelace test (create art), Reverse Turing test (CAPTCHA).

Question 29

What is sentience?

Answer 29

The capacity to experience joy, pain, or fear; separate from cognition and ethically significant.

Question 30

What are the three levels of consciousness?

Answer 30

Minimal consciousness, full consciousness, and self-consciousness.

Question 31

What is minimal consciousness?

Answer 31

Low-level awareness and responsiveness to environmental stimuli.

Question 32

What is full consciousness?

Answer 32

Awareness of thoughts and surroundings; able to report mental states.

Question 33

What is self-consciousness?

Answer 33

Attention focused on self as an object of evaluation.

Question 34

What is the mirror self-recognition test?

Answer 34

Gordon Gallup’s test placing a mark on an animal; touching the mark suggests self-recognition.

Question 35

What does mirror self-recognition suggest about animals?

Answer 35

They may possess an “own-body” concept; supports a gradual development of self-awareness.

Question 36

How do doctors assess awareness in patients?

Answer 36

By checking responses to commands/stimuli and using brain imaging.

Question 37

What is a coma?

Answer 37

Deep unconsciousness; no response to stimuli.

Question 38

What is a vegetative state?

Answer 38

Awake-like cycles without awareness; no response matching external stimulation.

Question 39

What is a minimally conscious state?

Answer 39

Limited awareness with inconsistent responses to stimulation.

Question 40

What is locked-in syndrome?

Answer 40

Full consciousness but inability to move voluntary muscles.

Question 41

What is the experience-sampling method (EMA)?

Answer 41

Recording moment-to-moment experiences throughout daily life to study consciousness.

Question 42

What is daydreaming?

Answer 42

A state of consciousness with a flow of thoughts without purpose; activates the default network.

Question 43

What is maladaptive daydreaming (MD)?

Answer 43

Excessive, lifelike fantasizing that interferes with daily function and causes distress.

Question 44

How does MD differ from normal daydreaming?

Answer 44

Differs in quantity, content, controllability, and interference with real-world life.

Question 45

What is mental control?

Answer 45

The attempt to change conscious states of mind.

Question 46

What is thought suppression?

Answer 46

Consciously avoiding a thought — often leads to a rebound effect (where it returns more frequently).

Question 47

What are ironic processes of mental control?

Answer 47

When monitoring to avoid errors creates those errors (e.g., “I must fall asleep now” prevents sleep).

Question 48

What is the Freudian dynamic unconscious?

Answer 48

System of hidden memories and desires that influence behaviour; repressed to protect the conscious mind.

Question 49

What is repression?

Answer 49

Mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts or memories from consciousness.

Question 50

What is the cognitive unconscious?

Answer 50

All mental processes influencing thoughts and behaviour without conscious awareness.

Question 51

What are dual-process theories?

Answer 51

Explain two systems of thinking in the brain: fast and slow processing.

Question 52

Describe System 1 thinking.

Answer 52

Fast, automatic, intuitive, unconscious, and emotion-driven.

Question 53

Describe System 2 thinking.

Answer 53

low, effortful, conscious, logical, and deliberate.