Q1. Take about 15 index cards and flashlight that is opaque on all sides (so that light shines only through the front) into a very dark room. After placing all 15 cards over beam of light, slowly eliminate the cards one at a time until you can barely detect the light, and then count the number of cards that remain over the light. After a few minutes, the light should begin to look brighter. Even as this is the case, add a card and see if you can still see light. Repeat this process of gradually adding cards over a 15-minute period. Were you able to detect an increasingly dim light the longer you spent in the dark?
Q2. Fill 3 medium-sized bowls with (a) extremely hot (but not painfully so) tap water, (b) very cold tap water, and (c) a mixture of the extremely hot and very cold water. Arrange them, so your right hand is in front of the cold water, your left hand is in front of the hot water, and the lukewarm water is in the middle. Submerse your hands into the water (right into cold, left into hot) for about 3 minutes. After three minutes, quickly transfer both hands to lukewarm (middle) bowl. What did you sense?
In all four experiments, you will experience Sensory adaptation.
• Fully describe the process and results of each experiment.
• What is adaptation? Explain adaptation as discussed in the text, not as a general dictionary definition.
• clarify how adaptation is evident in each of your experimental results.
• Comprehensively describe the sensory systems involved in these experiments, from the receptors all the way into and including the brain.
• explain in detail the theories surrounding one of the sensory systems in regards to how we smell, touch, taste, see, etc.
• comprise a discussion on how adaptation is important from an evolutionary perspective.