Melly just moved into her first apartment. She is excited to decorate the apartment and make it her own. Her first step is choosing paint colors for the walls. She has a hard time choosing between two different shades of blue, but her friend was able to point out that one was darker and therefore better for a bedroom. In the kitchen, she chose a lemon-yellow paint. Melly had little money for furnishings and ended up with a lumpy chair from her mother and a sofa that was covered in slightly itchy fabric. On her first evening in the apartment, she lit a vanilla-scented candle that reminded her of home. Based on the scenario described, how is Melly using each of the following concepts to help her settle into her new apartment?

1. Olfactory bulb
2. Sensory adaptation
3. Difference threshold
4. Brightness

Later that night, Melly gets up to get a drink of water from the kitchen. She does not turn on any lights as she makes her way past stacks of boxes in the living room. Briefly, she is frightened by what looks like a man standing in the corner of the room. But then she realizes that it is only a coat she has thrown on a hook. Based on the scenario described, how do each of the following concepts explain Melly's actions?

5. Feature detection
6. Dark adaptation
7. Top-down processing

The olfactory bulb is responsible for receiving information from odors, this structure that sits in the front of the brain sends information to the other areas of the body’s central command for further processing. Odors for instance take a direct route to the limbic system, including the amygdala and the hippocampus, the regions related to emotion and memory. Which would account for why Melly lit a candle with a scent that reminded her of home.

Sensory Adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Sensory adaptation takes effect overtime when we face constant stimulation until we can no longer perceive a certain stimulus even though it is in fact present. For instance, after Melly spends the first few minutes laying on the itchy couch, she no longer notices the itchy sensation on her skin.

Difference Threshold: the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time.

A difference threshold occurs when a change in stimulus can be noticed. For instance, Melly had a difficult time choosing which paint color she wanted for her room because she couldn't differentiate between the two shades of blue or the difference in the frequency of light from the paint whereas her friend could easily detect which shade had a darker and lighter tone.

Brightness: The quality of light being given off.

Brilliance has a very deep connection with how the mind processes the environment, for instance, brighter colors and light are known to intensify emotions while darker colors and light are known to lead individuals to be more rational and level-headed. In Melly's case, we see several instances of light affecting her perception, firstly in her choice of lemon-yellow paint for the kitchen, an area that encourages a higher level of emotion. In addition, natural light changes how we perceive colors around us which would account for Melly's inability to perceive which shade of blue is darker.

B) Feature Detection: Theory that all complex stimuli can be broken down into individual parts.

Feature detection supposedly is responsible for detecting stimuli such as movements, shapes, and angles and more specifically makes the connection between complex natural stimuli and associates them with important objects and organisms within our environment. In Milly's case, a combination of a dark environment paired with the unfamiliarity of her environment allowed for her to perceive a stack of boxes that would not normally be part of her routine to be a man which presumably would be a more familiar occurrence in her day to day life.

Dark Adaptation: The ability of the eye to adjust to conditions of low illumination by means of increased sensitivity to light.

After our eyes are exposed to light for a long period of time and darkness suddenly sets in, our eyes have to adjust to the darkness. In Melly's case, we know it is a new environment and at night time, so she is, in fact, perceiving this new environment for the first time so we can deduce that based on these variables it is going to take her longer to adapt to what she is perceiving.

Top-down Processing: Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

When the mind undergoes top-down processing it begins perceiving the info very generally and then moves to be more specific. In this process, the mind processes information-based expectations and prior knowledge. In Melly's case, her brain used the information she knew prior which is that people wear coats, consequently this would explain her initial interpretation of the coat on a hook as a man. Melly's general assumption is also supported by the fact that the new apartment is an unfamiliar environment therefore she is more likely to make more general assumptions, reverting to what she is normally accustomed to.

Explanation: