When you first sit down to read in a coffee shop, the surroundings seem very loud. Yet after a few minutes reading you realize you hardly notice the noise at all. Why is that?

Question

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone welcome back. Here's our next problem. It says the process by which the senses become less sensitive to constant stimuli is called blank. Let's think about that. We have a constant stimuli. If the stimulus noted by the sensory receptors becomes constant, it becomes unnoticeable with time. Um An example of this would be when you walk into a dark room um At first you walk in everything is dark, you can't see anything and then gradually your eyes become adjusted over time. And that's because your pupils dilate to let in more light. But that the stimulus of darkness um it's consistent and they're less noticeable over time. So that's an example of this process and it's a process of getting used to something or adapting to something And yes, our correct answer. Choice C sensory adaptation. Our senses become adapted to a constant stimulus. But let's just look through our answer, chance, other answer choices to understand why they're not correct. Choice A is sensory trans duck, shin and sensory transaction is the process of transforming a sensory signal into an electrical signal. So the sensory receptors receive a signal from the senses and it gets transformed into an electrical signal that can be sent along to the brain. But that is not the process of our senses become less becoming less sensitive to constant stimuli, eyes or not. Our answer choice choice B. We have here is receptor potential and a receptor potential a little smaller. Here is a graded potential produced by activating a sensory receptor also called a generator potential and after the sensory receptors activated this receptor potential is produced. It can do one of two things that can trigger an action potential in itself or neighboring cell or can cause the release of neurotransmitters but is not what we're looking for. So it's not the correct answer. And then finally we have choice D sensory reception and we can kind of just think about um this word itself, sensory reception, the reception from the senses. And indeed that is the process of activating and sensing. Activating a sensory receptor by a stimulus. So stimulus comes in, activates the sensory receptor creates this electrical potential gradient but not what we're looking for. So not our answer choice. So again the process by which the senses become less sensitive to constant stimuli is called choice C sensory adaptation. See you in the next video.

When you first sit down to read in a coffee shop, the surroundings seem very loud. Yet after a few minutes reading you realize you hardly notice the noise at all. Why is that?

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Sensory Adaptation

Selective Attention

Habituation