Module 21 The Other Senses

LEARNING TARGETS

• 21-1 Describe the sense of touch.
• 21-2 Discuss the biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences that affect our experience of pain, and explain how placebos and distraction help control pain.
• 21-3 Compare and contrast our senses of taste and smell.
• 21-4 Explain how we sense our body’s position and movement.
• 21-5 Discuss how sensory interaction influences our perceptions, and explain the concept of embodied cognition.

Sharks and dogs rely on their outstanding sense of smell, aided by large smell-related brain areas. Our human brain allocates more real estate to seeing and hearing. But extraordinary happenings also occur within our other senses. Without our senses of touch, taste, smell, and body position and movement, we humans would be seriously hampered, and our capacities for enjoying the world would be greatly diminished.