Question

When Zachary came home from class, he immediately noticed that the trash smelled horrible. But he had so much homework for his psychology course, he started studying and did not take out the trash.

After a couple hours, Zachary had forgotten about the trash and no longer noticed the stinky odor. However, when he looked, the trash was still there.

What is the name of the concept that has occurred causing Zachary to no longer smell the stinky trash?

	a.	Positive adaptation
	b.	His allergies.
	c.	Negative adaptation
	d.	Sensory adjustment
	e.	Signal adaptation

Answer 1

• Sensory adjustment
• Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation is a change over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant stimulus. It is usually experienced as a change in the stimulus. For example, if one rests one's hand on a table, one immediately feels the table's surface on one's skin.
• In this case as well Zachary has adapted to the smell of the trash and no longer require to be consciously recognized. His senses have adpated to the constant stimulus of trash over time and thats why he doesnt consciously smell it anymore.