I’m taking a psychology class and we have to understand place theory and I’m just not getting it. My professor says it’s like strings on a piano…how? Why is it important that the basalar membrane is narrow with a floppy end?
Please help me out here. I have Google it and read my book and asked the professor and it just doesn’t make sense.
In: 7
Sound waves of different frequencies have different properties and so the basilar membrane is set up so that those different frequencies activate different parts of it. Then nerves from those parts tell the brain “I hear this frequency” and your brain is then able to process that signal. At least that’s the general idea, there are competing theories and contradictions to place theory.
It’s like a piano in reverse. A piano has different sized strings that each produce sound of different frequencies. So think of the basilar membrane like a piano where each string “hears” a different frequency based on its size.
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