Question

Although Manuel was sitting right next to his parents, he smelled a skunk minutes before they did. Apparently, Manuel has a lower ________ for skunk odor than his parents have.

a) absolute threshold

b) tolerance level

c) critical period

d) sensory adaptation

Answer 1

Manuel detected the smell of a skunk before his parents because he has a lower absolute threshold for this particular odor, indicating his sensory system requires a lower level of stimulus energy to detect the skunk's scent.

Step-by-step explanation:

Manuel has a lower absolute threshold for skunk odor than his parents have. The absolute threshold refers to the minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time. Sensory sensitivity to particular stimuli can vary from one individual to another, which is why Manuel could detect the smell of the skunk before his parents did. Absolute thresholds can be affected by various factors, including age, health, and potentially even genetic differences in olfactory receptors.

Sensory adaptation, on the other hand, is a decrease in sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus over time, which does not apply in this scenario as the smell was detected for the first time. Tolerance level generally refers to the amount of a substance one can handle without adverse effects, and critical period pertains to a specific timeframe during which an organism is particularly receptive to certain types of environmental stimuli.