Preview

The senses

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1469 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The senses
In psychology, sensation and perception are stages of processing of the senses in human and animal systems, such as vision, auditory, vestibular, and pain senses. Included in this topic is the study of illusions such as motion aftereffect, color constancy, auditory illusions, and depth perception.

Sensation is the function of the low-level biochemical and neurological events that begin with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ. It is the detection of the elementary properties of a stimulus.[1]

Perception is the mental process or state that is reflected in statements like "I see a uniformly blue wall", representing awareness or understanding of the real-world cause of the sensory input. The goal of sensation is detection, the goal of perception is to create useful information of the surroundings.[2]

In other words, sensations are the first stages in the functioning of senses to represent stimuli from the environment, and perception is a higher brain function about interpreting events and objects in the world.[3] Stimuli from the environment are transformed into neural signals which are then interpreted by the brain through a process called transduction. Transduction can be likened to a bridge connecting sensation to perception.[citation needed]

Gestalt theorists believe that with the two together a person experiences a personal reality that is other than the sum of the parts.

Loss of sensation[edit]
Many types of sense loss occur due to a dysfunctional sensation process, whether it be ineffective receptors, nerve damage, or cerebral impairment. Unlike agnosia, these impairments are due to damages prior to the perception process.

Vision loss[edit]
Main article: Vision loss
Degrees of vision loss vary dramatically, although the ICD-9 released in 1979 categorized them into three tiers: normal vision, low vision, and blindness. Two significant causes of vision loss due to sensory failures include media opacity and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The human brain is capable of perceiving and interpreting information or stimuli received through the sense organs (i.e., eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin) (Weiten, 1998). This ability to perceive and interpret stimulus allows the human being to make meaningful sense of the world and environment around them. However, even as the human being is able to perceive and interpret stimuli information through all sense organs, stimuli is most often or primarily interpreted using the visual (eyes) and auditory (ears) sense organs (Anderson, 2009). However, for the purpose of this paper, the visual information process will be examined. Conditions that impair the visual information process will be analyzed, in addition to, an examination of the current trends in research that are advancing the understanding of research of visual information processing.…

    • 1693 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Incorrect. Perception is the mental process of sorting, identifying, and arranging the raw data of experience into meaningful patterns. Sensation is the activation of the receptors.…

    • 16158 Words
    • 65 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sensation is the process by which we detect stimuli through the five senses and convert them into neural signals. Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting those different incoming sensations placing them into useful mental representations of the world. I understand the distinction between the two to be that sensations are things that we experience through the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sound and sight), whereas perception is basically how we interpret those different sensations. For example, although the way chocolate tastes is the same, the way chocolate is perceived to taste may vary depending on whether the individual likes it or not.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sensations can be defined as the passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain. The process is passive in the sense that we do not have to be consciously engaging in a "sensing" process. Perception can be defined as the active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses.…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sensory Perceptions

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sensory interaction, selective attention, and sensory adaptation aid in the accuracy of sensory information. Sensory interaction is when different senses work together to create an experience. An example of sensory interaction is the McGurk Effect, an error in perception that happens when audio and visual parts are mismatched. For instance, a young woman can be on one side of the room and whisper the words “Olive Juice”, while the young man on the other side of room assumes she said “I love you” because he misperceived the sound “Olive Juice” with what he visually perceived as “I love you”. Many believe that the accuracy to understand speech is only through the sense of sound, but the visual aspect is also important (Stangor, 2010).…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Perception

    • 533 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Perception may be defined an “immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities.” Perception is a human quality and characteristic that is embedded within each individual from the moment they can think independently. Every perception is different but can be similar and that is what makes each person uniquely different. Our personality, character, upbringing, education and even geographical location determine our cognitive behavior where perception is concerned.…

    • 533 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sensory Perceptions

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Three reasons for believing in the accuracy or inaccuracy of sensory information is perception, interpretation, and knowledge. Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli (Bagley, 2004). Through the perceptual process, we gain information about properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our survival. Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us, and it also allows us to act within our environment.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gate Control Theory

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    * Sensation – the process of receiving, converting, and transmitting information from the external and internal world to the brain.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    psychology

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. My lab/activity is…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A sensation is defined as a state of awareness, of the internal or external environment. For a sensation to occur, four criteria must be met. First, there must be a stimulus. This is a change in the environment, to which we will become aware. Next, there must be a receptor. A receptor is a cell, or an organ, which is sensitive to the stimulus. There also must be an afferent (sensory) nerve pathway, to carry signals to the central nervous system. Finally, there must be sensory cortex, where the signals will be analyzed and interpreted consciously.…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sensory stimulation is a chemical process which occurs between the human body and brain. When we experience sensation, our body is exposed to some type of sensory stimulation. The sensory receptors then receive this information, and transmit it to the brain using neural impulses, or neurotransmitters. There it is interpreted into the correct sensation. Sensations are the basic building blocks of perception. Perception is the process of organizing and making sense of our sensory input. Perception allows us to better interpret the information our sensory receptors receive, and form images of the world around us. Transduction is what happens when the receptors transform the energies they receive into a form that can be interpreted and utilized…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In A Stream of Illusion by Rita Carter, illusion is defined by things we believe are there without us receiving any outside information about it. We can also receive sensory information that does not make it to consciousness and it influences how we think or feel. This then leads to the theory of “blindtouch,” “blindsmell,” and “blindsight.”…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sensation and Perception

    • 2972 Words
    • 12 Pages

    * Sensations that can be relayed or discriminations it can make to adjust its behavior according to the sensory messages it receives.…

    • 2972 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals select, organize and interpret their sensory impressions, so as to give meaning to their environment. Perception is a complex cognitive process and differs from person to person. People's behavior is influenced by their perception of reality, rather than the actual reality.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Perception

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. (Robbins) Perception is the process of (*)…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics