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Monday, 25 March 2013

Sensation And Perception

This time, I'm going to explain about sensation and perception and my own experiences involving those two.

Sensation is the process of receiving information in the form of stimulation received by the human senses. Sensation is receiving information without interpreting the information. The sensation can be either internal or external stimulation. External sensations from outside through our senses: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Eyes receives sensations such as vision, ears receive sensations such as hearing, skin receives sensations of touch, heat, pressure, and so on. Internal sensation is a sensation from ourselves. Such as hunger.

If a person receives the same sensation or stimulation repeatedly, the brain's response to that sensation will be reduced. It's called sensory adaptation. The example in daily life is when we first enter the swimming pool, we will feel very cold but eventually, the cold will be reduced until we don't feel cold anymore.
Perception is the process of interpreting the sensation. In other words, it is the process of translating the information which we received. The perception of each person to a stimulation is different. This is due to the experience, the history of life, psychophysics and perceptual distortions. Perceptual distortions can be physical appearance, stereotypes, first impressions (halo effect), and the "tendency to judge others immediately". Example: A person tends to see the physical shape of a person and directly judge that person, before knowing more about him/her. This will form different perceptions compared to people who really know that person well.

Different perceptions that emerged among people are mostly associated with the vision. According to Gestalt, there are 5 things which influence people's perceptions:
1. Figure-Ground
People tend to see the object that appears as figure, and other objects as ground.
2. Proximity
Objects that are close with other objects tend to be a group.
3. Continuity
Objects that are connected with other objects tend to be a group.
4. Similarity
Objects that are similar tend to be a group.
5. Closure
Objects that closed tend to be a group.

Misperceptions are very common. This misperception is called illusion. The illusion can occur naturally or accidentally. Intentional illusion is an illusion deliberately made on an object. An example of this is an optical illusion. That is an illusion caused by an error catching stimulus by the human eye. One of illusion examples is Zollner Illusion.


Now, I'm going to tell you a bit about my experience involving sensation and perception.
I'll start with the sensation that I received using my eyes. That time, when I was playing badminton, I saw one of my classmates was playing badminton too with a girl at the court beside mine. He looked so happy and the girl was enjoying the game too. That is the sensation I got. At that time, my perception is the girl must be his girlfriend! So I came to him and after we greeted each other, I directly made fun of them, saying that they looked so suitable for a couple, like husband and wife. But I was definitely wrong! They are not a couple! The girl is his cousin +.+
That was a huge misperception. Then I quickly said goodbye after I apologized.
So, the sensation I got is "I saw my friend played badminton with a girl" and the perception is "I thought the girl is his girlfriend."

I'll continue with the second experience of mine. This time, I'll tell you guys about the sensation I received using my ears.
I had a promise with my classmates to go hang out together on that day. But suddenly, I got into a fight with my little sister and then quarreled with my mom too. (Such a bad day!) I had a feeling that my mom won't let me go out as a punishment. But I tried not to think about that possibility. I got into my room, took a bath, changed clothes and got prepared. After I had finished everything, I crept outside my room and passed through the living room where my mom was sitting on sofa. I took a deep breath as I hold the door handle and suddenly my mom yelled at me. (Oh, crap! She won't let me go anywhere today!) But then she told me that there was a dead cockroach near the door. She was just warning me about dead cockroach! Not about anything else. She scared me to death. Another misperception.
So this time, the sensation I got is I was being yelled and my perception is I was going to stay at home whole day.
That's all.. I hope you guys can understand more about sensation and perception..

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