Perception is a conscious registration of sensory stimulus in the human mind. When an animal is able to perceive, this is seen as apparent from the responses to application of stimuli. Nevertheless, the perceptivity nature is only surmised.
It is impossible to examine animals by deciding whether it failed in responding to a stimulus due to the lack of perception and inability in responding or disinclination in doing so. On the other hand, sensory perception is, therefore, described as the stimuli that a person takes in; they are the five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. Senses and Interpretation of the Sensory Data People can sense the surrounding world using nose, tongue, eyes, skin and ears. To some extent, the senses can preliminary process information that is received. In reality, people experience the perception outcome as opposed to sensation.
The construction of meaning consists of operation of different important processes of perception automatically (Price, 2008). For instance, sensory interaction involves combination of texture, taste and smell to come up with the experienced flavor in food. People tend to believe that speech can only be understood through the hearing sense; however, is a common knowledge that visual aspect of speech is also essential. Selective attention is another important process of perception that involves capability of sensory input to focus and concurrently turn out other sensory inputs.
Selective attention gives an opportunity to focus on one speaker while ignoring many other different conversations. In the absence of selective attention, it will be impossible to concentrate on a single selected conversation, if there are multiple conversations taking place at one time. A prolonged stimuli exposure makes human sensitivity diminish towards it. Adaptation of an individual towards a stimulus that does not change is necessary for his survival because it frees human sensory receptors allowing them to detect informative and important environmental changes and give out an effective response. As much as there is accuracy in human perception, there is no perfection.
Illusion takes place, when the process of perception that enables people to perceive their surrounding world correctly is fooled by a specific situation in order to view an incorrect or non-existent thing. A good example of illusion is the moon illusion. Perception of the moon is 50% bigger when it is adjacent to the horizon as opposed to when it is overhead. In reality, the moons are similar in size, and the retinal image cast has the same size. p style="text-align: justify;">The cues of monocular depth of aerial perspectives and position bring out the illusion that the farther the image the hazier and lower it is. According to illusions, one’s prior knowledge influences human perception of the surrounding world.
The idea of existence of some illusions does not necessarily constitute the inaccuracy in perceptual system. Nevertheless, human beings ordinarily coexist closely with the surrounding environment. Thus, a particular surrounding, physical body and sense become embodied in a manner that the surrounding world becomes a portion of human brain. A close association between the environment and its people depicts that illusions can be created under the influence of a certain situation.
Weaknesses and Accuracy of the Human Senses Weaknesses and accuracy of the human senses are described well by the use of human beings. A normal human has five external senses that include taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing. The same senses guide one’s general interpretation of the environment even though it is not assumed as the only available data. The good idea about the surrounding is provided by the senses, however, not for all the sensory input possibilities.
Basing on one’s flesh restriction, the knowledge of reality is restricted, and the best example is comparison between the animals and humans. Furthermore, human beings also vary in terms of the input capabilities of senses. Some individuals have variations in genetics that reduces or increases senses as compared to the normal people. For instance, when a person is born with no receptors for smell, such a condition is known as anosmia.
Interpretation of what is portrayed by our senses is based on reality. Due to the lack of uniformity in sensory analysis, it is assumed that most people do not share the same reality. Thus, it can be concluded that reality is a relative and not a universal perception.Sensory Information Accuracy When an individual touches a hot substance, the sensory organs will send the impulses to the brain. Therefore, one will remove the hand before getting burnt. In case of danger, the sense of smell can sense it (Neill, 2004).
For instance, fire can be detected by smelling smoke. Thus, one can trust the sensory information’s accuracy. Provision of information by the sense of sight ordinarily provides information that is accurate concerning the surrounding world. For instance, if one sees the sun up in the sky during the day, there is no doubt that the weather is not cloudy. Sensory Information Inaccuracy Perception of sensory information can be influenced by the past experience. For instance, if one sees his girlfriend talking with another man, he might misunderstand the situation, especially if his past relationship was a bitter experience.
Influence of the environment may be a source of distortion of the data interpretation sent by the sensory organ, despite the fact that it is in a good working condition. For example, observing an isolated footpath with nobody walking along it, one can think that the path is safe. However, somebody may be hiding behind an object or a tree. Without considering the used sensory organ, the sensory data cannot be always correctly interpreted.
Therefore, it clearly shows that reliance on sensory information may not be essential. Nurture and Nature in Evaluation and Interpretation of the Sensory DataNature and nurture is concerned with the relative importance of individuals with innate qualities in comparison to the personal experiences in causing or determining the individual physical differences and behavioral traits. Nature emphasizes the level of biological reflection factors of an organism. Nevertheless, on the other part, the genes are always activated at each appropriate time on the development and protein production basis. Most of the body proteins will include a wider range of molecules, e.g.
enzymes and hormones, acting as signals in the body and molecules that structure the molecules to the direct development. On the other hand, nurture emphasizes the level of reflects of an organism. Actually, it is an interaction of the environment and genes, nurture and nature that affects a person’s development. Factors that Contribute to Sensory Data Accuracy The sensory data accuracy is affected by the brain.
Human senses work properly when allowed to process information one by one. However, when our minds are piled up with information to process, they experience slow processing and even confusion. Sometimes, it even stops performing (George, 1992). When the sensory information storage is affected, it will also interfere with accuracy in the sensory data.
In addition, the consumption level of drugs affects our sensory data accuracy. Hard drugs such as bhang and cocaine will interfere with the brain performance thus affecting the sensory data accuracy. Lack of sleep may also contribute to the sensory data accuracy. The brain functions better when relaxed. However, when it is tired, the accuracy of sensory data might be interfered with.
