Sensation is what occurs when our sensory receptors and our nervous system receive stimulus energies from our surroundings. We can sense sights, sounds, taste, touch, and feeling. Perception is organizing and interpreting the sensory information into something more useful. You can sense the smell of flowers but you wouldn’t be able to recognize that you were smelling flowers without perception.
I found prosopagnosia (face blindness) to be one of the most interesting things in the chapter. I find it interesting that some people can not recognize faces – even the faces of their good friends and family. I used to feel bad when I couldn’t always put names and faces together of people I met at leadership conferences, but the thought of not being able recognize of my best friends would be so much worse. It’s one thing to forget someone you only met for a few minutes but to forget a face you’ve known for years is difficult to grasp. I definitely appreciate that I can sense and perceive faces, and I will definitely try harder to remember faces, but I won’t feel nearly as bad.
I also read “The Attentional Spotlight” on Psyblog. The main point of the article was that our eyes could focus on one thing, but our attention could be focusing on another. For example you could be gazing towards the teacher in class, but your attention could be focused on the peripherals of your vision. The blog also examined a study showing that attention moves faster than the eye. In other words, you could notice a detail before actually looking at it, just by using your peripheral perception. Our attention is spotlighted on what interests us instead of just what we point our eyes at. It makes a lot of sense to me. There are a lot of times when we can be looking at a person in the middle of a conversation, but we are more concerned about something else that’s going on around us. In everyday life we don’t always have control over what we’re paying attention to. And sometimes it may seem like everybody’s paying attention when really they’re distracted by something else.
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I also found face blindness to be very interesting. Although it seems like a relatively simple concept, it is actually very complex. It really made me realize some of the things we take for granted everyday.
ReplyDeleteThe "Attentional Spotlight" article was interesting. I find myself focusing on something else even when I'm looking at something many times. The times I do it the most are at school, during a presentation, or when someone is telling a boring story. What you said about attention moving faster than the eye also makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes you can tell when people are doing this.
ReplyDeleteSensation sounds one word but it can give lot of the meaning to the true values of the Life.Listening,smelling,watching,sensing etc are the words related to the sensation.It is also mental process of several activities involved in day to day life.People can understand the point of illusion and way of treatment.I want to know suggestion from others.
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