Week 2 Assignment: How We Perceive The World Around Us

Week 2 Assignment: How We Perceive the World Around Us

In our reading this week, we learned about the processes of sensation and perception. Although they are two different processes, one often has an impact on the other. Some individuals aren't aware of how much they rely on vision or hearing in their everyday lives, versus others who have vision or hearing impairments who may rely more heavily on their other senses and perceive the world differently than others. Please choose ONE option below for either diminishing your vision or hearing with the goal of becoming more conscious of the relationship between sensation and perception.

Note: Please be very careful when performing these activities. I suggest doing them in a familiar environment, such as your home, and having a companion present.

Option 1: Vision

Spend between 15 to 30 minutes "observing" without using your vision. Rely on your hearing, smell, touch or taste (if appropriate) to navigate your environment. During this time try to perform several different tasks that you would normally, such as picking up an object, or if you're at home try walking to the next room, all while not using your vision. To impair your vision, you can simply close your eyes or wrap a scarf to cover your eyes. After your observation time is over, please answer the following questions in 2-3 pages, following APA format.

Option 2: Hearing

Spend between 15-30 minutes "observing" without using your hearing. Rely on your sight, smell, touch or taste (if appropriate). You can use earplugs or noise-canceling headphones (if you have them) to diminish your hearing. During this time, try to perform several normal tasks, such as watching television (muted) or walking outside, while not using your hearing. Afterward, answer the assigned questions in 2-3 pages, in APA format.

For both options, answer the following questions:

1. During the activity, what other senses were you using and how did you use them to accomplish your tasks to perceive the world around you?
2. What information did you pick up on that you may have ignored if you were using your sense of vision or hearing?
3. Define habituation and sensory adaptation. Provide examples from your observation time of habituation and/or sensory adaptation to support your response.
4. While this activity was only for a short amount of time, describe how your perception might change if one of your senses was permanently lost.

Ensure your submission is 2-3 pages, double-spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font, with proper APA citations and references. Include a title page and adhere to formatting requirements outlined in the assignment guidelines.

Paper For Above instruction

The processes of sensation and perception are fundamental to understanding how humans interact with and interpret their environment. Sensation refers to the detection of stimuli such as light, sound, or touch by sensory organs, while perception involves the organization and interpretation of this sensory information to form a coherent understanding of the environment (Goldstein, 2019). Exploring these processes through activities that diminish one sense allows individuals to gain insight into the reliance on other senses and the adaptation of perception in response to sensory changes.

In conducting activities that diminish either vision or hearing, one becomes acutely aware of how other senses compensate for the diminished input. For example, during the vision-reduction activity, relying on touch and hearing to navigate the environment enhances awareness of tactile and auditory cues. Tasks such as identifying objects by touch or locating the next room without visual input underscore the importance of these senses. Conversely, when hearing is diminished, heightened reliance on sight and smell becomes apparent, emphasizing how the sensory system adapts to different contexts.

One significant observation during these activities concerns the phenomenon of habituation and sensory adaptation. Habituation involves a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated exposure, allowing the individual to ignore irrelevant stimuli (Kalat, 2014). For instance, if a background noise persists during the hearing-diminished activity, over time, the individual may become less aware of it, thus focusing on more pertinent sensory information. Sensory adaptation, on the other hand, refers to reduced sensitivity to constant stimuli, which can occur with prolonged exposure, such as becoming less aware of a particular smell over time (Goldstein, 2019). These processes demonstrate how sensory systems prioritize novel or relevant stimuli, filtering out continuous background sensations, which is vital to efficient perception.

Understanding how perception might change if a sense were permanently lost involves considering neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to reorganize and adapt (Pascual-Leone, 2015). For example, individuals who become deaf often experience enhanced visual or tactile perception, compensating for the loss of auditory information. Such adaptations highlight the brain's capacity to reallocate resources, emphasizing that perception is dynamic and adaptable. The loss of vision, however, poses different challenges, often leading to increased reliance on auditory and tactile cues but also requiring significant adjustments in spatial awareness and navigation.

The travel of sound through the ear begins at the outer ear (pinna), which funnels sound waves toward the tympanic membrane (eardrum). Vibrations from the eardrum are transmitted via the ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes) in the middle ear, amplifying the sound. These vibrations reach the cochlea in the inner ear, where hair cells convert mechanical energy into electrical signals. These signals are then transmitted to the auditory nerve, which relays the information to the brain for processing (Yost & Sheft, 2019). This complex pathway enables us to perceive and interpret a wide range of auditory stimuli.

The experiences during sensory deprivation activities underscored the importance of multisensory integration. When one sense is minimized, others take precedence, demonstrating the flexibility of the perceptual system. For example, during the vision-impairment task, heightened auditory cues allowed for better spatial awareness. This aligns with research indicating that sensory modalities can compensate for each other, especially in individuals with sensory deficits (Heller, 2013).

In conclusion, sensory and perceptual processes are interconnected, and their study reveals remarkable adaptability. The activities conducted allowed for a firsthand appreciation of how senses work collaboratively to construct our perception of reality. Moreover, understanding phenomena like habituation and sensory adaptation provides insight into how we filter and prioritize sensory information, essential for functioning effectively in a complex environment.

References

• Goldstein, E. B. (2019). Sensation and perception. Cengage Learning.
• Kalat, J. W. (2014). Biological psychology (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.
• Pascual-Leone, A. (2015). Neuroplasticity and the brain. Scientific American, 312(2), 60-65.
• Yost, W. A., & Sheft, S. (2019). Auditory signal transduction and cochlear mechanics. In D. W. Moore (Ed.), Hearing: An introduction to psychological and physiological acoustics (pp. 45-70). Springer.
• Heller, M. (2013). Cross-modal plasticity: Evidence from deafness and blindness. Progress in Brain Research, 207, 35-55.