What makes us humans so stunningly distinct from any other creatures or animals in particular is our ability not only to sense (receive, evaluate and respond to stimuli) but rather most importantly, our very apparent faculty of perceiving and interpreting things. Not limited to us humans the aforementioned ability though, the manner by which we express our responses to stimuli (external or internal) signifies our remarkably outstanding intellect. How we recognize, take in and remark the things our sensory receptors receive imply that our deeply rooted experiences, involvements and encounters in life in the course of time, considering even those of our ancestors, might have brought us into greater proficiency in perceiving the agents that influence our activities.
A new perspective was disclosed to me concerning a new approach and view about our perceptual abilities. Truly, all of the immediate, unprocessed sensory information are outcomes of stimulation of our sensory receptors in our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and/or skin. Inputs of the energies from our surroundings however, vary and thus indicate that some aspects like amount, extent, period and degree of these stimuli greatly affect our responses. With this idea in hand, it might be the reason why there is such a thing as “threshold”. Onsets of the stimuli hinge on an array of factors, encompassing even the way we acquire information. For an instance, at home, whenever I smell a newly cooked food, I already know that it’s time to have a meal. The fumes produced by the food serve as the energy or stimulus per se that they drive me to consume the food. Noticing so, my sense of smell is indeed at work. Chemoreceptors in my nose might have impelled me to act on the stimuli and so did I. Perceiving that the smell of a food makes good impression, I immediately responded by moving towards that stimulus. It’s astonishing to know how our sense organs, as portals of sensory information, translate all of the physical energies from the surroundings into electrical impulses as processed by our brain. A case in point, my friends and I got along for a star gazing in a barren field in Bulacan. As expected, I was the one who came first in the location. Hearing some yells and screeches, I turned on the flashlight to look around me not knowing that they were my friends who’s trying to find me in turn. The light, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, causes their photoreceptors to activate, send signals to their brain that I may be the one who’s holding the source of light. Perceiving at last, they approached me and we had our business at work.
While I was browsing my lecture notes, I found a great significance of our sensory abilities. Not only that the perception depicts and explains our experiences of the world and the mere processing of information from our sense organs, working hand in hand with sensation it creates meaningful apprehended events and experiences. The latter in that, they can serve as point of contexts which we can utilize whenever relatively similar events or encounters occur. Also, these two, acting as a continuous process, can confer security among us from threats and risks. For example, with our sense of touch, at least when receptors concerned are functioning well, we can easily feel the pressure, temperature changes and some other mechanic factors that may indicate or pose danger. Our tendency then is to either move towards the stimulus that makes positive imprints or be repelled and move away from it if it signals chances of endangerment. In this case the gradient and extent of the stimulus may affect our responses.
Among the five senses we humans have, what I value most is my sense of sight. And one of my fears that bothers me so much is to lose it for I find it as the very efficient entry point for all of the energies in the environment. (Add-On) c:
Image used fr http://qwickstep.com/search/senses-and-perception.html
A new perspective was disclosed to me concerning a new approach and view about our perceptual abilities. Truly, all of the immediate, unprocessed sensory information are outcomes of stimulation of our sensory receptors in our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and/or skin. Inputs of the energies from our surroundings however, vary and thus indicate that some aspects like amount, extent, period and degree of these stimuli greatly affect our responses. With this idea in hand, it might be the reason why there is such a thing as “threshold”. Onsets of the stimuli hinge on an array of factors, encompassing even the way we acquire information. For an instance, at home, whenever I smell a newly cooked food, I already know that it’s time to have a meal. The fumes produced by the food serve as the energy or stimulus per se that they drive me to consume the food. Noticing so, my sense of smell is indeed at work. Chemoreceptors in my nose might have impelled me to act on the stimuli and so did I. Perceiving that the smell of a food makes good impression, I immediately responded by moving towards that stimulus. It’s astonishing to know how our sense organs, as portals of sensory information, translate all of the physical energies from the surroundings into electrical impulses as processed by our brain. A case in point, my friends and I got along for a star gazing in a barren field in Bulacan. As expected, I was the one who came first in the location. Hearing some yells and screeches, I turned on the flashlight to look around me not knowing that they were my friends who’s trying to find me in turn. The light, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, causes their photoreceptors to activate, send signals to their brain that I may be the one who’s holding the source of light. Perceiving at last, they approached me and we had our business at work.
While I was browsing my lecture notes, I found a great significance of our sensory abilities. Not only that the perception depicts and explains our experiences of the world and the mere processing of information from our sense organs, working hand in hand with sensation it creates meaningful apprehended events and experiences. The latter in that, they can serve as point of contexts which we can utilize whenever relatively similar events or encounters occur. Also, these two, acting as a continuous process, can confer security among us from threats and risks. For example, with our sense of touch, at least when receptors concerned are functioning well, we can easily feel the pressure, temperature changes and some other mechanic factors that may indicate or pose danger. Our tendency then is to either move towards the stimulus that makes positive imprints or be repelled and move away from it if it signals chances of endangerment. In this case the gradient and extent of the stimulus may affect our responses.
Among the five senses we humans have, what I value most is my sense of sight. And one of my fears that bothers me so much is to lose it for I find it as the very efficient entry point for all of the energies in the environment. (Add-On) c:
Image used fr http://qwickstep.com/search/senses-and-perception.html
