This chapter deals with the relationship between 'sensation' and 'perception'. Sensation refers to the physical detections made by our senses (light entering our eyes, or a sound wave reaching our ear). Perception is how our brain interprets these detections. While sensation enables us to see images and hear sounds, it is our brain that interprets these into something that is of use to us. For example, our senses may cause us to see a plate of food, but it is our brain that realizes that it is a steak and that we should eat it. As a whole our senses and mental perception of those senses is reliable, however they can deceive us. The book provides many different optical illusions to demonstrate this. Because we are completely reliant on our senses, we sometimes trust them too much, believing they are always right. The optical illusions have proved this is not so. Another topic this chapter discusses is the concept of extrasensory perception (ESP). Though there are many who believe in ESP, there haven't been any replicable studies done to prove its existence. This chapter is interesting because it challenges our inherent belief that what our senses perceive is 100% accurate. It exposes possible flaws in our perception and shows the relationship between the senses and the brain.
Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception
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It seems funny how our senses can trick our brain into thinking things are different. I am excited to get to this chapter to test these optical illusions!
I find it weird how ESP has not been proven to exist. I find that numerous amounts of people focus on it, work with it, and believe it. I wonder if there really is some other force in which we cannot physically prove to exist. I am definitely interested in learning more about this.
There are different ways that each of our senses can be tricked. We will be talking more about this in class next week!
When I was little I used to rely on my senses for everything. As I got older my vision got worse and so I had to wear glasses/contacts. Having bad vision made me "see" things differently. Without glasses I sometimes see things that my other senses makes me certain I did see it but with my glasses on I realized my other senses were unreliable. It is interesting how our senses can sometimes work together and at the same time affect the way we perceive things when they don't work together.
A few days ago I stumbledupon a few ways to trick your brain into thinking you're sensing and perceiving things that aren't true or aren't even there--one was called the Ganzfeld effect. Although I've never tried it, it brings up many questions in my mind about how our brains make sense of nonsense and how we change things to make them easier to understand. Here's a link to some perceptual tricks:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/011109_hacking_your_brain/