Defining Sensation and Perception:
Although
sensation and perception have a significant relationship with each other, they
are also quite different. Sensation is the way that our sensory receptors and
nervous system represent a stimulus that is from our environment; while
perception is the process by which we organize and interpret sensory
information. I think that a good way to
differentiate the two is to think of sensation as when our body receives the
stimulus from the environment, as with smell, taste, touch, hearing, or vision. And perception is the way that the our senses
are analyzed and interpreted in our brain.
Perception defines what we smelt, tasted, felt, heard, or saw and it is
what happens after sensation.
Example:
An
example of sensation and perception is when a person drinks water after a long
run and he feels exhausted and dehydrated.
While he is voraciously devouring the water, he feels the water going
into his body, which would be the sensation component. As he feels the water enter his system, he
begins analyzing what the water is doing to him, the perceiving part. The runner analyzes that the water is causing
him to feel refreshed after his run and thus no longer have the need to quench his
thirst. The bottom-up process occurs
when he begins drinking water and realizes that his desire for water is
disappearing. However, the top-down
process occurs when he decides to drink water because the runner knows that it
will get rid of his dehydration.
Nick, I thought your differentiation between sensation and perception was helpful because you clarify that the sensation is kind of the broad sense itself while perception deals with the specifics, such as what the person hears or smells. as for your example, I thought it did a good job of defining the bottom-up and top-down process because you emphasize that the reverse nature of the two.
ReplyDeleteMi partner for the project Skilli J,
ReplyDeleteYour explanation of bottom up and top down approaches are good. I feel you must have done them right after XC. Your explanations helped me understand the differences too. Nice job sport!