Perception and Its Limitations

Perception and Its Limitations

• Human perception is shaped by evolutionary processes to aid survival.
• Sensation and perception provide critical information necessary for navigating the environment.
• The development of human senses is influenced by the types of energy present in the environment.
• Humans can only detect a limited range of environmental energy, which restricts our perception of reality.

Sensory Modalities

• Humans possess more than the traditional five senses.
• Commonly recognized senses:
  • Vision
  • Audition (Hearing)
  • Tactile perception (Touch)
  • Olfaction (Smell)
  • Gustation (Taste)
• Additional senses include:
  • Proprioception (Body awareness)
  • Nociception (Pain perception)
  • Thermoreception (Temperature detection)
  • Balance (Equilibrium)
  • Body movement (Kinesthetic sense)

The Perceptual Process

• Involves two key steps: transduction and action.
• Transduction: converting environmental stimuli into neural signals.
• Environmental stimulus encompasses all potential perceivable energy.
• Humans focus on a small subset of available stimuli, referred to as the attended stimulus.
• Example of attended stimulus: noticing a moth in the woods amidst a broader environmental context.

Perception and Its Limitations

• Human perception is shaped by evolutionary processes to aid survival.
• Sensation and perception provide critical information necessary for navigating the environment.
• The development of human senses is influenced by the types of energy present in the environment.
• Humans can only detect a limited range of environmental energy, which restricts our perception of reality.

Sensory Modalities

• Humans possess more than the traditional five senses.
• Commonly recognized senses:
  • Vision
  • Audition (Hearing)
  • Tactile perception (Touch)
  • Olfaction (Smell)
  • Gustation (Taste)
• Additional senses include:
  • Proprioception (Body awareness)
  • Nociception (Pain perception)
  • Thermoreception (Temperature detection)
  • Balance (Equilibrium)
  • Body movement (Kinesthetic sense)

The Perceptual Process

• Involves two key steps: transduction and action.
• Transduction: converting environmental stimuli into neural signals.
• Environmental stimulus encompasses all potential perceivable energy.
• Humans focus on a small subset of available stimuli, referred to as the attended stimulus.
• Example of attended stimulus: noticing a moth in the woods amidst a broader environmental context.