Human Perceptions

As Human beings we are blessed to have five senses. These senses are sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. These senses make “normal” life manageable for us. All five are equally as important as the next. However it is not impossible to live without one or two of them. Sometimes losing one our senses can enhance the rest. Human beings thrive on their ability to detect what is happening around them and make sense of the changes. Essentially, a human being cannot be able to do without the ability to sense and get the meaning behind the senses.

Sensory properties are perceived when our sensory organism interacts with stimuli in the world around us. There are several senses which are fundamental in the human well being. These senses include vision, gestation, olfaction, touch, audition and multimodal perception. For humans, experience, of the world is generally stable, and the ability to perceive it is easily taken for granted. Objects have positions, shapes and colors that seem to be perceived instantly, and we can reach for them or move to where they are, without any apparent effort. It is worth oting that sensory perceptions inform the thinking process. Essentially, thinking is a process which entails and interplays of many facets. Furthermore, what is thought about proceeds from what has been acquired through the senses. Hence, faulty perceptions influence the quality of the thinking process. There are three reasons to believe that our senses are fallible. Seeing should not always be believing. Once we realize that our senses can be fooled, then we can begin to adjust to surface appearance and personal distortions. Sometimes our senses can be deceived.

Our senses do not always deliver accurate data to our brain. Our senses do not operate effectively when we are sick, drowsy, or tired. Our sensual perceptions, such as sight, can deceive our brain in three major ways. It can be limited biologically, we see the superficial; corralled by custom, we see the habitual; and blinded by language, we see the general. Our five senses are generally part of nature and as we get older, wiser, and mature we tend to nurture our senses to perceive things better. We are born with vision, smelling, hearing, taste, and touch.

These are innate sensory perceptions. A child does not know the smell of smoke or certain food items being cooked. As they get more mature, their senses become stronger and by nurturing these senses they can distinguish the different smells. In conclusion, our five senses are innate and part of nature. As a child, our senses are immature and as we get older our senses improve. We continually return to our senses to refresh the data, to seek new data, and to use specific instruments to justify and sharpen our senses so that we don’t perceive fallible information.

Citations: Kirby, G. R. , & Goodpaster, J. R. (2007). Thinking. Prentice Hall. Chapter 3 Advances in Consumer Research – North American Conference Proceedings; 2009, Vol. 36, p127-130, 4p Kirby, G. R. , & Goodpaster, J. R. (2007). Thinking. Prentice Hall. Patterson, J. , Owen, C. , Frank, D. , Smith, R. , & Cadusch, P. (2004, May). Flavour sensory qualities and consumer perceptions – a comparison of sensory and brain activity responses to flavour components in different populations. International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 39(5), 481-490.