Sensory Perception Essays (Examples)

Sensory Perceptions

Three easons for Believing in the Accuracy or Inaccuracy of Sensory Information

Sensory perception can be defined as the process of receipt of stimuli and then their organization and interpretation by using the five senses for making the meaning of one's surrounding environment. In other words, it is the process by which a person acquires an understanding of his/her environment (Kemp, Hollywood & Hort 2009). Thus, by employing sensory perceptions, every living thing understands its immediate surrounding through sensory information analysis for survival.

The first reason to believe in the accuracy of sensory information is that when a hot object is touched, the sense of feeling sends instant messages to the brain due to which the body part that touches the object gets removed and is saved from getting burned. The second reason to trust the accuracy of the sensory information is that the sense of smell helps…

Sensory Perceptions" Can trust senses interpretation sensory data give accurate view

Sensory data is a valuable means of obtaining knowledge and information about one's surroundings. However, sensory data is extremely prone to bias due to an assortment of different factors. These factors include the unreliability of memory, the degree to which senses can be influenced by other cognitive and emotional responses, and the fact that sense are essentially subjective, and not objective in nature. Furthermore, the way that people are nurtured drastically affects their opinions of their surroundings, and "colors" the way those opinions receive sensory data and how people interpret them.

Sensory data is prone to inaccuracy due to the very nature of these senses. Essentially, the five human senses (that of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing) record impressions of data that may very well be fleeting (Berger, 1990, p. 9). Sensory data is generally accurate at the…

Sensation and Perception

The issue of being able to trust one's senses has been the topic of many philosophical debates and whole books have been written on this debate. There are convincing arguments made for both sides of the issue. Nonetheless, anyone who ambulates, operates a motor vehicle, eats, interacts with others, etc. trusts the information that their senses give them (Christian, 2011). Sensory information is the result of physical stimuli collected by sense organs and transferred and processed in the brain, whereas perception is the interpretation of these stimuli that occurs at the higher levels of the brain (Hatfield, 2013). Sensory information in the absence of frank brain damage is an actual reflection of the physical stimulation that is delivered to the various processing areas of the brain (Hatfield, 2013). One's perception of the world is open to subjective interpretation (Hatfield, 2013). The big question regarding whether one can…

Fallibility of eliance Upon Sensory Data

Accounting

Author's institution affiliation

The Necessity & Fallibility of eliance upon Sensory Data

Without sensory data, most humans would likely die after very short lives. Sensory data on a very basic level allows beings to navigate and interact with their environments and world. Without sensory information, the simplest tasks could not be accomplished and it would be exceptionally difficult to maintain general safety. Without sensory data, society would not be able to exist as such. How could any tasks be executed? How would anyone know which tasks needed to be executed? How would people calculate their priorities?

While sensory data is quite necessary for people to see, touch, smell, hear, and feel, reliance upon sensory data alone can also be dangerous as there are often a multitude of factors that contribute to a circumstance, event, or occurrence, that many people, including the participants and…

Properties of Sensory Perception

Within the realm of Gestalt theory, the concept of attention is differentiated from that of perception. Attention is the cognitive ability of the human brain to simultaneously focus on a variety of subjects, while continually adjusting the intensity of that focus in response to external factors. A total of four techniques have been identified by Gestalt theory to exert an impact on one's attention: intensity, novelty, incongruity, emotion. In the example above, the speaker could utilize the intensity technique to keep my attention by intermittently punctuating his or her speech with loud exclamations or the clapping of hands. The novelty technique could be invoked when the speaker uses clever and unique turns of phrase, or through the originality of their message. Gestalt's incongruity technique might be employed to keep my attention when the speaker presents stark contrasts in terms or comparisons between differing issues. Finally, the…

ESP

The term ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) was coined by J.B. hine in the 1920s (Blackmore, 2001). hine investigated paranormal phenomena while at Duke University. ESP refers to a number of psychic abilities such as telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance (remote viewing), or clairaudience (hearing voices or thoughts psychically). One of the more popular methods to demonstrate that someone has ESP called the Ganzfeld procedure (Bem & Honorton, 1994; Blackmore, 2001).

In the Ganzfeld method one person is a "sender" and another is a "receiver." The sender views randomly chosen pictures or images while the receiver sits a soundproof chamber with their eyes covered, wearing headphones that play continuous white noise, and with a red light shinning in the room. The sender concentrates on the image and the receiver attempts to connect to this image mentally. When ready, the receiver removes the eye covers and picks the image the sender relayed to…

There was an increase in the number of respondents from 58% in earlier studies, implying increased acceptance of the possibility that ESP existed or was real (Schmeidler).

2005 Gallup poll said that 41% of Americans believed in ESP (Carroll 2006). This represented a decrease from surveys in the last decade at 50%. ESP and other paranormal capabilities, such as telekinesis, have been rejected or disputed. However, systematic research on these phenomena has been going on for more than a century in the field of parapsychology. These phenomena have been collectively known as psi. to-date, most of the evidence presented for ESP has been anecdotal. Skeptics have rejected it as fraud or incompetence by parapsychologists, trickery by mentalists, cold reading, subjective validation, selective thinking and confirmation bias, poor comprehension of probabilities, shoe-horning, retrospective clairvoyance and falsification, gullibility, self-deception and wishful thinking. Most of it drew from apparently unusual and obscure events.…

The results of this study found that some negative bias towards a patient's socioeconomic standing -- particularly from less-experienced dental students -- can result in "differential treatment" (e.g., less attentive care) (Carson, 675). But by "heightening awareness" of potential biases (that are based on accent or perceived lower socioeconomic status, or on racism) among dental students, through educational initiatives, stereotyping and bias can be reduced if not eliminated (Carson, 678). Another suggestion (Carson, 678-79) in terms of ensuring the quality of treatment is to "inhibit social categorical thinking." This would require not treating the patient as "unique" but rather as a "collections of symptoms."

orks Cited

Carson, Lloyd, Drummond, John, and Newton, James. (2004). Social Perception in the Clinical

Dental Encounter: The Matched-Guise Technique Re-Visited. Psychology and Health, 19(5),

667-683.

Gabbard, Carl, Cacola, Priscila, and Cordova, Alberto. (2009). Is Perceived Motor Competence

A Constraint in Children's Action Planning? The Journal…

If we were to lose our perception of depth, we might indeed fall off of the cliff: even if we could sense the change of color we might mistakenly believe that the ground and the depths below were on the same plane. Auditory illusions have similar effects and can cause people to distort reality. One of the most notable examples of auditory illusions causing a distortion of reality is the ventriloquist who "throws" his or her voice.

Attention and concentration are also essential aspects of sensation and perception. Human beings are usually bombarded by a barrage of sensory data and must consciously or unconsciously filter out extraneous information. Although our senses are exposed to a multitude of material, much of the sensory data remains outside of our conscious awareness. For example, we tune out conversations in a crowded restaurant in order to listen to our dining partner, or we tune…

In the same way, if one were to intentionally color the inside of a piece of apple a dark brown color, a color that is generally associated with rotten apples, then one would not taste it. In essence, this means that at times, one sense would effectively overwhelm the others, so that eventually, this sense would overtake the others. (Fields, 2004)

In this particular case of the brown apple, the sight of the brown color in the apple would overwhelm the other senses of smell and taste, until such time that one would feel tempted to throw the apple away rather than take a risk and taste it. This means that the sense of sight can prove invaluable to a person as far as tasting the food is concerned; it is the sense of sight that one may rely on to warn us that the food has gone bad, or…

Sensory Indoor/Outdoor Environment

Plan for Outdoor Play Environment -- Age 5-8

ousseau and Pestalozzi, encouraged by the former, were predecessor theorists on outdoor play by familiarizing and sustaining the original idea as stated by which nature and the natural environment had a definite and positive role in the education of children (Evans, 2006). The primary plan is to enhance the performance of the Federal employee by offering the opportunity for quality Plan for Outdoor Play Environment -- Age 5-8-owned or controlled space. The center design must meet the needs of children, teachers, administrators, and parents according to the Australian Early Years Learning Framework by the following:

Supporting the staff's care of children by creating environments that allow them to focus their efforts on the care and nurture of children.

Will promote an environment with active play.

Will endorse an environment that involves collaboration.

Producing an environment that comfortably provide accommodations…

Perceptions and Expectations:

Analyzing The Concert Experience In A Live

versus televised format

Perceptions and Expectations: Analyzing the Concert Experience in a Live vs. Televised Format

In experiencing a real-life situation in the flesh rather than in viewing its projection through a medium such as television, one's experience differs significantly. The expectations one brings to a live performance vs. The expectations one brings to the viewing of that same performance on television are radically different, as experiencing the performance in the flesh brings with it an entirely different experience that one expects to achieve upon deciding to attend. This type of expectation can be seen in viewing the example of attending a rock concert vs. watching the same concert on television. In looking at the two situations in comparison to one another, it can be seen that several factors come into play to distinguish the two from one another most…

Capgras syndrome is one disorder in which the individual cannot recognize familiar faces. The author relays several stories in which the male of the species rediscovers sexual appetites when new stimuli are introduced. Yet the author seems to have forgotten that the theory would only hold true for the human brain if it applied to more than fifty percent of the population.

amachandran's (2011) dismissal of the female brain is only one of several oversights in what is otherwise an enjoyable read. For example, Gottlieb (2011) points out that amachandran draws too many conclusions related to the peekaboo syndrome. Just as amachandran (2011) reveals a male bias with regards to Chapter 2 and information on seeing, knowing, and Capgras syndrome, the author also refers to research using male subjects who prefer partially clothed to topless women. Without including studies of female subjects, it is impossible to prove any theory of…

Taste and Smell

Age elated Changes in Perception of Flavor and Aroma

It has been posited that the perception of flavor and aroma are derived from the senses of chemical irritation, taste and smell (awson, 2003).

Together, these senses constitute what has been termed chemosensation, although these sensory systems are purportedly considerably variant in their physiology and anatomy. Nevertheless, they do have the ability to regenerate, and their noted susceptibility to aging and age associated diseases has been noted (awson, 2003). It has been reported that nearly one third of all older individuals report dissatisfaction with their sense of smell and taste, and the actual occurrence of sensory loss amongst the elderly is maintained to be even higher (Pelchat, 2001). Furthermore, it has been asserted that age related sensory loss affects both personal safety and quality of life (awson, 2003). Moreover, the impact of the loss on the elderly's physical…

Through the use of better marketing strategies and advertisements that are appealing to the customer, the executives use stimuli to grab the attention of the customer ("Consumers Behavior," n.d.). In most cases, such kinds of efforts by the executives are usually vividly clear and identified by the customers. Furthermore, executives can make better marketing and advertising decisions by understanding that customers are sometimes influenced by indiscernible stimuli which is also known as subliminal message. This is regardless of the fact that a customer only pays attention to few of the stimuli that he/she comes into contact with and usually interprets the messages he/she can recall.

Secondly, perception is important to executives in making better marketing and advertising decisions since it helps in devising marketing strategies. Executives make better marketing and advertising decisions by the use of a perceptual map which helps them to identify the characteristics that customers associate with…

Modular neural networks.

The argument for modular brain architecture is one that holds that the brain is bestowed with some finite characteristics from birth. Scientists that advocate the modularity concept believe that the human information processing system consists of modules - relatively isolated subsystems - that can function independently of each other.

These characteristics can be thought of as structural constraints, in that the brain's nature is predetermined to a greater extent that it is the product of interaction with external forces that shape it during the development cycle. Modularity is not associated with all brain functions, although it is accepted that the most basic differences in processing and interpreting data are unique to humankind, as illustrated by the cognitive differences between humans and other mammals. However, there are many differing opinions on the subject, as researchers' perception is predicated on the interpretation of different studies.

The debate over the…

Perception

How does depth perception occur in a person who gains sight after being congenital blind?

Depth perception is necessary for the ability to perform many tasks including driving, and many other activities. The ability to perceive the distance of objects is a complex process. hen people are born blind in one eye, regardless of the reason, they do not develop the ability to perceive depths. Their world is flat compared to that experienced by the rest of the world. hen that person undergoes surgery or other procedures to restore sight to the blind eye many of these patients are able to perceive depth. The ability to do this defies commonly held views on the connection between visual acuity, depth perception and motor development.

This research explores current research on depth perception and the development of depth perception. Studies in this area are limited to animal studies and those involving…

perception and on the circumstance that selective perception may be more dominated by images than by any other factor. We are prone to making impressions, yet as the study in this essay shows it may be images that subconsciously form our impressions and direct judgment to be made about them accordingly.

All too often, selective perception gets us into difficulties as witnessed by the Northwest Airlines Flight 259 that crashed after forgetting to extend the flaps for takeoff. This was as minor aspect, yet the pilots completely overlooked it. Selective perception works in social areas of life too where people are regularly hired for certain characteristics that employers observe yet gloss over others. esearch shows that much of causal perceptions or interview selection is made of fleeting instinctive impressions where discrete components are aggregated into a holistic whole. This is called a stereotype and stereotypes are instinctive, unconscious, and often…

The term 'perception' deals with more than simply sensing a thing or accepting optical stimulation. Rather, it entails gleaning meaning from the things one views, hears, senses, smells and tastes (Pearson 6).

Role Concept: One may describe roles as being a collection of behavioral requirements and expectations linked to a station within any given societal institution or system, which may be outlined as follows:

Objective (detached)

Subjective (wholly personal) (Pearson 18)

How does a citizen's perceptions of the police affect the way the citizen acts toward a police officer?

Civilians normally do not pay attention to law enforcement officials unless they fall into trouble. Instead of remembering law enforcement's public safety efforts, they remember the speeding tickets law enforcers impose on them. For instance, if policemen ended up saving one's life, this would greatly impact one's perception of them (Cubbage).

When not on duty, the police feel alienated in society…

In this way, the article is constructed in a logical way in order to arrive at its more complex presentations and finally at its conclusions. Interestingly, the concepts are explained in very clear language, without an overflow of academic jargon, even while at the same time explicating academic concepts upon the basis of philosophy and neuroscientific research.

Because the article is explicatory in nature, the author does not conduct practical research to establish a hypothesis and prove it, but rather engages in citing research already conducted in order to prove his hypothesis on perception and causation. In this way, the article is generally philosophical in nature, although it makes significant use of practical and scientific data established by others. In this way, it satisfies both the requirements of philosophy and science, while addressing a primarily philosophical idea.

Attribution theory has at its basis the premise the cause and effect relationship…

Perception

The Classical and Active Theories of Perception

The only world that truly exists for any of us is the one inside our brains. Each of us experiences the world in our own special way. Our world is made up of our experiences and perceptions. The way that every individual perceives their world is different from the way any other individual perceives theirs. The way that we perceive our world is different than the way anyone else perceives their world, yet we all live in the same world. hat makes our world different are our perceptions, not the world itself. This research will explore two different theories on how we perceive our world. It will discuss the classical theory of perception and the active theory of perception in order to gain a better understanding of how our perceptions affect our world view.

Our own virtual reality exists because the brain…

Cues for Depth Perception

The dimensions of visual perception include height, width, and depth. Depth perception describes the process of seeing distances between objects (Blake and Sekuler 2006). The image projected on the retina (and deconstructed for further processing in the brain) is two- components of the environment in order to recover the quality of depth. In general cues providing information for depth perception are generally classified as being either binocular cues or monocular cues (Blake & Sekuler, 2006; Eysenck & Keane, 2010; Sternberg & Sternberg, 2011).

Binocular cues include convergence, binocular disparity, and shadow stereopis. Binocular depth cues are based on the receipt of sensory information occurring in both eyes. These cues rely on the relative positioning of the eyes (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2011).

Convergence of the eyes is one process that can help cue the perception of depth. The human eyes are separated by about 6 cm and…

In my case there were 6 cards left over the light. After waiting a few more minutes, I thought that the light was getting more obvious so the experiment required me to begin adding cards back over the ones already on the flashlight. Although I did not get back to all 15 cards, I was able to see the light more easily the longer I was in the dark room even as I was adding cards back over the light.

The third experiment required that I fill 3 bowls with water. The first bowl was to be filled with very hot water, the second very cold water, and the third with a mixture of hot and cold. I then had to put the bowls so that my right hand was in front of the cold bowl, my left hand was in front of the hot bowl and the warm bowl…

The auditory sense relies on differentiated structures in the form of auditory nerve bundles in the ear that route different types of sounds to different parts of the brain for interpretation.

The olfactory and gustatory senses are closely related and both transmit information to the cortex and to the amygdale and hippocampus (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). Generally, structures in the nose produce chemical responses to specific scents which they transmit directly to the olfactory cortex for interpretation. The tactile sense is provided by nerves located throughout the body, especially within the layers of the epidermis. Because of the importance of being able to respond quickly to dangerous sensations, nociception and thermoception transmit signals that directly stimulate spinal reflexes without requiring conscious perception or signal processing (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008).

eference

Gerrig, ., Zimbardo, P. (2008). Psychology…

These rules can also however restrict the critical and creative aspect that is necessary for growth. This is so because they restrict any new information that may lead to what is perceived as chaos.

Traditions play the same role. They are established in order to maintain a certain status quo for the purpose of organizational unity. However, an excess of such unity can also mean that no new thought is available or stimulated to create new growth for the future.

Cultural blocks is an important perceptual block that can often lead to prejudice or ostracization from a group. A cultural block requires conformity to the accepted ways of thinking and acting within a cultural group. Daring to differ from these established traditions often result in a sense of discomfort for the individual. Cultural blocks often lead to prejudice against those that do not look, act, or think according to the…

Brain Might Contextual

The information we receive from the surrounding is analyzed in different areas in the brain. These areas are interconnected. Visual impulses reach the occipital lobe in the brain from where they are carried to the somatosensory are in the parietal lobe. The parietal lobe also receives sensory information from other areas of the brain. These stimuli are integrated and stored. The stored information is used to reason similar stimuli in the future. This creates a quicker response in recognition. This theory is consistent to the top down process created by ichard Gregory.

The brain is a complex body organ consisting of two cerebral hemispheres, two cerebellums and a brain stem. The brain stem is a continuation of the spinal cord. It consists of the mid brain, pons and medulla. The brain is made up of complex neurons that transmit impulses to other body organs. These impulses help…

Communication and Perception Processes

Communication models simplify the descriptions of complex communication interactions

Three models:

Transmission- a linear one-way process in which a sender transmits a message to a receiver

Participants- senders and receivers of messages

Messages- the verbal and non-verbal content being shared

Encoding- turning thoughts into communication

Decoding- turning communication into thoughts

Channels- sensory routes through which messages travel

Barriers / Noise

Environmental noise- physical noise

Semantic noise- noise in encoding process

Interaction- participants alternate positions as senders and receivers of messages

Participants- senders and receivers of messages

Messages- the verbal and non-verbal content being shared

Encoding- turning thoughts into communication

Decoding- turning communication into thoughts

Channels- sensory routes through which messages travel

Feedback- messages sent in response to other messages

Physical context- environmental factors

Psychological context- mental and emotional factors

Transaction- a process in which communicators generate social realities within social, relational, and cultural contexts.

Communicators

Simultaneous…

Thus, the deficit must be due to an "inefficient mapping of acoustic information into phonetic features at a central (postcochlear) conversion stage. Accordingly, these findings provide new routes by which researchers should examine and practitioners should diagnose and treat SLI (Ziegler, et.al., 2005).

7. Conclusion

We live in a day and age of rapid technological development. In the area of cognition, our knowledge of how brain works and how language functions and is processed has seen rapid advancement in just the past three decades. Given the information that we have uncovered here, there is hope for a more rapid diagnosis and a more effective treatment of students with SLI's. With more understanding of the role of input and noise, perhaps, our teachers whom area affected greatly by his or her students' performance, would understand how to properly handle such students and provide a classroom environmentally set up so as to…

What may seem like a straightforward business communication by one party may seem confusing, or worse, insulting, by another. Therefore, it is critical for managers to understand how culture impacts perception, so that they can ensure the effectiveness of their workplace communications.

"Communication for a diverse workforce requires understanding how diverse employee populations perceive business communication. Some employees believe constant memoranda and employee meetings are time wasters and, as such, might simply tune out both the message and the messenger. Other employees want to be informed of every company move, and if they believe transparency is missing from communication with employees, they begin to feel undervalued and unappreciated" (Mayhew, 2012). Understanding these differences can help managers relate to their subordinates in a more effective manner. However, the issue is not merely one of top-down communication. Employees also have to understand that they are working in a diverse environment. The presence…

The quantitative approach, meanwhile, will make use of the survey method, focusing on three (3) segments each for males and females (criteria mentioned earlier in the preceding section).

Diary Method

The diary method is recommended because this will generate information that is insightful and in-depth, as it provides participants with an opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings without being conscious of the people who might be interviewing them or be with them, as what happens during an FGD.

Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

The FGDs will provide breadth of information about perceived pain. There will be twelve (12) mini-groups per segment, broken down into the following discussant types:

Group Type

Age group

Males

Youth/Young Adult (13-25 years old)

Adults (26-55 years old)

Females

Youth/Young Adult (13-25 years old)

Adults (26-55 years old)

Survey

The survey method will make use of the multi-stage sampling, using once again the respondent criteria enumerated…

Touch, Itch and Tickle

The human brain plays a crucial role in the sensations of touch, itch and tickle as well as the perception of these sensations. This is primarily because the brain enables us to feel these sensations and the processes that contribute to them. While the brain allows us to feel these sensations, it sometimes plays tricks on us with regards to touch, itch and tickle. Generally, sensations like touch, itch and tickle can be described as conscious or unconscious awareness of internal or external stimuli. The perception of these sensations is in turn described as the conscious understanding and interpretation of these feelings. The role of the brain in sensations and their associated perceptions is attributable to brain components that obtain sensory input, integrate and hoard information, and convey motor reactions.

Sensory Experiences

Touch, itch and tickle are examples of sensory experiences brought by either internal or…

Visual Consciousness

Visual Perception

In conducting this study, the first step I took was to procure a book with a cover on it that I would attempt to read. I have read most of my books, but am unfamiliar with the text on the front of them. I actually selected one of my larger books (it is a coffee table book) in order to maximize my chances of reading. Next, I sat in a comfortable spot and entirely covered my left eye with my left hand. Once I was sure I could not see out of it, I fixated my right eye on a tiny crack in the wall. After doing so, I extended the book in my right hand as far to the right as I could, so that I could not even see it at first. Then, while maintaining my eye on the same crack, I slowly moved…

or, one might add, not in the room. For example, I was recently food shopping and chatting on my cell with my sister, Although my sister was not with me physically, as is typical of my personality, I was focused, not on the cereal and boxes of Pop Tarts in front of me, or on the other sounds around me, but on my sister's voice alone. Vaguely, I though I could hear my mother calling my name. Although the store was crowded with strangers, and my attention was diverted, I could recognize my mother's unique vocal tones. However, because my attention was upon my sister, I didn't realize what my mother was saying, and only after I said good-bye did I realize that my mother had been asking me to clarify if my sister wanted chunky or creamy peanut butter. I knew my mother was speaking despite the mixture of…

Family Health Assessment

The actions and lifestyle choices of family members can have a dramatic impact on everyone. This is because each person will influence the others and the decisions they make. These variables will affect their underlying levels of health and ability to deal with various challenges in their lives. A good example of this can be seen with insights from James (2004) who said, "There was a general perception that specific habits means families are giving up part of their cultural heritage and trying to conform to the dominant culture. Friends and relatives usually are not supportive of these changes. Barriers to these shifts include: no sense of urgency, the social and cultural symbolism of certain foods, the poor taste of choices, the expenses for embracing these transformation and lack of information. Segments of the population that potentially could be motivated include women, men with health problems, young…

The real fire that burns you is the fire that is produced by God as the natural regulatory forces of nature. While the fire that is hallucination is fire that is conjured through the ideation of finite spirits such as other individuals. Real fire, since it is a subjective creation of God, has the ability to burn us, while illusionary fires do not have that inherent ability. Therefore all objectives that are not perceived by other human beings are perceived by God and have an existence within the world.

Berkeley's fundamental argument about reality and matter is that they are all sensory perceptions. However, since God creates ultimate harmony within the world and moreover provides a system in which we live in, his rules applies to all objects that we possess and use. Therefore, although arsenic in itself is nothing more than an idea, it is an idea that is…

Heidegger

In his seminal text Being and Time, Martin Heidegger attempts to investigate the nature of being, and by extension, human consciousness, in an intelligible way that allows one to actually make useful claims regarding the nature of Being despite the human mind's inability to escape the imaginary limitations inherent to human consciousness (imaginary meaning the very real, functional limitations to human imagination due to human's inescapable perception of time). Thus, while he implicitly criticizes previous formulations regarding the nature of human experience, he is more concerned with correctly answering a fundamental question than dismantling any specific, traditional view of human experience, because according to Heidegger, nearly all previous conceptions of human experience have erred from the outset due to their assumptions and misformulations regarding the essential "question of Being." By examining Heidegger's claims regarding being as such, one is able to see how Heidegger manages to sidestep the limitations…

Descartes

Cartesian dualism emerges from Descartes's approach of radical skepticism. Wanting to know what can be determined to be absolutely true, Descartes begins by doubting all sensory perception as fundamentally external and liable to interference. Just as we understand that hallucination exists as a real phenomenon -- whereby we might "see" an object that is not really there -- we may come to understand that all the evidence obtained from eyesight may not necessarily be a valid representation of the external world. Indeed, we do not even have to refer to the pathological category of hallucination to understand what it would mean to find sensory evidence to be deceptive. In his recent book on hallucinations, the noted neuroscientist Dr. Oliver Sacks (2012) makes reference to "dreams, which one can argue are hallucinations of a sort" (xiii). Anyone who has had a vivid dream knows that they contain visual, auditory, and…

Knowledge?

We are often faced with a thorny predicament when asked to pit fact against faith. Such a delicate endeavor is the one posed in the question above. Reliance or submittal of evidence is most often associated with the pursuit of proof. Therefore, evidence becomes a means of achieving truth through empirical observations and objective facts. Conversely, beliefs are commonly linked to feeling and faith. While evidence is needed to support most all objective conclusions, there are many beliefs that exist in the absence of evidence. However, when spanning across the complete spectrum of knowledge, the levels of objectivity required in each area often fluctuate such that great levels of evidence are regularly required before an individual can come to believe. Each Area of Knowledge presents its own reconciliations to this debate. For instance, certain areas claim that there must always be strong evidence to support a belief or that…

" He also confirmed to himself that God was the origin of his thought, and therefore because his thoughts were real, God must also be real.

3. Descartes -- Senses and Knowledge

When we went outside as a class, part of Descartes ideas was visible in our observations. All the students had a different perception of the external world. Some focused on certain people and certain objects, which were not seen in the same exact way as another student. This shows that the human mind sees a unique version of what our senses tell us is reality. Reality, might however, escape the limitations of the human mind. For instance, a particular relation to a person and an object, this case a tree, might be seen as being a certain way in my mind but a much different way in another student's mind. Each person's unique experience, through the perception of…

(Mc Keachie and Doyle. 1970. p. 552)

This is an often a determining factor in contexts such as interviewing for jobs. esearch shows that "...the perception of a person is strongly influenced by the accuracy of early impressions." (Mc Keachie and Doyle. 1970. p. 552) The immediate perception of a person may therefore be colored by concepts and learnt assumptions that are applied to the individuals according to various cues.

One aspect in this regard that strands out in many studies is that while first- time perceptions can be erroneous and might be based on false preconceptions and stereotypes, yet these first impression can be extremely strong and also tend to influence later assessments of the person. This relates to the previously mentioned finding that first impressions tend often to focus on abnormal or different attributes, rather than on conventional or more positive attributes. This can, for instance, have a…

Family Wellness Diagnosis, Nursing

I opted to interview a family of two parents (married heterosexuals) who have two children. Both children are in their late teens. Both parents work. She is a freelance writer and he is a sales clerk at a retail home goods store. Both are in their late forties. He is about 5'11; she is 5'6." Their heights and weights appear appropriate though he claims that at 180 he feels a little overweight. She is about 140. She is originally from Guatemala and he is from the mid-west of the U.S. The children are both boys. Bruce, age 19, is away at college. The other, Erick, graduated from high school last year and has been working at a local golf course while waiting to decide what he wants to study at a community college. I spoke with Bruce over the telephone for about 15 minutes. He confirmed…

Ideals of Fantasy and Reality According to Descarte and Hume

This paper considers what is real and what is fantasy by understanding the ideals of philosophers such as Descarte and Hume. Bibliography cites seven sources.

The reality of croquet and the ever moving hoops

To become like Alice in wonderland, to seek that which only exists in the mind of our imagination is the dream of every person to bring forth what is not real and make it real. The mind is a complex place, by understanding the attitudes and aspects of individuals we are able to understand that the imagination is fuelled by the Will and that the will is fed by the imagination.

When looking at the world as if it was a croquet game in Alice and wonderland we can argue quite easily that life is a mutable role in the ideology of the philosophers, by looking…

This dissociative process was so powerful that Julia was able to endure what her physician referred to as agony, in a state in which she was blissfully unaware of the excruciating suffering she was feeling. The ramifications of this incident, of course, illustrate what Stout was stating about the consciousness' human ability to adapt and survive. Because Julia had endured so much suffering during her childhood by tuning out or disassociating herself from it, that reflex became her automatic reaction to situations in which there was actual, real danger -- all of which merely underscores how little of her life Julia had been present for.

To say the least, Stout's essay demonstrates that it is extremely safe to say that one's memories of the past definitely shape one's perceptions of the present. Moreover, it would be a little more accurate to state that one's memories of the past have the…

Perceptual Functioning

Chemical Senses: Reflections on Cognitive Features influencing the central chemosensory process

Smell and taste are important parts of the sensory system that are imperative in food and nutrition selection for sensory and hedonic experience of food for fast and healthy metabolism in order to live a quality life. The olfactory and gustatory systems show variety in the mechanism of transduction and in the last ten years, there has been a lot of progress towards understanding of the main mechanisms of smell and taste. The understanding of functions of normal chemosensory organs has helped in clearing the molecular actions that highlight the disorders of smell and taste. More than two million Americans have chemosensory disorders and the numbers are growing along with the population. The disorders of smell are more common than the taste disorders because of the anatomical difference in the olfactory system. This is because a fall…

The latest research indicates that early memories and experiences do not form the basis for the synesthetists' cross-perceptions, and it is no longer linked to mental illness or brain degeneration. Instead, current research is interested in the correlation between synesthesia and left-handedness, since left-handedness is known to be associated with other unusual "cross-wiring" in the brain (the "right" or creative side of the brain is more dominant). Brain imaging proves the cross-linking concept in that for someone with visual-gustatory synesthesia, the taste center of the brain will be activated along with the visual centers (visual cerebral cortex) when a person is given a visual cue (oeckelein, 2004). Synesthesia is also thought to involve anomalies in the brain's limbic system, which not only controls the coordination of senses, but some information-processing activities as well (oeckelein, 2004; Phillips, 2010). In addition, some researchers believe that everyone is born with "cross-wiring," but this…

As media continues to evolve so too will mankind and the manner in which society creates social order and reconstruct its relationship between the physical, mental and social. The media is as much an extension of the human senses as it is an extension of technology that enables better information flow, creation of situational behaviors and a form through which social roles can be understood and interpreted (Meyrowitz, 1985). Through the media mankind has discovered a method for transmitting, disseminating, interpreting and receiving social information. This in turn helps mankind creates his own unique identity from which he can operate and live.

Conclusions

All forms of media are nothing more than an extension of the human senses, a tool or medium if you will through which mankind defines, interprets and accepts or refutes certain social roles and social order. The media provides an outlet through which sensory experiences can be…

Philonus and Hylas discuss the issue of skepticism and its meaning. Philonus is presented as the Skeptic from the first, while Hylas sees himself as a realist. However, Philonus suggests that Hylas is wrong and that he (Philonus) can demonstrate that Hylas is actually a skeptic. Hylas does not believe this is possible, yet Philonus proceeds to guide the argument so that he does prove just what he says he can prove.

The discussion beings when Hylas asks if it is not true that Philonus has expressed the view that there is no such thing in the world as material substance. Philonus says he did not say that, and that what he did say is that there is no such thing as what philosophers call material substance in this world. This is the skeptical position Hylas sees him as taking, and Hylas states that he can think of nothing that…

brain plays a vital role in the area of cognitive functions. Different sections of the brain are responsible for a number of different cognitive capabilities including memory, prediction, emotional response, sensory perception, and numerous others. Despite the partitioning of the brain and its means of providing cognitive capabilities, the different areas of this organ work in concert to produce some pivotal cognitive processes including decision-making and deriving action (output) based on sensory information (which is akin to input).

Many of these vital processes for cognitive functions occur in the part of the brain refereed to as the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex has several different components each of which largely contributes to the way in which humans make decisions. Additionally, parts of the cerebral cortex are also responsible for facets of one's personality and how one manifests the emotion one feels. The basic paradigm that accounts for the way that…

One need only refer to the preceding example to prove this fact. In this example, glass on the floor with spilled water and the author's testimonial to what happened all add up to the fact that there a glass was broken. In this case, there is no difference between what appears as truth (that a glass has broken), and what in fact is truth (that a glass is broken). Although reasons may exist as to why such an event happened (whether or not the author was distracted or perhaps is just innately clumsy), the fact that it took place is indisputable, and demonstrates that the author is wrong about the fact that there is "always" a distinction between appearances and reality.

In all actuality, the most suitable alternative to the philosophical position propagated by the author of this particular positing is a synthesis of global skepticism with empiricism and rationalism.…

In other words, like Plato, the body is inferior and its substance is irrelevant for true and certain knowledge. The intellect with its faculties (judgment, imagination, memory, free will, etc.) is most important.

The sixth meditation is the crucial one. He shows the body as "an extended, non-thinking thing" (VII: 78). This is accepted as being close to who he is, but not as close as the mind part. "And accordingly," he says, "it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it" (VII: 78). In other words, the mind and the body are separate, not dependent on each other. This is not exactly an argument for the immortality of the soul in the Platonic way. but, as Wilson says, "He now determines that there is no reason why the death or destruction of the body should entail the death or destruction of the…

Aviation Safety

What is the role of human factors in improving aviation safety?

Many personnel are involved in the operation and maintenance of airplanes. The aviation industry employs many people performing many different roles and tasks to keep aviation a safe mode of transportation for goods and services. Despite rules, procedures, and advanced technology to help keep passengers and crew safe, sometimes accidents still occur. It was found that more than 70% of commercial airplane accidents are caused by humans, rather than simply a failure of technology (Higgins & Higgins, 2008). This research supports the thesis that human factors are one of the most difficult, and the most important issues in aviation needed to increase aviation safety in the future.

Mechanical failure is cited as one of the more common reasons for aviation disasters (Higgins & Higgins, 2008). It is easy to shift the blame to a machine, rather than…

They are simply mental constructs of philosophy that have no objective existence in and of themselves.

The idealism of Kant was a direct reaction against the empiricism of philosophers such as Locke or Hume whose skepticism (if unchecked) could unmake the validity of all scientific inquiry in the minds of people (ibid.).

To understand the other side of the coin with Locke and empiricism, we must understand that his investigation into knowledge began with his asking how humans acquire the basic substances out of which that knowledge is composed that that makes up our ideas. To explain this, he formulated the concept of empiricism. According to Locke, empiricism is a theory of human knowledge that claims that knowledge comes about primarily via the phenomenon of sensory experience. Empiricism emphasizes the role of human experience and evidence. This is especially done via sensory perception, in the way of the formation of…

This is crucial to note because it disproves the idea that "Zumthor's architecture is preoccupied with materials and tectonics" so that "his design process somehow began and ended with concerns about physical matter" (Platt & Spier 2001, 21). If this were the case, the weight of the stone itself would likely have been highlighted, but instead, Zumthor chooses to subvert this weight by punctuating the stone with light, thus simultaneously imbuing the structure with the apparent timelessness of a stone mountain with the airy elevation of its position in the atmosphere. This effect helps to embody phenomenology's nuanced conception of materials and their relation to a structure's context, because the focus is not necessarily on the material itself, but rather its functional and emotional role within the space as a whole. Zumthor's use of stone is not a celebration of granite as such (in the way that the international style…

heard a Fly buzz" by Emily Dickinson

In her poem "I heard a Fly buzz," Emily Dickinson explores the moment just before the death of the narrator, as she watches a fly buzz about in the final moments before sight fails her. In comparing the human experience to the buzzing-about of a fly in the face of a mortal curtain, Dickinson presents a simultaneously clinical and emotionally subjective consideration of death that examines the minute physical details of a scene in order to extract some ultimate meaning before the finality of death. The fly serves as a reminder of the banality of death as well as the importance of the meaning bestowed by human perception.

According to Eric ilson, in his essay "Dickinson's Chemistry of Death," "Dickinson, avatar of Janus, takes a double stance […] she approves the power of the scientific method for exploring the corpse while undercutting the…

awareness entails using all available sensory modalities and cognitive processes. The individual who is situationally aware knows what to pay attention to and can make quick decisions based on knowledge and wisdom. Situation awareness requires some understanding also of goals and objectives. Situational understanding is a similar concept to situational awareness. However, situational understanding takes awareness a step further. As Maltz (2010) points out, situational understanding "unlike awareness, requires some useful grasp of the information at hand," (p. 53). If situational awareness is a state of being vigilant and conscious, then situational understanding is the application of non-contextual variables. For example, a soldier who is practicing situational awareness notices slight changes to the environment such as encroaching shadows or sudden sounds. The same soldier is also aware of where friendly troops are, and can easily determine the source of the sensory input and discern that from potential enemy presence. However,…

The object still exists as well, even if it only perceived inaccurately by the material world and by the sensations

Mathematical proofs and mathematical calibrations are accurate, when correctly done, according to Descartes, because they can be proven by logic that the existence of such things exist with tools outside of the body. But although Descartes' Christian world of a non-deceitful god may have been persuasive to his readers, a contemporary reader might ask, what about when the body is affected by the mind -- for example, when one's heart pounds when the mind is nervous, or when one feels hungry because one has seen a television commercial? The sensations are correct in the sense that they perceive a sight, but the pilot of the ship, in essence, interferes with the correct course of action. This suggests a connection between mind and body that is less causal and easy to…

Yet it is only we who are the intermediary between the world that is real and the world that exists only in our heads. How we organize the world is critical to our understanding of it. More to the point, we have the ability to organize the world any way we see fit. This may be conventional, but it may be entirely unconventional. Either way, we benefit from being freed from constraints. The implied metamorphosis that Arthur has undergone, for example, is to understand the best way for him to write. He will be better, more expressive, with greater clarity, if he follows his own path rather than one that has been laid out for him. The same is true for the second person in Phantoms -- that person might choose to see phantoms as they exist, and accept that existence as a normal part of life, rather than some…

Thus, the analytic approach offers the best method of approaching philosophical questions, because it understands and explicates the problems and limitations of human consciousness immediately by intentionally discussing language itself, because no philosophical work can ever escape the linguistic and therefore philosophical limitations placed upon human thought by the borders of language.

The answer to the question "who am I" is revealed to be the "I" itself, made into a "who" in every instance of the word's utterance (whether aloud or in the mind of a reader). hereas the two earlier philosophical approaches attempted to remove and separate the philosopher from the object of his or her study, the analytic approach realizes that everything, including the philosopher and his or her thought, are the objects of language and therefore ideology, such that the philosopher is reduced in importance in relation to the communication between humans, and the particular consciousness of…

The philosopher differed radically from Descartes in the fact that he believed that every physical manifestation to be found (and evidenced of a body or a sensory perception of something) stemmed from an idea. Spinoza contended that thoughts begot the physical process of motion, creation, or any other physical application, and that the intellect which produced such thoughts and the physical manifestations of them should therefore not be considered distinct from one another. It is noteworthy to mention that Descartes also held a an alternate account of the mind-body dualism in which he conceded there could be some incomprehensible union, for which he offered no explanation for and therefore cannot defensibly be compared to Spinoza's conception of this union (oss, 1998).

Therefore, when considering Spinoza's regards for human emotions as to whether or not they are part of bodily or mental processes, the answer is he believes they are related…

Philosophy

While there is plenty to criticize in the work of Descartes, Locke, and Hume, one cannot justifiably claim that Jose Vasconcelos criticisms of traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge apply to these theorists if only because Vasconcelos' criticisms do not really apply to anything, as his criticisms are largely based on straw men. This is not to say that traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge should be free from criticism, but rather that the problems with these traditional views are more fundamental than Vasconcelos realizes, to the point that Vasconcelos suffers from many of these same issues. Essentially, both Vasconcelos and the previously mentioned authors suffer from a simply ignorance regarding the functioning of the human brain, the nature of consciousness and memory, and the evolutionary processes by which organisms and ideas evolve, with this ignorance born out of an implicit or explicit maintenance of…