Free «Sensory Perceptions» Essay Paper

Sensory system is a system of special organs, which transfers information about irritations to nerves. These irritations are perceived as feelings. Senses are an important link with the world around us that empowers us to get knowledge about it; they give a possibility to perceive the nature. Sensory perceptions evolved all the time in the course of evolution, and they may be regarded as a rather perfect system.

Human sensory system bases on the following sensory perceptions:

- vision;

- hearing;

- smell;

- taste;

- touch.

These sensory perceptions transfer different information about environment and give information about various objects. They also warn about possible danger and transfer information that gives an opportunity to make a proper decision.

Human sensory perceptions may make errors often enough. These errors show their inaccuracy. There are some causes of errors:

- Senses may transmit the wrong information that is similar to a right one. A great example is the smell of Rafflesia flower, which human nose identifies as an animal’s corpse although this flower does not rot. In addition, it is not parasitic on animal's muscle tissue;

- Certain substances may distort the human perception. An example of such substances is every hallucinogenic substance. Human senses begin to register wrong information after using them (Nagaraya, 1894);

- Sometimes the information obtained by senses is not enough to make the right decision, but human brain will still make a decision based on it. These decisions are wrong in most cases. As an example: sometimes a hunter may shoot another hunter owing to a lack of information. Human senses are too weak to recognize everything in such a difficult system as forest (Teichert, Ferrera, & Grinband, 2012);

- In addition, human senses may get wrong information under the influence of optical illusions and other physical phenomena. Every mirage is such an example. Human may see a picture of non-existent objects because of the strength of anomaly light refraction during high temperatures.

The main factors, which increase the accuracy of perceived data, are:

- Parity of nasal, aural and visual sensors. With the help of parity, these sensors can receive twice more information and add special features such as improved registering of different objects in space, their movement and space in general;

- Sensory regulation, which directs at increasing the productivity of four sensors and their efficiency when the fifth one is not working;

- The reaction speed of human nervous system, which is rather fast to react operatively during the registration of space.

Memory is an important factor, which cooperates with sensory perceptions. Human brain perceives and saves information it gets from sense organs. According to that, human brain does not need to analyze sensory information each time it receives it; it is enough to receive it once due to memory. It helps brain to react optimally without full analysis of each situation. Of course, it may be a disadvantage in some cases, which were specified before in this research. However, this approach of work with sensory information usually helps to make decisions on reflexes and actions, which give an opportunity not to attract the human consciousness. It also helps to make the same decisions in a specific situation. In addition, human does not need to observe the environment and an object each time. It is possible to give a fire as an example: if a human tries to touch it once, he/she will not do it again with a high probability to understand that it is still hot. The important fact is that a human kind would not be able to exist for such a long period just analyzing every sensory datum because of weak reaction to every dangerous factor. In general, human would have to analyze factors and produce appropriate reactions each time, and that would make a chance to survive catastrophically miserable.

In conclusion, it is possible to say that sensory perceptions is a great natural gift to every human. Their reaction speed gives amazing possibilities to make quick and correct decisions and extend our knowledge about the world. However, they also have some minuses just as every system.