Sensation and Perception

   Without even realizing it, us as humans tend to take the little things in life for granted. Our senses allow us to engage in many daily activities that we do not normally think about. These senses include, taste, touch, smell, hear, and sight. Hellen Keller once wrote that, "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched-they must be felt with the heart." This quote really gets my blood flowing and my heart pumping because in reality our most gracious sense is feeling, something that you cannot touch or taste or even smell, but feel in your heart. On the subject of sensation and perception Hellen Keller is a person in a role model position for this type of subject. Why? Let me tell you. Hellen Keller had no sense of perception, she had the sensation of touch, taste, and smell. She overcame this tremendous obstacle by figuring out different ways in compensation for this disadvantage. Learning to live with three-fifths of your senses is unimaginable, but researching how Helen Keller did it makes me think that we need to appreciate the gifts we have been given. 

   Picture not being able to see the ocean waves crashing onto the shore rocks, not being able to hear crickets in the woods when your burning wood at a bonfire, or not being able to see your first child's steps, however, you would be able to smell the salty ocean breeze through your nose, and touch the sand between your toes, and taste the chocolaty marshmallow smooshed between the two crunchy graham crackers. 

   One question that stood out to me from my professor was, "if you could live without one of your senses which one would you chose?" I stopped for a second and understood what she was asking me to comprehend. Finally, answering the question in my head after a long hard thought process of 5 minutes, I chose hearing. How special this sense may be I think the curiosity of learning sign language and having the perception of other people's views on it would be just as satisfying; In my opinion. 

  Sensation is a process in which raw information from our sensory nerves is sent to our brain letting us know what we feel, see, touch, smell, or hear. Then that is when our perception senses come into play and recognizing those sensations then interprets them to engage our mind in understanding what it is exactly perceiving. Our mind works in mysterious ways and we still don't know all of how the brain functions which makes it even more miraculous. 

Sources:

"Chapter 5: Section 1: Sensation and Perception.” AllPsych, allpsych.com/psychology101/sensation_perception/. https://allpsych.com/psychology101/sensation_perception/

History.com Staff. “Helen Keller.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/helen-keller.