Sensation and Perception Writing Assignment
Sensation and Perception are essential to normal human functioning. Without the constant interaction between body and mind, much of our world becomes confusing, incoherent, or even non-existent. In fact, several commonly occurring disabilities are nothing more than a problem involving sensation, perception, or communication between the two. For example, several learning disabilities are the result of our brains grouping information incorrectly, ignoring specific stimuli, or having trouble integrating two or more sensations. By knowing more about both sensation and perception, psychologists can better understand what may be happening with some types of disabilities or limitations. Your job is to demonstrate your understanding of sensation and perception processes by discussing how the same limitation can occur because of
different causes.
First, chose a human sensory disability or malfunctions that is interesting to you or that you have personal experience with. This could be anything including the bizarre (phantom limbs, auditory hallucinations, etc), the commonly occurring (deafness, autism, etc.), or the incredibly
rare (prosopagnosia, loss of vestibular sense, etc.). The possibilities are staggering so do not rely on my examples for your topic.
Describe the behavioral and mental outcomes that accompany the sensory issues you read about. Imagine and describe what your daily routine would look like. Also, explain at least two different potential causes for the disability. For example, blindness could be either sensation based or perception based so you would explain how both of those could occur and where the problem would be. If necessary, explain how the different causes would relate to different behaviors, mental processes, or perceptions. Finally, explain how those types of sensation or perception problems could be fixed (assuming the technology exists).
Be sure to be descriptive in your writing and be careful to not omit necessary information. Think seriously about your topic and try to imagine yourself experiencing these difficulties. After completing the first section, conclude by answering these questions: 1) if you had to lose one of your senses, which would you choose? 2) Why would you choose that one? 3) Which of your senses are you least willing to lose? 4) Why is that one so important to you?
Your assignment should be typed in APA format. Please use your book as a reference about the sensory/perceptual information information.