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Sensation and Perception: a Relationship

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By vy921
Words 668
Pages 3
“Sensation and Perception: A Relationship” Essay #1

Sensation and perception are both cognitive functions that occur in our everyday lives. Sensation, as defined by William James (2010), is “becoming aware of the bare immediate natures”, in which “several objects are distinguished” (p. 6). On the other hand, perception is defined as “the consciousness of particular material things present to sense” (James, 2010, p. 57). The question that exists is whether one cognitive function can exist without the other and vice versa. I believe that both cognitive functions need each other in order to efficiently make knowledge and information. In order to answer the question, the relationship between sensation and perception needs to be well-defined. Sensation is “detecting stimuli from the body or environment [and] the immediate experience of basic properties of an object or event that occurs when a sensory receptor is stimulated” (“Sensation & Perception”, n.d.) whereas perception is the “act of organizing and interpreting sensory input as signaling a particular object or event” (“Sensation & Perception”, n.d.). Basically, stimuli must be received by the sense receptors first before being processed and perceived as meaningful data. The definition of “meaningful data” is subjective since what one person considers “meaningful” may not be to another person; individuals perceive things differently from one another. Can sense exist without perception? I believe that sensation can exist without perception since our brains are constantly interacting with and receiving stimuli from our bodies and the external environment; however, in order to turn it into data that is useful to us, perception is needed. For example, sound waves can be received through our sensory receptors as sound, but if we cannot perceive it, then we would not be able to determine what the sound

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