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Sensory Perceptions

Victoria Shelton

Strayer University

PHI 210

Joel Goldstein

January 25, 2013

Sensory Perceptions
Reasons for believing in the accuracy of sensory information
What is sensory perception? Sensory perception is the events or occurrences in the environment a person takes in, processes and understands through their five senses. Three reasons for believing in the accuracy or inaccuracy of sensory information is perception, interpretation, and knowledge. In the words of Jacques Barzun, “In ordinary speech the words perception and sensation tend to be used interchangeably, but the psychologist distinguishes. Sensations are the items of consciousness—a color, a weight, a texture—that we tend to think of as simple and single. Perceptions are complex affairs that embrace sensation together with other, associated or revived contents of the mind, including emotions (Barzun, 1907).”
Perception is the organization, identification and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment (2003). This is as a result of organizing and interpreting information that is gained from our five senses which we use on a daily basis. Our senses can be helpful to us in many ways by providing our brains with the right information, or harmful by making our minds play tricks on us. The accuracy of this information that is taken in varies because of many different reasons. Sensory information is gained as first-hand information from our senses, what we see with our eyes in our environment is sent to the brain (Girodo, 1999), the brain than gives us an explanation or understanding of what we just saw. This means what we saw with our eyes should be seen as the truth. Also as an example, when we smell smoke we automatically know there is something burning or on fire. Our sense of smell than sends a message to

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