Our Senses Work Together
How we use our senses to interpret our surroundings
Walking to the mailbox!
Most of us take for granted simple tasks such as walking across the road to retrieve our mail or visit a neighbor. In Upstate NY the weather is ever changing creating some obstacles depending on the year.
The first thing I do before this task is use my sense of vision to look outside. Is it raining, snowing, windy or sunny? Then I use my tactile sense to prepare myself with the proper shoes and clothing for the short walk. After I am outdoors and approaching the road my vision as well as my auditory senses are tuned to listen for or see oncoming traffic. Although my sense of smell is not important for this task it is collecting information just the same. It may be picking up the scent of fresh cut grass or autumn leaves.
If we were to lose one of these senses the task would be more difficult. If our sense of sight was lost we would have to use other senses to make up the information lost from losing this sense. If we were unable to see what the weather was like we may have to step outside and use our tactile sense instead or maybe our auditory sense to listen to a weather update. Loss of this sense would also make crossing the street a little more difficult but it would still be possible to cross safely by listening for traffic. Finding the mailbox would probably be the hardest step in this task without sight. This challenge could be overcome with a walking stick or help from someone else.
The first thing I do before this task is use my sense of vision to look outside. Is it raining, snowing, windy or sunny? Then I use my tactile sense to prepare myself with the proper shoes and clothing for the short walk. After I am outdoors and approaching the road my vision as well as my auditory senses are tuned to listen for or see oncoming traffic. Although my sense of smell is not important for this task it is collecting information just the same. It may be picking up the scent of fresh cut grass or autumn leaves.
If we were to lose one of these senses the task would be more difficult. If our sense of sight was lost we would have to use other senses to make up the information lost from losing this sense. If we were unable to see what the weather was like we may have to step outside and use our tactile sense instead or maybe our auditory sense to listen to a weather update. Loss of this sense would also make crossing the street a little more difficult but it would still be possible to cross safely by listening for traffic. Finding the mailbox would probably be the hardest step in this task without sight. This challenge could be overcome with a walking stick or help from someone else.
How would perception change?
Losing just one of our senses can influence perception in many ways. Not being able to see would make the short walk a little dangerous as well as. Our brains acquire information through regularities in our environment. They are either physical regularities and or semantic regularities. Semantic regularities occur when we can envision or imagine scenes or objects without them being right in front of us (Goldstein, 2014). So if we had our vision for a period of time or it was only lost temporarily, we may be able to envision the environment and path to the mailbox without actually having this sense. Even with this sort of map in our mind, our other senses would kick into overdrive to make up for the loss of this sense.