Jamie Weber Walter Psychology 101 18 September 2013 Sensation and Perception Imagine you walk into your

house, and an aroma of fresh apple cobbler quickly fills your nostrils. Then you become hungry, and ask your mom how much longer it has to bake. You just experienced sensation and perception. Sensation is the actual physical reception of stimuli, which is neurobiological. Perception is the process of integrating, organizing and interpreting sensations, which is cognitive. Sensation occurs when energy waves from a source stimulate receptor cells on one of the five senses (Hockenbury, 2014). After sensation stimulates these receptor cells, it sends nerve signals to the brain, also called transduction. When they reach the brain, perception takes place, allowing us to understand what sensation allowed us to experience. Scientists have not drawn conclusions on precisely when sensation ends and perception begins, and that is why it can be referred to as a single process. Sensation and perception allow us to live a more vivid and bright life. There are many scenarios you can use to demonstrate the process of sensation and perception. The first scenario is a person painfully and unexpectedly stubbing their toe. The stub of the toe triggers the withdrawal reflex, and pain nociceptors. A-Delta fibers, the short lived pain nociceptors, send pain signals to your spinal cord and brain, which allows your brain to realize that you just stubbed your toe. Also by not focusing to your surrounding environments background, you were unable to avoid the stub. The second scenario is being tackled aggressively in a casual football game with friends. As soon as the hit occurs, nociceptors from

the region of pain send A-Delta fibers to your brain and spinal cord. But because you were not expecting the hit, C fibers are also sent to the limbic system to tell the body that it will require healing. Your brain interprets this as an unexpected hit, and again you werent paying attention to your background to see your friend coming. The third scenario is being tackled aggressively in a football playoff game. Your body is expecting to be hit, considering youve been hit already. According to the gate-control theory of pain, your body is closing the gate of pain, due to adaptation of pain. Endorphins are also rushing through your body, which is a natural painkiller. Due to C-Fiber nociceptors sent to the limbic system of your brain, you will feel sore tomorrow. Perception of real movement is also involved, considering you probably saw the player coming at you. The fourth scenario is getting punched unexpectedly while out with friends (drinking, but not intoxicated). Alcohol is a natural anti-depressant, so you are probably feeling happy. Because youre having a good time, your brain does not expect your friend to punch you. Again, A-Delta and C Fibers are sent to the brain, spinal cord, and limbic system, and your brain interprets that youve been hit. C-Fibers are causing the sore jaw pain you experience the next day. The final scenario is being in a fight while intoxicated. Because youre intoxicated, your brain is having problems precepting what signals your sensations are trying to send. But you are also in a fight, so youre brain can predict that youre going to be hit. Pain nociceptors, both ADelta and C fibers, are sent to your brain and spinal cord. Endorphins and enkephalins are being produced, resulting in you barely feeling any pain from the hit. The C Fibers will help remind you in the morning that you had one too many drink and you didnt pick a fight with someone your own size. All of these scenarios show the relationship of pain sensation and perception. The sensation of pain is different in each of these scenarios in the case that some your brain was expecting, in others you were not. They also occur on different parts on the body, and

some parts of the body are more sensitive to pain than others. Yet these cases were the same, as they all required nociceptors to be sent to the brain and spinal cord, and they all resulted in pain. The perception of pain is also different in each of these scenarios. Some scenarios had more CFibers sent, so the brain was organizing the aftereffect of the pain differently. Also, a few scenarios were less painful due to the fact that they had adapted to the pain, such as the playoff football game. All scenarios interpret pain, and they were focused more on a single object rather than the background, and in most cases could not see the pain coming. Sensation influences perception in these scenarios by sending nociceptors to the spinal cord and brain, allowing the pain to be perceptive. Although intimately related, sensation and perception play two complementary but different roles in how we interpret our world (Heffner, 2011). Remember that sensation and perception is one single process, and we experience it many times on daily basis.

Reference Paper Heffner, Christopher L. "Sensation and Perception in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online." Sensation and Perception in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online. N.p., 29 Nov. 2011 Web. 19 Sept. 2013. http://allpsych.com/psychology101/sensation_perception.html Hockenbury & Hockenbury (2014). Discovering psychology, 6th edition. New York, New York: Worth Publishers.