PSYC 110N Week 2 Assignment: How We Perceive the World Around Us

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Week 2 Assignment: How We Perceive The World Around Us Option 2: Hearing Chamberlain University College of Nursing PSYCH110N- Psychology Week 2 Assignment: How We Perc ... eive The World Around Us Option 2: Hearing Sound is the movement of vibrations and waves which move air continually through these patterns into the outer ear traveling into the auditory canal, which is a passageway that leads directly to the eardrum. During this experience, I placed my noise-cancelling headphones in to mimic not being able to hear anything. While I was not able to hear, I focused on other senses, like my sight and taste. For example, I did this experience while cooking dinner. I had a casserole in the oven with a timer on, but of course, I could not hear the timer so I had to be sure to use my sight to check on the timing and check the casserole itself to be sure it was thoroughly cooked. Another example of a sense I had to use during this experience was taste. When eating this meal I could not hear if my boyfriend liked the meal, so I had to taste it for myself to see if it tasted good and was cooked properly. I realized just how much I count on using those other senses while I could not hear. Normally, I would listen for the timer while doing other activities when cooking and I would listen for my boyfriend to let me know if the food tasted properly. He is usually the first taste tester in our house. During this experience, I picked up on a couple of things I would not normally with being able to hear. I realized I needed to be more attentive with my vision in terms of looking at my dogs to see if they were sitting by the front door to tell me they need to go outside. Usually, they would sit there and bark, but since I could not hear the bark, I needed to be conscious of checking the door. Another example was checking my phone more often for missed calls and text messages, while normally I would have my ringer on to listen for, when not able to hear I was conscious of checking it more often. Facione, P.A. & Gittens (2016) explains how habituation is the decrease in response to the stimulus that occurs after repeated presentations of the same stimulus. During this experience, I noticed how habituation was present during this process. It became a lot easier for me to adjust to my habitat of not being able to hear. I found myself looking for more ways to use my other senses. Since I consistently could not hear, I eventually stopped focusing on that aspect and focused on methods I could use. Sensory adaption is an adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to unchanging stimuli (Facione, P. A., & Gittens, C. A., 2016). For example, toward the end, I heavily focused on using my vision and taste when I needed to check if my dinner was cooked correctly. Overall, I found this experience to be very compelling and an eye- opener. Although it was short, in that time I faced challenges that put me in a position to reassess and utilize different strategies in order to do what I needed to do. If one of my senses was permanently lost, my perception would most definitely change. I think life would become a lot more difficult and it would take a huge adjustment period to feel somewhat normal if I could even feel that again. I do find it fascinating how if you do lose a sense, your brain takes over and strengthens your other senses. So while I may be losing out on one, the others could tremendously improve which I would look at as a silver lining at the end of the day. The challenges I could see facing when losing a sense would be difficulty performing day-to-day tasks, physical activity would be extremely difficult to perform, and most likely a very negative toll on my mental health. Mental health is very important to me to keep in check, and I feel this would really affect me badly. This experience made me open my eyes a bit more to realize just how lucky I am to have all my senses available. Not everyone is that lucky and deals with a tremendous number of complications. My perception of how I view the world, other people, and appreciate life would all change. We easily take life for granted on the daily basis, when in an instant anything could happen, and things change. This experience made me be more appreciative of what my life is like today and how I view others as well. You never know what other people are going through so I choose to always remain kind. References Facione, P. A., & Gittens, C. A. (2016). Think critically (3rd ed.). Pearson. [Show More]

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