Model for Perception
Most people assume everyone sees the world the same way. This can be expected because people are not able to compare what they see to what someone else sees (using language to describe visuals is inherently biased). This widely accepted assumption, however, is inaccurate. There is evidence that each person's perception of the world is different- if only in minor ways. For example, a perception discrepancy can be found when comparing how people suffering from anorexia nervosa see their bodies and how other people see the anorexics' bodies. Even though this distortion is an extreme perception difference that can actually be documented (most perception differences can not even be verbalized), analyzing the distorted body phenomenon can be useful. It can help explain the concept of perception by answering three key questions: 1) what does a different perception entails mentally, 2) what provokes different perceptions to occur, and 3) how does this all fit together on a neurological level. To come to these conclusions with this example, perception must first be defined on a neurological level to use as background information. Next, data from studies of anorexics should be used to learn what having a different perception means on a conscious level. Then an analysis of the typical life experiences of anorectics should be performed to discern what factors led this particular group to a perception distortion. These analysis will t hen be related back to the neurobiology of perception. The result will be a model of perception differences which demonstrates why everyone sees the world differently.
Perception may not be what you think it is. Perception is not just a collection of inputs from our sensory system. I...
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The authors explain that a “fear of fatness” and desire to be thin in order to appear normal in our society can cause anorexia nervosa, where a person purposely starves themselves, losing considerable weight. This is known as visual and behavioral deviation. Bulimic people binge eat and then force themselves to vomit. They usually don’t lose an alarming amount of
The next speaker, Dr. Gottlieb investigated the hearing aspect of our senses. He investigated the interaction between our heari...
Joyce, James. “Araby”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 427 - 431.
The first, which he refers to as the “weak view” (5), is that we simply perceive with different sense modalities (e.g. touch, taste, vision, etc.). But, this view appears inadequate in the face of physiological and experiential evidence. O’Callaghan points out that neurological pathways activate in unison, and that our perception appears to us as one continuous experience, rather than subdivided into individual experiences of each different sense. (6) O’Callaghan admits that the senses often outwardly appear to be unimodal, experience does not seem broken up into different senses but appears continuous. He then goes on to support this claim with evidence from psychological
He led many expeditions into South America. Most were unsuccessful because they met many hostile tribes and he didn’t have enough men. He went back to Panama many times to ask for reinforcements. The governor of Panama gave him men and supplies in exchange for some gold. Pizarro’s partner , Diego de Almagro, went with him on many expeditions and always went back to Panama for men and supplies. The governor was becoming restless because he was not getting much gold. Almagro went to convince the governor that all was not lost and they received more reinforcements. With these men, he set sail for Peru and founded the city of Trujillo.
“Anorexia Nervosa, AN, the most visible eating disorder, is a serious psychiatric illness characterized by an inability to maintain a normal body weight or, in individuals still growing, failure to make expected increases in weight (and often height) and bone density.” (cite textbook) The behaviors and cognitions of individuals with AN adamantly defend low body weight.
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
Ingram, Courtney. "The Process of Perception." Capstone Project. eFolio Minnesota, n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. .
“Araby” tells the story of a young boy who romanticizes over his friend’s older sister. He spends a lot of time admiring the girl from a distance. When the girl finally talks to him, she reveals she cannot go to the bazaar taking place that weekend, he sees it as a chance to impress her. He tells her that he is going and will buy her something. The boy becomes overwhelmed by the opportunity to perform this chivalrous act for her, surely allowing him to win the affections of the girl. The night of the bazaar, he is forced to wait for his drunken uncle to return home to give him money to go. Unfortunately, this causes the boy to arrive at the bazaar as it is closing. Of the stalls that remained open, he visited one where the owner, and English woman, “seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty” (Joyce 89) and he knows he will not be able to buy anything for her. He decides to just go home, realizing he is “a creature driven and derided with vanity” (Joyce 90). He is angry with himself and embarrassed as he...
"Perception - Definition of Perception by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia." Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
Norris, Margot. "Blind streets and seeing houses: Araby's dim glass revisited.," Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 32, (1995) : Summer, pp. 309(10).
Pape believes that suicide terrorism is focused around democracies and occupation. After conducting his research, Pape discovered that from 1980 to 2001, records of suicide terrorism have had three main reoccurring, necessary properties: timing, nationalist goals, and target selection. Pape (2003) explains that, when it comes to timing, “nearly all suicide attacks occur in organized, coherent campaigns, not as isolated or randomly timed incidents” (347). Thus, Pape infers there is strategic reasoning behind this way of terrorizing the masses. He further states campaigns of suicide terrorism focus on gaining oversight of territory terrorists deem as their national homeland.
With each of our senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and hear), information is transmitted to the brain. Psychologists find it problematic to explain the processes in which the physical energy that is received by the sense organs can form the foundation of perceptual experience. Perception is not a direct mirroring of stimulus, but a compound messy pattern dependent on the simultaneous activity of neurons. Sensory inputs are somehow converted into perceptions of laptops, music, flowers, food, and cars; into sights, sounds, smells, taste ...
D. W. Hamlyn - author. Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Place of Publication: Sensation and Perception: A History of the Philosophy of Perception. Contributors: London. Publication Year: 1961. Page Number: iii.
An experience from everyday life that helps to work out perception and sensation is a football game. A ball could be kicked towards the goals. Two people will see the same ball going in the same direction at the same time yet one could say that the ball was a goal and the other could say that the ball went in through the goals for a point.