Our five senses–sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell–seem to operate independently, as five distinct modes of perceiving the world. In reality, however, they collaborate closely to enable the mind to better understand its surroundings. We can become aware of this collaboration under special circumstances. Show
In some cases, a sense may covertly influence the one we think is dominant. When visual information clashes with that from sound, sensory crosstalk can cause what we see to alter what we hear. When one sense drops out, another can pick up the slack. For instance, people who are blind can train their hearing to play double duty. Those who are both blind and deaf can make touch step in—to say, help them interpret speech. For a few individuals with a condition called synesthesia, the senses collide dramatically to form a kaleidoscope world in which chicken tastes like triangles, a symphony smells of baked bread or words bask in a halo of red, green or purple. (For more on how the senses can cross each other and into unusual territory, see “Edges of Perception,” by Ariel Bleicher, Scientific American Mind, March/April 2012.) Our senses must also regularly meet and greet in the brain to provide accurate impressions of the world. Our ability to perceive the emotions of others relies on combinations of cues from sounds, sights and even smells (see “I Know How You Feel,” by Janina Seubert and Christina Regenbogen, Scientific American Mind, March/April 2012). Perceptual systems, particularly smell, connect with memory and emotion centers to enable sensory cues to trigger feelings and recollections, and to be incorporated within them (see “Smells Like Old Times” by Maria Konnikova Scientific American Mind, March/April 2012). But the crosswiring of the senses themselves provides some of the most fantastic fodder for illusions, inventions and just plain art. Here are a few of the best examples of the complex interactions – and extraordinary feats – of our cross-wired senses. Seeing What You Hear
Beep Baseball
Calling What You See
Let Your Fingers Do The Hearing If taught early in development, the Tadoma Method can help a deafblind child learn to speak as well as to understand others. Those who lose their sight and hearing later in life can use it to read lips. But because the method is extremely difficult and time consuming to learn, by the 1950s it began to lose ground to American Sign Language as the dominant teaching method. In ASL, the deafblind place their hands over another signer’s hands and follow the motions with their fingers—which is easier because the movements are far less subtle. Today, only about 50 people in the world still use of the Tadoma Method. Watch some of them at work in this clip.
Do You Have Synesthesia? Take This Test
A World In Which Senses Fuse
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)Lena Groeger is a graduate student in New York University's Science Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Before moving to New York she worked as a graphic designer for Brown University Health Education, and before that studied philosophy (the obvious choice for a science journalist). You can check out her Web site, follow her on Twitter, and find more of her writing on Scienceline. Follow Lena Groeger on Twitter What refers to the process of gathering information about the world through our senses?The process of obtaining information by using senses is called observation.
How do we process the information we receive from our environment quizlet?We process information through sensing them by utilizing our 5 senses, touch, smell, hear, taste, and sight. We begin this process with a mixture of all these senses, then, this information is received and sent to our brain in which processing of this information begins.
What do we call the process of receiving organizing and giving meaning to stimuli detected by one of our five senses quizlet?Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting this information, enabling recognition of meaningful events.
Which term refers to the manner in which people group things together it is one of the basic mental processes?Thinking about others in terms of their group memberships is known as social categorization —the natural cognitive process by which we place individuals into social groups.
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