Our perceptions are affected by our past experiences

735 Words3 Pages
In psychology and the cognitive sciences, sensation is the process of converting of energy from the environment into neural energy. Sensation is the process which our sense organs receive stimulus from the environment. Whereas perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory stimulus.( Mullins 1998) That is, perception is the process which an individual selects stimuli, organizes information about those stimuli, and interprets the information. In this essay, I will illustrate how personal experiences affected people’s perceptions. Perceptions are affected by all the events in your life. The past has a tremendous impact on what people perceive. Every single person has a unique perception .People’s thinking are depends on those experiences as well. So perception is always experiential. A person who has experiencing bitten by a dog would always think that dogs are fear. Whenever he sees a dog, he would show his fear. While one who has not experiencing bitten by a dog, would not have this perception. Perception is the process of making sense out of an experience as well as the imputing of meaning to experience (Burgoon 1994). Our past experiences play a vital role in perception. Learning from previous experiences has a critical effect through out all the stages of the perceptual process. It will affect the stimulus perceived in the first instance, and then the ways in which that stimulus is ChanYuPingQueencie-PSYCA124F P.3 understood and processed and finally respond. People respond to those stimulus because of former experiences and, pick out what will be perceived. Past experiences often combine one or a few senses, and are closely associated with our everyday life. Past experience with positive or negative reinforcement in similar situations may have generated strong
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