The process of obtaining information using your senses is called sensory perception or more simply observation. This involves detecting stimuli from the environment through sensory organs such as the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin, which correspond to the senses of vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch respectively
. The process generally includes several steps:
- Reception of stimuli: Sensory organs receive external stimuli (e.g., light, sound waves, chemical molecules).
- Sensory transduction: The physical stimuli are converted into electrical signals by sensory receptors.
- Sensory processing: These electrical signals travel via neurons to specific brain areas where they are analyzed.
- Sensory integration: The brain combines inputs from different senses to form a coherent perception.
- Cognitive interpretation: The brain assigns meaning to the sensory information based on prior knowledge, attention, and memory
In summary, sensory perception is how living beings receive, organize, and interpret sensory information from their surroundings to understand and respond to the environment. When this process is used specifically to gather information about the world through the senses, it is often referred to as observation
