The brain experiences and gathers information about the world through five different senses. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching are the different ways people gather information about their surroundings. The information that is gathered is sent to the brain which uses the data to formulate ideas, opinions, and assess the situation. Sensory receptors are neurons that are able to react to stimuli through the nervous system. The ability to be aware of this stimuli is known as sensation and perception allows people to interpret what the stimuli means. For example sensation would be someone being aware of noise coming from a TV, but perception might tell them that the volume on the TV is too loud or quiet (Sweeney 100). Everyone perceives stimuli differently and there is no right or wrong way to perceive them. Since everyone interprets stimuli differently there is no way to tell which interpretation accurately represents reality (Sweeney 103). Edgar Allen Poe might have been defining the role of perception when he wrote, "all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" (qtd. in Sweeney). As the brain processes information, it is able to fit different perceptions into patterns. For example, when someone sees a basketball their brain processes the basketball 's shape, color, texture, height, and other details. The brain would then conclude that this person is looking at a basketball (Sweeney 103). The brain is able to remember the details of different sounds, sights, and tastes and memorize their aspects. This is how people are able to see or hear something and know exactly what it is. A person 's sense of sight is able to detect millions of bits of information in less than a second. A person 's eyes are able to detect wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers. This spectrum is known as visible light and strikes the retina in the back of the
The brain experiences and gathers information about the world through five different senses. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching are the different ways people gather information about their surroundings. The information that is gathered is sent to the brain which uses the data to formulate ideas, opinions, and assess the situation. Sensory receptors are neurons that are able to react to stimuli through the nervous system. The ability to be aware of this stimuli is known as sensation and perception allows people to interpret what the stimuli means. For example sensation would be someone being aware of noise coming from a TV, but perception might tell them that the volume on the TV is too loud or quiet (Sweeney 100). Everyone perceives stimuli differently and there is no right or wrong way to perceive them. Since everyone interprets stimuli differently there is no way to tell which interpretation accurately represents reality (Sweeney 103). Edgar Allen Poe might have been defining the role of perception when he wrote, "all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" (qtd. in Sweeney). As the brain processes information, it is able to fit different perceptions into patterns. For example, when someone sees a basketball their brain processes the basketball 's shape, color, texture, height, and other details. The brain would then conclude that this person is looking at a basketball (Sweeney 103). The brain is able to remember the details of different sounds, sights, and tastes and memorize their aspects. This is how people are able to see or hear something and know exactly what it is. A person 's sense of sight is able to detect millions of bits of information in less than a second. A person 's eyes are able to detect wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers. This spectrum is known as visible light and strikes the retina in the back of the