Blog Post #7

Sensation is how our senses interact with our brains. Our five sense--sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing--all allow us to sense the world around us. Perception is the way we perceive our environment. It is how we organize the information our senses provide us with.

The most interesting thing I learned in this chapter was about Heather Sellers. Sellers had an issue with her perception and was unable to recognize people's faces. She wrote a book entitled Face First that tells about a bunch of awkward moments her inability to recognize faces caused. I thought this whole story was really interesting because I think it would really suck to not be able to recognize faces. A person would have to be reintroduced to someone every time they met. You wouldn't be able to distinguish among friends, family, and strangers. I would hate to have a perception disorder like this. This doesn't really change how I look at life. There's really no way to apply this to my everyday life, except that it makes me realize how lucky I am not to have any weird disorders like this.

I read the article called "Seven Ways Music Influences Mood." This article was about a study done on how music affects our moods. They described 7 ways people use music to improve how they feel: 1) Entertainment-providing stimulation, 2) Revival-to wake up in the morning or calm down in the evening, 3) Strong sensation-thrilling feeling of musical performers, 4) Diversion-provides a distraction from poor thoughts, 5) Discharge-release of emotions, 6) Mental work-takes us to another time and place in the past, and 7) Solace-reminds us of a person we have lost touch with. I found this article interesting because I listen to music almost non-stop throughout the day. I especially like the part about mental work and solace because this is totally true for me. When I hear an old song, it reminds me of the day that I first heard it and the people I was with. Certain songs also remind me of certain people, especially ones I don't talk to that much anymore. This doesn't change how I think about things because I already thought about music this way. I already use this in my everyday life.