Psychology is a science that studies various mental processes, phenomena and states. Cognitive mental processes include sensations, representations, perception, imagination, speech, thinking, memorization, reproduction, preservation, etc. In this article, we will dwell on such a cognitive mental process as sensation. Its types are diverse, and are classified by different scientists according to different criteria. We will review the work of some of them.
What are sensations?
They are a reflection of the individual properties of phenomena and objects that currently affect certain sense organs. Feelings have their own characteristics: they are immediate and momentary, and in order for them to arise, an impact is necessary. For example, a person touches an object, tastes it by putting something on the tongue, sniffs, bringing it to the nostrils. Such direct influence is called contact. It irritates certain receptor cells that are sensitive to that oranother irritant. This means that the psychological processes “sensation” and “irritation” are closely interconnected with each other, while the second is a physiological process during which excitation occurs in the nerve cells of the body. It is transmitted along special nerve fibers, which are called afferent, to the corresponding part of the brain, where the process turns from physiological into mental, and the individual feels one or another property of an object or phenomenon.
Sensitization and synesthesia
Scientists have found that the human senses are able to change their characteristics to adapt to changing environmental conditions. In this context, I would like to draw attention to such a concept as sensitization. This is an increase in sensitivity as a result of the occurrence of other stimuli or as a result of the interaction of several sensations. So, quite often under the influence of one stimulus there are sensations typical of another stimulus. Experts believe that such phenomena are associated with synesthesia. This concept is translated from Greek as “simultaneous sensation” or “joint feeling”. It is a mental state during which the stimulus acts on one or another sense organ and, regardless of the will of the person, can cause not only the type of sensation corresponding to this organ, but also an additional one, which is characteristic of another sense organ. So, for example, there is a theory, tested by experiments, according to which color combinations have an effect on sensitivity totemperatures: green and blue are usually called cold tones (looking at them, a person may experience a feeling of coolness), but the yellow-orange combination, on the contrary, causes a feeling of warmth. Interior designers always take this into account when drawing up a design project.
Classification criteria
Since a person has a great variety of sensations, psychologists decided to divide them into several groups. They are quite roomy, but all correspond to one or another sign. It is on them that the classification of types of sensations is carried out. So, the criteria are:
- location of receptors;
- presence or absence of direct contacts between the receptor and the stimulus that causes this or that sensation;
- time of its occurrence in the profession of evolution;
- stimulus modality.
Systematization of sensations according to Ch. Sherrington
This English scientist believes that the main types of sensations in psychology are interoreceptive (organic), proprioceptive and exteroceptive. The former signal those states that occur in a living organism, for example, sickness, thirst, hunger, etc. They are among the least conscious and most diffuse forms of sensations, and almost always remain close to emotional states in consciousness. The latter are located in the muscles and tendons, for example, on the walls of the stomach. They help the brain to receive information about the position of body parts and their movements, that is, they constitute an afferentbasis of human movement. Therefore, this type of sensation plays the most important role in the regulation of movements. These include static sensation, that is, balance, and kinesthetic or motor sensation. Receptors of this sensitivity are called Paccini bodies. But exteroceptive types of sensations occur when external stimuli act on receptors located in the upper layers of the skin. And they, in turn, can be very diverse.
Head sensitivity types
According to the theory of this eminent British neurologist, there are only two types of sensitivity: protopathic and epicritical. The first is simpler, even primitive and affective. This group includes organic feelings, that is, hunger, thirst, etc. But epicritical - it is more subtly differentiating, rational. It includes the main types of sensations: sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste.
Other classes of sensations
In psychology, distant and contact classes of sensations are also distinguished. The former include visual and auditory, and visual transmit 85 percent of the information about the world around us. Contact, of course, are tactile, olfactory and gustatory. Based on the foregoing, it can be argued that each type of sensation gives us specific information about a particular phenomenon or object inside or around us. However, if we proceed to a deeper study of them, we can understand that they are all united by something natural.
Generalspecifications
Psychologists believe that all, and not just the basic types of sensations, have common patterns. These include the so-called "thresholds of sensations". Otherwise, they are called levels of sensitivity, which, in turn, is the ability to recognize the quality and magnitude of the stimulus. "Sensation threshold" is a psychological relationship between the intensity of sensation and the strength of the stimulus. These thresholds are very important for all kinds of human sensations.
Sensitivity measure
There are several degrees of sensations, which means thresholds. The lower absolute threshold is the minimum value of the stimulus that causes a slight, barely noticeable sensation, and the largest value of the stimulus, respectively, is called the upper threshold of sensitivity in psychology. To make it clear: beyond this threshold, the light as an irritant blinds, and it is no longer possible to look at it. The importance of thresholds lies in the fact that they help people to capture even minor changes in the parameters of the internal and external environment, such as vibration strength, light level, increase or decrease in sound intensity, severity level, and so on. Regardless of the types of sensation and perception, sensitivity thresholds are individual for each person. What is the reason for their size? It is believed that the nature of a person's work activity, his profession, interests, motives, degree of fitness, both physical and intellectual, have the greatest influence on increasing the degree of sensitivity.
Perception
It is generally accepted thatsensation is closely interconnected with another, more complexly organized psychological process - perception. What does it represent? Perception is a holistic reflection of phenomena and objects, phenomena of the world around us when they act (directly) at the moment on the senses and cause various types of sensations. Perception is divided into the following types: auditory, tactile, visual, olfactory, gustatory and motor (kinesthetic).
Relationship between perception and degree of sensitivity
If you remember, in the chapter on sensitivity measures, we talked about the fact that, passing through the absolute upper threshold, the light can blind or, for example, you can become deaf from an excessively loud sound. Is it related to the process of perception? Of course, yes, but not everything is unambiguous here, since this is not always objective, and the intensity of this or that stimulus is not soberly assessed in all cases. With a sharp physical or emotional overwork, susceptibility, regardless of the strength of the stimulus, may increase, and then a person will experience acute irritation regarding the most ordinary things. Under the same circumstances, there may also be a decrease in perception - hypostasia, the acute form of which are hallucinations.
Illusions and hallucinations
Sometimes some images appear in the mind of a person, despite the fact that there are no external stimuli that cause them. These imaginary perceptions are calledhallucinations. However, they must be distinguished from illusions, which, in fact, are erroneous ideas about really existing things and phenomena. Acute irritation, hallucinations and illusions are conditions that can accompany the process of sensations. The types of sense organs involved in it are not so important. It can be sight, smell, hearing, etc.
The concept of “sensation”: types, properties and physiological basis
Let's give the definition of this concept again. Sensation is a cognitive mental process of reflecting those properties of reality that directly affect a person at a certain moment. The physiological basis of sensation is analyzers - channels through which a person receives information about the world around him. They consist of three parts:
- Nerve endings, otherwise known as receptors.
- Nerve pathways that carry nerve signals to the brain.
- The central cortical sections of the analyzers, in which the processing of signals from the receptors takes place.
The effectiveness of this complex process largely depends on the properties of the types of sensations, and these include the intensity, duration, latency and aftereffect of the sensation.
Intermodal Feelings
There are sensations that are not associated with a specific modality, so they are usually called intermodal. This is vibrational sensitivity, which involves both tactile-motor and auditoryFeel. According to the well-known psychologist L. E. Komendantov, tactile-vibrational sensitivity is one of the forms of sound perception. In the lives of deaf and deaf-blind people, such sensitivity plays a big role. They can feel the approach of a truck minutes before it is visible.
