What is Perception ? Perception is the ability to see, hear and become aware of something through your 5 senses. The 5 Senses: Taste - When you are at the grocery store, they have taste testing for a reason. The smell of fish could be terrible but once you taste it and like it, you’re more likely to buy it. Sight - Sight impacts our perception by letting us know we like a picture of a sunny beach, chair, and volleyball rather than a dark, secluded alley behind a bar. Touch - Touch impacts our perception by letting us know to not touch cactus, simply. Smell - Smell impacts our perception by making us aware that there is a delicious roast beef cooking 2 blocks down the road at a festival. Hear - Hearing impacts our perception simply because we hear commands and questions daily. If we can not interpret what we hear, we can not adequately respond. Now how do we interpet these senses? Critical thinking plays a huge factor in perceiving our 5 senses.

Can you decide what these pictures are? Lion? Or Mouse?

1.Taste could also have an impending factor on comfort level. “Eating home country food offered emotional and physical sustenance; students felt comforted by familiar taste” (Brown, L., Edwards, J., & Hartwell, H. 2010). 2. Sight is simply “the ability to see” (The Free Dictionary,2014).

3. Touch is the sense that allows us to “test” the water in the pool when we are about to jump in to see whether it is too cold or just right. 4. Smell is the sense that can help you know when your meal is ready, or burned.

5. Hearing is the last of the 5 senses. Hearing allows us to hear fire alarms, hear when someone is calling our names, listen to direction, and/or listen to music. “Deaf” is the term used for a person who is unable to hear. “A 39-year-old Englishwoman was overcome with emotion after being able to hear for the first time thanks to modern medical technology (Held, 2014).

HOW DOES PERCEPTION EFFECT CRITICAL THINKING? Selection: Depending on the individual and the environmental factors that are in play such as smell, sight or touch we tend to attach to one particular stimuli. That is our selection. Organization: Once you have decided the one particular stimuli your brain starts to interpret the stimuli you’re receiving. Interpretation: After your brain starts to register the stimuli your can then fully appreciate and react to the stimuli.

Brown, L., Edwards, J., & Hartwell, H. (2010). A taste of the unfamiliar. Understanding the meanings attached to food by international postgraduate students in England. Appetite, 54(1), doi: /j.appet retrieved from: f6fa26ffcacc%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4202&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d% 3d#db=a9h&AN= The Free Dictionary. (2014). By Farlex. Definition of “Sight”. Retrieved From: Kevin S. Held, KSDK. (March 28,2014). Deaf Woman Gets Emotional After Being Able to Hear For the First Time. Retrieved From: after-being-able-to-hear-for-first-time/ / after-being-able-to-hear-for-first-time/ /