Properties of sensations

Sensations are the simplest mental cognitive process. All of them can be divided into three types: interoceptive, proprioceptive and exteroceptive. The first group includes sensations arising from impulses that reach us from the inner environment of the human body; To the second - the reflection of information about the finding of a body in space, providing regulation and correction of motion; To the third group - the sensations that appear due to signals from the outside world, creating a base for conscious actions and human behavior. Different species characterize certain properties of sensations, but we'll talk about this below.

The group of interoceptive sensations brings to mind information about the internal processes taking place in the human body. This species is the most ancient and it is considered to be less conscious than others.

Proprioceptive sensations are reflected information about the location of the human body in space. They play a major role in the regulation of movement. Peripheral receptors of proprioceptive sensitivity are found in joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments. The excitement that occurs in these receptors refers to the sensations that occur when the muscles are strained and relaxed and the joints change. This group includes a special kind of sensitivity, which is called "sense of balance." Their receptors are located in the inner ear and are associated with the vestibular apparatus.

The third, the most common group are the sensations of exteroceptive, which convey to the human body various information emanating from the outside world. There are distant and contact sensations. Contact may be caused by effects directly attached to the surface of the body or the sensory organ. Examples of contact sensations are touch, taste. Distant are caused by an irritant acting at the receptors of the analyzers at a distance. These include smell, hearing and sight.

Types of sensations

Most known since Aristotle's time are such types as auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile and taste. But a person has specific types of sensations that give information about acceleration, vibration, and time. Some people do not feel certain types of energy at the level of consciousness (for example, radiation, ultraviolet and infrared radiation, ultrasound, infrasound, etc.). Different species can interact with each other.

Properties of sensations

Types of sensations have differences in the sources that generate them, and other differences. They have not only specific features, but also the general properties of sensations: quality, intensity, duration.

Intensity is a characteristic determined by the strength of the stimulus and the state of the receptor.

Quality is a feature that distinguishes it from other forms of sensation and changes within this kind of sensations.

Duration is a time characteristic and determines the time of action of the stimulus and its intensity.

When the stimulus acts on the receptors of the sense organs, sensation can arise not immediately, but after a while. This period is called latent, which in different types of sensations is different.

These are the properties of sensations that we have considered in this article.

So, we found out that sensation is a mental cognitive process that consists in reflecting the properties of objects and internal states of the organism when stimuli are applied to the receptors of the sense organs. The functions of sensations are to inform the central nervous system of a person quickly and in a timely manner about the state of the internal and external environment.