Describe the processes of sensation and perception and provide an example of how these processes interact

Sensation and perception are crucial for enabling us to establish contact with the outside world. The former is generally defined as the process of delivering information from the surrounding world to the body and to the brain (Myers, 2009). This process is considered to be passive because one does not have to consciously engage himself into the process of “sensing.” Generally, any discussion of sensation also necessitates a reference to the following five physical senses: taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell (Myers, 2009). Some psychologists also add the sixth sense called intuition. It is similar to instinct and can be understood as an ability to perceive something without either directly discovering it.When it comes to perception, it is defined as the active process of selecting, organizing and interpreting the information which the senses send to the brain (Myers, 2009). It is worth mentioning that individuals all have different perception, why can be explained by the fact that it is based on one’s past experiences.Importantly, sensation and perception interact. They work together because one is of little use without the other. To understand how sensation and perception “cooperate,” it is useful to briefly note how each of them operates. For sensation processes to take place, sensory organs need to absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment (Myers, 2009). Next, sensory receptors turn this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain. For perception to occur, the brain needs to organize the information and translate it into something meaningful. The task of deciding whether something is meaningful is accomplished through selective attention and perceptual expectancy (Myers, 2009).Selective attention is a process of distinguishing whether something is important or irrelevant. Motivation plays a significant role in this. For example, if we take students in class, they should focus on what their teachers are saying. Yet, their peers walking by the classroom are more likely to focus on people in the room, on the teacher, and so on, as opposed to the thing the students in the class are supposed to pay attention to.Perceptual expectancy depends on our past experiences, background and biological makeup. For example, when I look at a road, I expect to see cars and trucks, not boats. However, someone from Amsterdam who is used to seeing boats on water from his window has been subjected to different experiences and may not have any idea what to expect and thus be surprised when they see cars go driving by.Members of health care teams may often experience disrupted sleep patterns- particularly due to shift work. Explain some of the risks of inadequate sleep and fatigue on performance in a health setting.Inadequate sleep generally results in sleepiness or a tendency to fall asleep. Fatigue can be described as feeling tired, lacking energy and exhausted, which undermines one’s physical and cognitive functioning. Sleep deprivation is usually the reason of sleepiness and fatigue (Rogers, 2008).Scientists have yet to determine the precise amount of sleep which healthy adults need. Yet, at this …