When smelling a flower, we are experiencing a sensation rather than a perception. Sensation refers to the immediate physical stimulation of the senses, while perception involves interpreting and making sense of sensory information. Sensation provides the raw data from our environment that our brains then organize and interpret through the process of perception. The key difference is that sensation is a passive process of receiving sensory input, while perception is an active process of interpreting those sensations.

1. B. P. Singh, Principal Scientist
Division of Extension Education
ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute
Izatnagar- 243 122

2. SENSATION
Question: When we smell a fragrant flower, are we
experiencing a sensation or a perception?
Mental process (such as seeing, hearing, or smelling)
due to immediate bodily stimulation, usually as
distinguished from perception
Sensation is
1. the power of perceiving through the senses
2. a physical condition or experience resulting from the
stimulation of one of the sense organs

3. The word ‘sensation’ is used in the sense of
‘feeling’, whereas the word ‘perception’ is
used in the sense of ‘seeing’ or ‘sight’. This
is the basic difference between the two
words.
The word ‘sensation’ has its adjectival form
in the word ‘sensational’, whereas the word
‘perception’ has its adjectival form in the
word ‘perceptive’.
Sensation vs Perception

4. Observe the two sentences:
1. He created a sensation among youngsters.
2. A leperd has no sensation on his skin.
In both the sentences, you can find that the
word ‘sensation’ is used in the sense of
‘feeling’ and hence, the meaning of the first
sentence would be ‘he created a feeling
among youngsters’, and the meaning of the
second sentence would be ‘a leperd has no
feeling on his skin’.
Sensation vs Perception

5. On the other hand, observe the two
sentences:
1. You are deceived by the perception of a
serpent on a rope.
2. Your perception is wrong.
 In both the sentences, you can find that
the word ‘perception’ is used in the sense
of ‘sight’ and hence, the first sentence can
be rewritten as ‘you are deceived by the
sight of a serpent on a rope’, and the
second sentence can be rewritten as ‘your
sight is wrong’.

6.  It is interesting to note that perception is
one of the proofs of valid knowledge
according to some schools of thought or
philosophy. Anything that can be perceived
or seen is the proof of valid knowledge. It
is interesting to note that the word
‘sensation’ is derived from the secondary
noun ‘sense’ which means ‘sense organ’.
These are the differences between sensation
and perception.

7. Difference: Sensations are things in
our environment that are registered
by the five major sensory organs.
Sensation is what we see, hear,
smell, taste and feel.
Perception is how we interpret these
sensations. Perception helps us make
sense of our sensations.
Sensation and Perception

8. The words ‘sensation’ and ‘perception’
are interrelated:
 Sensation is essentially the ‘feeling’ what
we feel with our senses. It is what we we
see, hear, smell, taste and feel
 Perception is how we interpret these
sensations. Perception helps us make
sense of our sensations.
Sensation and Perception
Sensation: Findings/detection

9. Dictionary meaning sensation’ as:
 A mental condition or physical feeling resulting from
stimulation of a sense organ or from internal bodily
change, as cold or pain.
 A mental feeling, especially a state of excited feeling.
 A state of excited feeling or interest caused among a
number of persons or throughout a community, as by
some rumor or occurrence.
Sensation and Perception
Example:
An Interview of Akshya Kumar with PM
A film of Manikarnika by Kanga Ranot
A Film on Modi
Just before election , Why ?
Senseless:

10. Sensations are the passive process
of bringing information from the outside
world into the body and to the brain.
Perception, on the other hand, is the
active process of selecting, organizing,
and interpreting the information brought
to the brain by the senses
Difference between sensation and perception

16. Skinner (1963) defined sensation “
When the physical organism is in contact
with reality , the experience copy is called a
“ Sensation”.
Smith (1970) stated it as “the stimulation
and arousal of sense organ is the process
of sensation”
James defined “Sensation are the
immediate result upon the consciousness of
nerve centres as they enter the brain, and
before they have awakened any suggestion
or association with past experience”
SENSATION

17. SENSATION
It is a main gateway of learning. All knowledge
depends on the senses and their stimulation. It
has a great importance to observe how people
came to know and interpret their word which is
fundamental to the understanding of human
behavior.
Sensation is the process that allows our brains to take in
information via our five senses, which can then be
experienced and interpreted by the
brain. Sensation occurs through our five sensory systems:
vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch

18. Sanford (1962) enlisted the following
conditions are necessary for the arousal
of sensation :
1. In order for a sensation to occur, there
must be first a stimulus
2. There must be receptors-specialized
sensitive cells that can respond to the
stimulus
3. There must be a central nervous
system that translates neural events
into awareness
4. Effects on its muscles and glands
Arousal of Behaviour

19. Kind of Sensation

20. It can be classified in various ways.
 Stimulation due to light produces visual
sensation, due to sound produce auditory
sensation.
 Similarly, sugar or salt placed on the tongue
produces gustatory sensation.
 Gaseous particles emanating from a source and
come in contact of nose is olfactory sensation.
Kind of Sensation

21. .
 Skin comes in contact with hot, cold, smooth and
rough surfaces is touch sensation/sub-cutatneous
.
 Stimulation of inner sense organs in the body are
called organic sensation
Kind of Sensation cont…

22. Morgan (1961) five kinds of
sense:
Vision sense
hearing sense
Chemical sense
Taste
Smell
Skin sense
Tough
Warmth
Cold
Pain
Deep sense
•Kinesthetic sensation
•Vertibular sensation
•Organic sensation
Classification of Sensation
Traditional classification
Visual,Auditory
Olfactory,Tecdile
Gastutory
Modern classification (Morgan
and others)
Special sense
Kinesthetic senses
Organic sense
Sanford (1962) stated:
Vision, Audition, Taste
Smell, Taste, Smell
Cutaneous sense
Sense of position in space
Organic sense
Kinesthetic

24.  This sensation originate due to physiological
changes that take place in the internal and
external part of the body. Some of these are very
painful and others are pleasant.
 There are a few special type of organic sensation
known as visceral sensation also.
 These sensation are of physiological nature.
 They have no external stimuli to arose them, but
depend on the physiological and metabolic
change going on in the body.
 Some of these can be vaguely localizes such as
hunger, thirst, while other like feeling or comfort
and convenience, easiness and uneasiness, can
not be localized. They have no special sense
organs.
ORGANIC SENSATION:

25.  Sensation of pain, touch, cold and warm all belong to
cutaneous senses.
 The receptors for these cutaneous sense are not the
same over all parts of body. There are more pain
receptors than touch receptor, cold & warm.
 The receptors of pain are the only ones in the whole
sensory system that can be arouse by any stimulus of
great intensity.
 A loud sound , a bright light and a heavy pressure can
arouse the pain response.
 Pressure sensitivity is greater on mobile parts of the
body such as lips and finger than on immobile parts
such as the back. Our receptor for cold and warm
respond to variation in temperature above and below
the temperature of the skin ( below 900F).
CUTANEOUS SENSATION

26.  It is also called motor sensation.
 These provides us with the continuous
information of the position and
movement of our body organs.
 Kinesthetic sensation are aroused due
to stimulation of our muscles-joint,
tendem.
 There are two kinds of muscles in our
body – voluntary (Muscles of our face,
hands and feet) and involuntary
(circulatory, digestive and respiratory
system) which are continue to move
whether we wish them to move or not.
KINESTHETIC SENSATION

27.  The sense of balance is located in
the semi-circular canals in the
inner part of the ear.
 There are three bones of the
shape of circular tubes at right
angles to one another.
 These are filled with liquid.
 Giddiness that we some times
experience is due to abnormal
disturbances caused in the inner
liquid of these semi-circular
canals.
 We are able to maintain the
position of our body on account
of this static sense of equilibrium.
THE STATIC SENSE

28.  The first stage in process of sensation , consists of
physical phenomena occurring outside and inside the
body , these are all root causes of all sensation.
 The physical world consists of different kinds of objects
make up of matter and are always in continuous
motion. This motion of the particles of matter consist
ultimately of electro-magnetic waves acting on different
sense organs .
 In this manner the radiation of light rays falling on the
retina and other kinds of vibrations impinging on the
membrane of the inner ear visual and auditory
sensation respectively.
STAGES OF SENSATION
Physical Stage

29.  Similarly, other stimuli such as material particles
coming in contact with nerve ending of other
sense organs produce corresponding sensation.
 Even inside the body physiological and physical
process are taking place, which in turn excite
organic sensations within the body.
STAGES OF SENSATION
Physical Stage cont…

30. It is very complicated. The stimulation
of brain centres are experienced as
sensation by the experiencing
individual.
These sensations which later on grew
up into sense, perception make up the
consciousness of individual.
Even in the sleeping state some sort of
sub-consciousness sense perceptions
continue to exist, which occasionally
give rise to dream experiences. Sound
sleep is a dreamless state of mind.
The Psychological stage

31. Quality:
 Sensation differs in quality on account of their
belonging to different sense organs.
 Different types of sensation are produced by
different kinds of stimuli. Visual sensation is
aroused by light vibrations , auditory by sound
waves, touch sensations by cold or hot objects.
 Visual sensations differ among themselves
according to the nature of colour, such as blue,
red and yellow.
 There are innumerable shades of red, green, etc.
These different kind of sensations belonging to
different sense organs have also different
receptors such as extero-receptor, intero-
receptors, proprio-receptors.
COMPONENT DIMENSIONS OF SENSATIONS

32. Quantity or Intensity
 All sensation have the feature of
intensity.
 Red lights of the same shade differ
from one another in brightness. Light
of 60 candle vs. 15 candles as bright
and dim.
 Similarly sound sensations may be
loud or faint.
 Taste may be strong or weak.
Intensity of sensation depends upon
the intensity of stimuli.

33.  It is time element sensation.
 Sensation which last longer are said to
differ in propensity from those which are
transitory.
 Visuals sensation produced by twinkling of
stars of a shorter duration than those
produced by looking at the planets or mars.
 Two sensations of equally bright light of
red colour and , therefore, having the same
quality and quantity can differ in
propensity.
 One may be shorter duration than the
other.
Duration or Propensity

34.  Sensation belonging to the same class, same
intensity and same duration can differ from one
another in the attribute of extensity.
 If we look at a small piece of white paper, our
sensation of whiteness differ from a big large wall
which has been recently white washed.
 Stout says “ When we dip our finger in cold water
and then plunge the whole hand in it, the
difference between the two kinds of sensation will
be obvious” due to extensity.
 If we touch a cold surface with the tip of finger
and then with the palm , or the whole fore-arm.
The differences becomes obvious. The
differences in extensity are due to the area of
surface of receptors, coming in contact with the
stimulus or stimuli.
Extensity

35.  Sensation of the same quality , intensity,
propensity and extensity also differ from
one another in local sign.
This was discussed by Lotze.
 If we touch the surface of the skin of
different part of our body on the nose,
palm, cheek forearm, skin, lips with a
pointer applying equal pressure for the
same duration, our touch sensation will
different from one another due to special
attributes of the different kinds of surface
touched.
These difference are due to difference of
local sign.
Local Sign

36.  Sensation differ form one person to
another for the same stimulus.
 There may be an object which may
arouse more sensation to person but the
same object may not arouse sensation to
another person.
 A large number of stimuli are always
acting upon our sense organs.
 These produce various kinds of
sensations visual, auditory and olfactory.
 But all the stimuli do not given to
corresponding sensation.
 But some are too weak to be noticeable.
Subjectivity

37. Hebb ( 1958) worked on motivational effect of
stimulation and stated that absence of stimulation
leads to the individual behaviour less efficient.
Berelson (1964) stated that human sensitivity
changes as it needs to : when there is abundant
input ( i.e., brilliant illuminating,) the sense ignore, in
fact, are incapable of detecting small interest or
difference.
As the available input decrease and becomes sparse
the sensitivity to detect intensity and difference
increases tremendously, until man attains his
maximum sensitivity under condition of minimum
stimulation.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCES IN SENSATION

38. McCornell (1958) stated that anyone who
wishes to utilize sublingual stimulation for
commercial or other purpose can be
likened to a stronger entering to a
confused country side where there are
very few land marks. In short, while super
bidden persuasion may be something to
fear, it is first some thing to document.

39.  Guliford (1961) rightly stated “ since all
mental activity with little possible
expectation begin with the stimulation
of sense organs, the importance of the
senses can not be denied .
 Mental activity is the central and major
theme for any extension activity.
 We know that education , teaching and
learning is ultimately involved in rural
extension work and all these processes
involve mental activity which arise due
to the stimulation of sense organs.
 The importance of sensation is most
obvious in this context.
SENSATION PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF EXTENSION EDUCATION PROGRAMME

40. Evans and Smith (1964) stated “ the
input is the system of receptors of sense,
without which there could be no
experience of the external environment.”
 He further says that the threshold levels
of stimulus energy necessary to activate a
sense organs have been well accepted.

41.  The organization of our bodies into specialized
mechanism for reception, distribution and
output of energy, make behaviour possible .
 In extension education, we ultimately involved
to change the behavioural pattern of farmer
which is directly or indirectly dependent upon
the senses and their stimulation in the body.
 The organization of senses and their activities
provide a good scope to understand a thing in
close proximity.
 There may be several example as imparting
training to farmers which required education
methods to convey thoughts.
 Unless the senses are fully drawn in attention,
there can be nothing worthwhile achieved
because the training will not be able to pay any
attention

42.  Berelson and Stenier (1964) bring out the basic
importance of sensation in relation to behaviour
through two starting points.
 All knowledge of the world depends on the
senses and their stimulation, but the fact of raw
sensory data are insufficient picture to produce
or to explain the coherent picture of the world as
experienced by the normal adult.
 Further he stated “ the study of perception is
largely the study of what must be added to and
subtracted from raw sensory input to produce
our picture of the world.

43. Sensation helps to study the relative
effectiveness of different audio-visual aids such
as charts, posters
The study of absolute threshold in sensation
helps in explaining the audio-visual materials by
studying the point of sensation of an individual.
Remedial treatment of the audience is done by
studying the process of sensations
The importance of sensation given by different authors
may be incorporated in the context of extension
education:

44. It has been commonly observed that in spite
of having equal types of vision , one person
senses a stimulus early while other person
senses late. Therefore, measure may be
studied in order to make the persons alert to
sensation
Sensation is the basis of perception and the
perception plays a major role in educational
process to disseminate any useful
information and change the behaviour of the
people.
The importance of sensation cont….

45. • Sensation may give the meaning partly
according to the need and situation . It is
not necessary that whole part of sensation
will give the meaning only. Taking
consideration of this fact, rural extension
workers can provide learning in a better
way.
• Sensation is dependent on physical
experience meaning thereby that the
physical experience should be clearing
preparing of charts, model etc.
The importance of sensation cont…

46. • The difference senses do not work in
isolation, rather they work in co-
operation. This indicates that while
dealing with one sense, we should see
the other senses
•
• These importance of sensations are
worthwhile for rural extension education
programmes as it forms a basis of
psychological process, which in turn
accelerate the human activities
The importance of sensation cont…