Sensation and Perception Field Assignment

Field Assignment Topic

You have the option of one of the two following assignments. You only need to complete one of these options:

Option 1: Prepare a meal for your friends and/or family using food coloring to make the food very different in color. Some ideas: black potatoes, green bread, blue butter, or purple milk.

Write a reflection about the experience. What food and color combinations did you choose? Why? What were the reactions to the food? Presuming you received strong reactions, why do you think this was so? If you did not receive strong reactions, why do you think they did not react in the expected manner? Be sure to connect back to concepts in the chapter!

Option 2:

The following exercise will improve your ability to empathize with visually handicapped people you might know. As you might read in the text, non-critical thinkers view everything and everyone else in relationship to themselves. They fail to understand or appreciate another's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, as critical thinkers do.

Find a partner to take you on a blind walk for at least 20 to 30 minutes. Have the partner blindfold you and guide you on a walk filled with varied sensory experiences—up a hill, over a gravel driveway, across a dirt field full of potholes, past a bakery, through the school cafeteria, next to a rough wall, past an open freezer door, through a quiet library or the noisy student union, and so on—and see if you can tell where you are at any one time. Remind your partner not to give any hints as to what to expect so that it can be a truly sightless experience for you.

What happened when you were without your sense of sight? Did you find that you navigated better and could more easily determine where you were at the end of your walk—did you adapt? Did you compensate at all for your lack of sight—did you substitute another sense for your sense of sight? In what ways? Why did this occur?

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*Be sure to use several paragraphs to answer each question above. Your paper must be at least 400 words not including headers, footers, or pasted prompts.