Sensations reflecting the position and movements of the body. Yuri Viktorovich Shcherbatykh general psychology introduction

And the person’s emotions? It is this issue that we decided to devote today’s article. After all, without these components we would not be people, but machines that do not live, but simply exist.

What are the sense organs?

As you know, a person learns all the information about the world around him through his own. These include the following:

eyes;
language;
leather.

Thanks to these organs, people feel and see the objects around them, as well as hear sounds and taste. It should be noted that this is not a complete list. Although it is usually called the main one. So what are the feelings and sensations of a person who has functioning not only of the above organs, but also of other organs? Let's consider the answer to the question posed in more detail.

Eyes

The sensations of vision, or rather color and light, are the most numerous and diverse. Thanks to the presented body, people receive about 70% of information about the environment. Scientists have found that the number of visual sensations (of various qualities) of an adult, on average, reaches 35 thousand. It should also be noted that vision plays a significant role in the perception of space. As for the sensation of color, it completely depends on the length of the light wave that irritates the retina, and the intensity depends on its amplitude or so-called scope.

Ears

Hearing (tones and noises) gives a person approximately 20 thousand different states of consciousness. This sensation is caused by air waves that come from the sounding body. Its quality depends entirely on the magnitude of the wave, its strength on its amplitude, and its timbre (or sound coloring) on its shape.

Nose

The sensations of smell are quite varied and very difficult to classify. They occur when the upper part of the nasal cavity, as well as the mucous membrane of the palate, is irritated. This effect occurs due to the dissolution of the smallest odorous substances.

Language

Thanks to this organ, a person can distinguish different tastes, namely sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

Leather

Tactile sensations are divided into feelings of pressure, pain, temperature, etc. They occur during irritation of nerve endings located in tissues, which have a special structure.

What feelings does a person have? In addition to all of the above, people also have feelings such as:

Static (body position in space and a sense of its balance). This feeling occurs during irritation of the nerve endings that are located in the semicircular canals of the ear.
Muscular, joint and tendon. They are very difficult to observe, but they are of the nature of internal pressure, tension and even slip.
Organic or somatic. Such feelings include hunger, nausea, sensations of breathing, etc.

What are the feelings and emotions?

A person’s emotions and inner feelings reflect his attitude towards any event or situation in life. Moreover, the two named states are quite different from each other. So, emotions are a direct reaction to something. This happens at the animal level. As for feelings, this is a product of thinking, accumulated experience, experiences, etc.

What feelings does a person have? It is quite difficult to answer the question posed unambiguously. After all, people have a lot of feelings and emotions. They give a person information about needs, as well as feedback on what is happening. Thanks to this, people can understand what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. After realizing the feelings that have arisen, a person gives himself the right to any emotion, and thereby he begins to understand what is happening in reality.

List of basic emotions and feelings

What are the feelings and emotions of a person? It is simply impossible to list them all. In this regard, we decided to name only a few. Moreover, they are all divided into three different groups.

Positive:

pleasure;
jubilation;
joy;
pride;
delight;
confidence;
confidence;
Delight;
sympathy;
love (or affection);
love (sexual attraction to a partner);
respect;
gratitude (or appreciation);
tenderness;
complacency;
tenderness;
gloat;
bliss;
feeling of satisfied revenge;
feeling of self-satisfaction;
feeling of relief;
anticipation;
feeling of security.

Negative:

Neutral:

astonishment;
curiosity;
amazement;
calm and contemplative mood;
indifference.

Now you know what feelings a person has. Some to a greater extent, some to a lesser extent, but each of us has experienced them at least once in our lives. Negative emotions that are ignored and not recognized by us do not just disappear. After all, the body and soul are one, and if the latter suffers for a long time, then the body takes on some part of its heavy burden. And it’s not for nothing that they say that all diseases are caused by nerves. The influence of negative emotions on human well-being and health has long been a scientific fact. As for positive feelings, the benefits of them are clear to everyone. After all, experiencing joy, happiness and other emotions, a person literally consolidates in his memory the desired types of behavior (feelings of success, well-being, trust in the world, people around him, etc.).

Neutral feelings also help people express their attitude towards what they see, hear, etc. By the way, such emotions can act as a kind of springboard to further positive or negative manifestations.

Thus, by analyzing his behavior and attitude to current events, a person can become better, worse, or remain the same. It is these properties that distinguish people from animals.

They are closely related to each other. Both one and the other are the so-called sensory reflection of objective reality, existing independently of consciousness and due to its influence on the senses: this is their unity. But perception- awareness of a sensory given object or phenomenon; in perception, a world of people, things, and phenomena are usually spread out before us, filled with a certain meaning for us and involved in diverse relationships. These relationships create meaningful situations, of which we are witnesses and participants. Feeling same - a reflection of a separate sensory quality or undifferentiated and non-objectified impressions of the environment. In this last case, sensations and perceptions are distinguished as two different forms or two different relations of consciousness to objective reality. Sensations and perceptions are thus one and different. They make up: the sensory-perceptual level of mental reflection. At the sensory-perceptual level we are talking about those images that arise from the direct impact of objects and phenomena on the senses.

The concept of sensations

The main source of our knowledge about the external world and our own body is sensations. They constitute the main channels through which information about the phenomena of the external world and the states of the body reaches the brain, giving a person the opportunity to navigate the environment and his body. If these channels were closed and the senses did not bring the necessary information, no conscious life would be possible. There are known facts that indicate that a person deprived of a constant source of information falls into a sleepy state. Such cases: occur when a person suddenly loses sight, hearing, smell, and when his conscious sensations are limited by some pathological process. A result close to this is achieved when a person is placed for some time in a light and soundproof chamber, isolating him from external influences. This state first induces sleep and then becomes difficult for the subjects to bear.

Numerous observations have shown that disruption of the flow of information in early childhood, associated with deafness and blindness, causes sharp delays in mental development. If children born blind-deaf or deprived of hearing and vision at an early age are not taught special techniques that compensate for these defects through the sense of touch, their mental development will become impossible and they will not develop independently.

As will be described below, the high specialization of the various sense organs is based not only on the structural features of the peripheral part of the analyzer - the “receptors”, but also on the highest specialization of the neurons that make up the central nervous apparatus, which receive signals perceived by the peripheral sense organs.

Reflex nature of sensations

So, sensations are the initial source of all our knowledge about the world. Objects and phenomena of reality that affect our senses are called stimuli, and the impact of stimuli on the senses is called irritation. Irritation, in turn, causes excitation in the nervous tissue. The sensation arises as a reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus and, like any mental phenomenon, has a reflex nature.

The physiological mechanism of sensations is the activity of special nervous apparatus called.

Each analyzer consists of three parts:

a peripheral section called the receptor (the receptor is the perceiving part of the analyzer, its main function is the transformation of external energy into a nervous process);
afferent or sensory nerves (centripetal), conducting excitation to the nerve centers (central section of the analyzer);
the cortical sections of the analyzer, in which the processing of nerve impulses coming from the peripheral sections occurs.

The cortical part of each analyzer includes an area that represents a projection of the periphery in the cerebral cortex, since certain cells of the periphery (receptors) correspond to certain areas of the cortical cells. For sensation to arise, the entire analyzer as a whole must work. The analyzer is not a passive receiver of energy. This is an organ that reflexively rearranges itself under the influence of stimuli.

Physiological studies show that sensation is not at all a passive process; it always includes motor components. Thus, observations using a microscope of an area of skin carried out by the American psychologist D. Neff made it possible to verify that when it is irritated by a needle, the moment the sensation occurs is accompanied by reflexive motor reactions of this area of the skin. Subsequently, numerous studies have established that each sensation includes movement, sometimes in the form of a vegetative reaction (vasoconstriction, galvanic skin reflex), sometimes in the form of muscle reactions (turning the eyes, tension in the neck muscles, motor reactions of the hand, etc. .). Thus, sensations are not passive processes at all - they are active. The reflex theory of sensations consists of indicating the active nature of all these processes.

Classification of sensations

It has long been customary to distinguish between five main types (modalities) of sensations: smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. This classification of sensations according to the main modalities is correct, although not exhaustive. A.R. Luria believes that the classification of sensations can be carried out according to at least two basic principles - systematic And genetic(in other words, according to the principle of modality, on the one hand, and according to the principle of complexity or level of their construction, on the other).

Systematic classification of sensations

By identifying the largest and most significant groups of sensations, they can be divided into three main types; interoceptive, proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensations. The first combine signals reaching us from the internal environment of the body; the latter provide information about the position of the body in space and the position of the musculoskeletal system, provide regulation of our movements; finally, still others provide signals from the external world and create the basis for our conscious behavior. Let's consider the main types of sensations separately.

Interoceptive sensations

Interoceptive sensations, signaling the state of the internal processes of the body, bring to the brain irritations from the walls of the stomach and intestines, the heart and circulatory system and other internal organs. This is the most ancient and most elementary group of sensations. Interoceptive sensations are among the least conscious and most diffuse forms of sensations and always retain their proximity to emotional states.

Proprioceptive sensations

Proprioceptive sensations provide signals about the position of the body in space and constitute the afferent basis of human movements, playing a decisive role in their regulation. Peripheral receptors of proprioceptive sensitivity are located in muscles and joints (tendons, ligaments) and have the form of special nerve bodies (Paccini bodies). The excitations that arise in these bodies reflect the sensations that occur when muscles are stretched and the position of joints changes. In modern physiology and psychophysiology, the role of proprioception as the afferent basis of movements in animals was studied in detail by A. A. Orbeli, P. K. Anokhin, and in humans - by N. A. Bernstein. The described group of sensations includes a specific type of sensitivity called the feeling of balance, or static sensation. Their peripheral receptors are located in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.

Exteroreactive sensations

The third and largest group of sensations are exteroreceptive sensations. They bring information from the outside world to a person and are the main group of sensations that connect a person with the external environment. The entire group of exteroceptive sensations is conventionally divided into two subgroups: contact and distant sensations.

Contact sensations are caused by an impact directly applied to the surface of the body and the corresponding perceived organ. Examples of contact sensation are taste and touch.

Distant sensations are caused by stimuli acting on the sense organs at some distance. These senses include smell and especially hearing and vision.

Genetic classification of sensations

Genetic classification allows us to distinguish two types of sensitivity:

protopathic(more primitive, affective, less differentiated and localized), which includes organic feelings (hunger, thirst, etc.);
epicritic(more subtly differentiating, objectified and rational), which includes the basic human senses.

Epicritic sensitivity is younger in genetic terms, and it controls protopathic sensitivity.

General properties of sensations

Different types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to them. These properties include: quality, intensity, duration and spatial localization.

Quality- this is the main feature of a given sensation, distinguishing it from other types of sensations and varying within a given type of sensation. The qualitative diversity of sensations reflects the infinite variety of forms of matter movement.

Intensity sensation is its quantitative characteristic and is determined by the strength of the current stimulus and the functional state of the receptor.

Duration sensations are its temporary characteristics. It is also determined by the functional state of the sensory organ, but mainly by the time of action of the stimulus and its intensity.

When a stimulus acts on a sense organ, the sensation does not arise immediately, but after some time - the so-called latent (hidden) period of sensation. The latent period of different types of sensations is not the same: for example, for tactile sensations it is 130 ms; for pain - 370, and for taste - only 50 ms.

Just as a sensation does not arise simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus, it does not disappear simultaneously with the cessation of its action. The presence of positive sequential images explains why we do not notice breaks between successive frames of a film: they are filled with traces of the frames that acted before - sequential images from them. The consistent image changes over time, the positive image is replaced by a negative one. With colored light sources, the sequential image turns into a complementary color.

4.2. Feel

The concept of sensation. Objects and phenomena of the external world have many different properties and qualities: color, taste, smell, sound, etc. In order for them to be reflected by a person, they must influence him with any of these properties and qualities. Cognition is carried out primarily by the senses - the only channels through which the external world penetrates into human consciousness. Images of objects and phenomena of reality that arise in the process of sensory cognition are called sensations.

Feel - this is the simplest mental cognitive process of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, as well as internal states of the body, arising from their direct impact on the senses.

Our consciousness exists only due to the presence of sensations. If a person is deprived of the ability to sense and perceive the surrounding reality, he will not be able to navigate the world, he will not be able to do anything. Under conditions of “sensory deprivation” (lack of sensations), in less than a day a person experiences a sharp decrease in attention, a decrease in memory capacity, and serious changes in mental activity occur. It is not without reason that this is one of the most difficult tests for future cosmonauts, polar explorers, and speleologists.

In ordinary life, we are tired not so much by the lack of sensations as by their abundance - sensory overload. That’s why it’s so important to follow basic rules of mental hygiene.

The physiological basis of sensations is activity analyzer – a special nervous apparatus that performs the function of analyzing and synthesizing stimuli emanating from the external and internal environment of the body. Any analyzer consists of three parts.

1. Receptor (peripheral) department- a receptor, the main part of any sensory organ, specialized for receiving the effects of certain stimuli. Here the transformation of the energy of an external stimulus (heat, light, smell, taste, sound) into physiological energy - a nerve impulse - occurs.

2. Wiring department– sensory nerves that can be afferent(centripetal), conducting the resulting excitation to the central section of the analyzer, and efferent(centrifugal, through which the nerve impulse travels to the working organ (effector)).

3. Central department – cortical section of the analyzer, a specialized area of the cerebral cortex, where the transformation of nervous energy into a mental phenomenon - sensation.

The central part of the analyzer consists of a nucleus and nerve cells scattered throughout the cortex, which are called peripheral elements. The bulk of receptor cells is concentrated in the nucleus, due to which the most subtle analysis and synthesis of stimuli is carried out; Due to peripheral elements, a rough analysis is made, for example, light is distinguished from darkness. Scattered elements of the cortical part of the analyzer are involved in establishing communication and interaction between various analyzer systems. Since each analyzer has its own central section, the entire cerebral cortex is a kind of mosaic, an interconnected system of the cortical ends of the analyzers. Despite the common structure of all analyzers, the detailed structure of each of them is very specific.

A sensation always appears in consciousness in the form of an image. The energy of an external stimulus turns into a fact of consciousness when a person, who has an image of the object that caused the irritation, can designate it with a word.

The sensation is always associated with a response like a reflex ring with mandatory feedback. The sense organ is alternately a receptor and an effector (working organ).

Types and classification of sensations. According to the five sense organs known to the ancient Greeks, the following types of sensations are distinguished: visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile (tactile). In addition, there are intermediate sensations between tactile and auditory - vibration. There are also complex sensations, consisting of several independent analytical systems: for example, touch is tactile and muscle-articular sensations; skin sensations include tactile, temperature and pain. There are organic sensations (hunger, thirst, nausea, etc.), static, sensations of balance, reflecting the position of the body in space.

The following criteria for classification of sensations are identified.

I.According to the location of the receptors– exteroceptive and interoceptive. Receptors exteroceptive sensations are located on the surface of the body and receive irritations from the outside world, and receptors interoceptive(organic) sensations are located in the internal organs and signal the functioning of the latter. These sensations form the organic feeling (well-being) of a person.

II.By the presence or absence of direct contact With irritant, causing sensations, exteroceptive sensations are divided into contact and distant. Contact sensations involve direct interaction with the stimulus. These include taste, skin, pain, temperature, etc. Distant sensations provide orientation in the immediate environment - these are visual, auditory and olfactory sensations.

A special subclass of interoceptive sensations are sensations proprioceptive, whose receptors are located in ligaments, muscles and tendons and receive irritation from the musculoskeletal system. These sensations also indicate the position of the body in space.

Sensations have a number of characteristics and patterns that manifest themselves in each type of sensitivity. Three groups of patterns of sensations can be distinguished.

1. Time relationships between the beginning (end) of the stimulus and the appearance (disappearance) of sensations:

The onset of the action of the stimulus and the onset of sensations do not coincide - the sensation occurs somewhat later than the onset of the action of the stimulus, since the nerve impulse needs some time to deliver information to the cortical part of the analyzer, and after the analysis and synthesis carried out in it - back to the working organ. This is the so-called hidden (latent) period of the reaction;

The sensations do not disappear immediately with the end of the stimulus, which can be illustrated by successive images - positive and negative. The physiological mechanism for the emergence of a sequential image is associated with the phenomena of the aftereffect of the stimulus on the nervous system. The cessation of the action of the stimulus does not cause an immediate cessation of the process of irritation in the receptor and excitation in the cortical parts of the analyzer.

2. The relationship between sensations and stimulus intensity. Not every stimulus strength can cause a sensation; it occurs when exposed to a stimulus of known intensity. It is customary to distinguish between the threshold of absolute sensitivity and the threshold of sensitivity to discrimination.

The minimum amount of stimulus that causes a barely noticeable sensation is called lower absolute threshold of sensitivity.

There is an inverse relationship between sensitivity and the strength of the stimulus: the greater the force needed to produce a sensation, the lower the sensitivity. There may also be subthreshold stimuli that do not cause sensations because signals about them are not transmitted to the brain.

The maximum magnitude of the stimulus that the analyzer is capable of adequately perceiving (in other words, at which the sensation of a given type is still preserved) is called upper absolute threshold of sensitivity.

The interval between the lower and upper thresholds is called sensitivity range. It has been established that the sensitivity range for color is vibrations of electromagnetic waves with a frequency from 390 (violet) to 780 (red) millimicrons, and for sound – vibrations of sound waves from 20 to 20,000 Hertz. Stimuli of extremely high intensity cause pain instead of sensations of a certain type.

Threshold of sensitivity to discrimination(differential) is the minimum difference between two stimuli that causes a subtle difference in sensation. In other words, this is the smallest amount by which the intensity of the stimulus must be changed (increased or decreased) in order for a change in sensation to occur. German scientists - physiologist E. Weber and physicist G. Fechner - formulated a law that is valid for stimuli of average strength: the ratio of the additional stimulus to the main one is a constant value. This value is specific for each type of sensation: for visual – 1/1000 , For auditory - 1/10, for tactile - 1/30 of the initial value of the stimulus.

III.Changing the sensitivity of the analyzer. This change can be illustrated by the patterns of sensations such as adaptation, sensitization and interaction.

Adaptation(from Latin adaptare - adapt, adjust, get used to) is a change in sensitivity under the influence of a constantly acting stimulus. Adaptation depends on environmental conditions. The general pattern is this: when moving from strong to weak stimuli, sensitivity increases, and vice versa, when moving from weak to strong, it decreases. The biological feasibility of this mechanism is obvious: when the stimuli are strong, fine sensitivity is not needed, but when they are weak, the ability to capture them is important.

There are two types of adaptation: positive and negative. Positive(positive, dark) adaptation is associated with an increase in sensitivity under the influence of a weak stimulus. Thus, when moving from light to darkness, the area of the pupil increases 17 times, a transition occurs from cone vision to rod vision, but mainly the increase in sensitivity occurs due to the conditioned reflex work of the central mechanisms of the analyzer. Negative(negative, light) adaptation can manifest itself as a decrease in sensitivity under the influence of a strong stimulus and as a complete disappearance of sensations during the long-term action of the stimulus.

Another pattern of sensations is interaction of analyzers, which manifests itself in a change in the sensitivity of one analyzing system under the influence of the activity of another. The general pattern of interaction of sensations can be expressed in the following formulation: weak in intensity stimulation of one analyzer increases the sensitivity of the other, and strong stimulation decreases it.

Increasing the sensitivity of the analyzer is called sensitization. It can manifest itself in two areas: either as a result of exercise of the senses, training, or as a need to compensate for sensory defects. A defect in the operation of one analyzer is usually compensated by increased work and improvement of another.

A special case of the interaction of sensations is synesthesia, in which the senses work together; in this case, the qualities of sensations of one type are transferred to another type of sensations and co-sensations arise. In everyday life, synesthesia is used very often: “velvet voice”, “screaming color”, “sweet sounds”, “cold tone”, “sharp taste”, etc.

Entry text:

1. Psychology of sensations.

The simplest mental process from which a person’s cognition of the surrounding world begins is sensation. In the evolution of living beings, sensations arose on the basis of primary irritability, which is the property of living matter to selectively respond to biologically significant changes in the environment. Subsequently, these functions were taken over by the nervous system. A stimulus (visual, auditory, etc.) affects the sense organs, resulting in nerve impulses that enter the brain along nerve pathways and are processed there to form individual sensations. Sensation is the primary “building” material on the basis of which a holistic reflection in consciousness of the complexity and versatility of the surrounding world, the image of one’s bodily and mental “I” is built. Sensations are essentially subjective images of the objective world - the external and internal states of the body.

Sensation is a mental process of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena during their direct impact on the senses.

Since the time of Aristotle, five types (modalities) of sensations have traditionally been distinguished that inform a person about changes in the environment: touch, taste, smell, hearing and vision.

It has now been established that there are also many other types of sensations, and the body is equipped with very complex mechanisms that ensure the interaction of the senses with each other. Thus, the sense of touch, along with tactile sensations (touch sensations), includes a completely independent type of sensation - temperature, which is a function of a special temperature analyzer. Vibration sensations occupy an intermediate position between tactile and auditory sensations. The sensations of balance and acceleration associated with the functions of the vestibular apparatus play a large role in a person’s orientation. Pain sensations that signal the destructive power of the stimulus are also common to different analyzers.

Depending on the type and location of the receptors, all sensations are usually divided into three groups:

1) exteroceptive (exteroceptive), reflecting the properties of objects and phenomena of the external environment and having receptors on the surface of the body;

2) interoceptive (interoceptive), having receptors located in the internal organs and tissues of the body and reflecting the state of the internal environment of the body;

3) proprioceptive (proprioceptive), whose receptors are located in muscles, ligaments, joints and provide information about the movement and position of the body. Motion sensitivity is also often called kinesthesia, and the corresponding receptors are kinesthetic.

Exteroceptive sensations can be divided into two more groups: contact(e.g. tactile, gustatory) and distant(e.g. visual, auditory). Contact receptors transmit irritation upon direct contact with an object, and distant receptors react to irritation emanating from a distant object.

For most created by the end of the 19th century. Psychological laboratories are characterized by reducing the main problems of experimental research to the study of elementary mental processes - sensations and perceptions. Until the beginning of the 20th century. The leading centers of world experimental psychology were the laboratories of V. Wundt in Germany (1879) and V.M. Bekhterev in Russia (1886 - in Kazan, 1894 - in St. Petersburg). The work of scientists in these laboratories on studying the mechanisms of perception prepared the subsequent experimental study of emotions, associations and memory, and then thinking.

2. General patterns of sensations

Sensations are a form of reflection of adequate stimuli. Thus, an adequate stimulator of visual sensation is electromagnetic waves in the range of 380-770 mmk. Auditory sensations arise under the influence of sound waves with a frequency of 16 to 20,000 Hz. Other sensations also have their own specific stimuli. However, different types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to all of them. These properties include quality, intensity, duration and spatial location.

Quality- this is the main feature of a given sensation, distinguishing it from other types of sensations and varying within a given type of sensation (one modality). Auditory sensations, for example, differ in pitch, timbre, and volume, while visual sensations differ in saturation and color tone.

Intensity sensation is its quantitative characteristic and is determined both by the strength of the stimulus and the functional state of the receptor.

Duration sensations are also determined by the intensity of the effect on the receptor, its functional state, but mainly by the time of action on the receptor.

When a stimulus is applied, the sensation does not occur immediately, but after some time. For painful sensations, the latent period is 370 ms, for tactile sensations - 130, and the taste sensation occurs within 50 ms after the application of a chemical irritant to the tongue.

Just as a sensation does not arise simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus, it does not disappear immediately after the cessation of its effect. This inertia of sensations is called aftereffect. For example, the trace of a stimulus in the visual analyzer remains in the form sequential image, first positive and then negative. A positive sequential image does not differ in lightness and color from the original image (in cinema, this property of the visual analyzer is used to create the illusion of movement), and then a negative image appears, and color sources of color are replaced by complementary colors.

If you look at the red color first, then the white surface will appear green. If the original color was blue, then the sequential image will be yellow, and if you initially look at a black surface, then the sequential image will be white.

Auditory sensations can also be accompanied by sequential images. For example, everyone is well aware of the phenomenon of “ringing in the ears” after exposure to deafening sounds.

A similar effect is typical for the muscular system. Stand in the doorway and strongly “push” the doorframes away from you with your hands; After this, moving to the side and relaxing the muscles of your arms, you will feel that your arms are rising up by themselves.

Academician D.N. Uznadze (1963) asked subjects to touch a large ball with their right hand and a small ball with their left, and then balls of the same size 10-15 times. It turned out that the ball felt with the right hand seemed smaller in contrast, and the ball felt with the left hand seemed larger.

3. Basic characteristics of sensations

1. Sensitivity range . A stimulus is capable of causing a sensation only when it reaches a certain magnitude or strength.

The lower absolute threshold of sensation(J0) is the minimum force (intensity, duration, energy or area) of impact that causes a barely noticeable sensation. The lower J0, the higher the sensitivity of the analyzer to the stimulus. For example, the lower limit (threshold) of sensitivity for pitch of sound is 15 Hz, for light - 0.001 light. etc.

Stimuli of lesser strength are called subliminal(subsensory), and signals about them are not transmitted to the cerebral cortex. If the light intensity is reduced so much that a person can no longer tell whether he saw a flash of light, then a galvanic skin response is nevertheless recorded by hand at that moment. This suggests that the light signal, although not realized, was processed by the nervous system. The operation of a “lie detector” is based on this procedure.

The transition from a subthreshold sensation occurs abruptly: if the impact has almost reached the threshold value, then a barely noticeable increase in its strength is enough for the stimulus to immediately become completely felt. Subthreshold impulses are not indifferent to the body. This is confirmed by numerous facts obtained in clinics of nervous diseases and psychiatry, when it is weak, subthreshold stimuli coming from the external or internal environment that create a dominant focus in the cerebral cortex and contribute to the emergence of “deceptions of the senses” - hallucinations.

Some scientists note the similarity between subliminal perception (sensation) and extrasensory perception, when we are also talking about signals that are too weak to reach the level of consciousness, but are still picked up by some people at a certain time and in a certain state. Extrasensory perception includes clairvoyance (the ability to see things that cannot be seen at a distance), telepathy (obtaining information about a person who is far away, transmitting thoughts), precognition (the ability to guess the future).

The border zone of psychology, studying the so-called psi phenomena, arose in the early 1930s (L.L. Vasiliev in the USSR and J. Rhine in the USA), although in scientific circles this work began to be openly discussed only in recent decades. The Parapsychological Association, which studied “anomalous” phenomena, was admitted to the American Association for Scientific Progress in 1969. This area, recently recognized as a scientific discipline, is called parapsychology in Germany and the USA, metapsychology in France, and bioinformatics in Russia. Its new general name is psychology. The main difficulty in fully recognizing the results in this area is that it is not always possible to reproduce the phenomena being studied, which is certainly necessary for facts that claim to be scientific.

Upper absolute threshold of sensation(Jmax) is the maximum value of the stimulus that the analyzer is capable of adequately perceiving. Impacts exceeding Jmax cease to be differentially felt or cause pain; Jmax is much more variable between individuals and ages than J0. The interval between J0 and Jmax is called sensitivity range.

2. Differential (difference) sensitivity threshold . With the help of our senses, we can not only ascertain the presence or absence of a particular stimulus, but also distinguish between stimuli by their strength and quality. The minimum magnitude of the difference in the strength of two homogeneous stimuli that a person is able to feel is called threshold of discrimination(aJ). The lower the difference threshold value, the higher the ability of this analyzer to differentiate irritation.

The German physiologist E. Weber established that an increase in the intensity of a stimulus, capable of causing a barely noticeable increase in the intensity of sensation, always constitutes a certain part of the initial value of the stimulus. Thus, an increase in pressure on the skin is already felt if the load is increased by only 3% (3 g should be added to a weight weighing 100 g, and 6 g should be added to a weight weighing 200 g, etc.). This dependence is expressed by the following formula: dJ/J = const, where J is the strength of the stimulus, dJ is its barely noticeable increase (discrimination threshold), const is a constant value (constant), different for different sensations (pressure on the skin - 0.03, vision - 0.01, hearing - 0.1, etc.).

3. Operational signal discernibility threshold - this is the value of discrimination between signals at which the accuracy and speed of discrimination reach their maximum. The operational threshold is 10-15 times higher than the differential threshold.

4. Psychophysical Weber-Fechner law - describes the dependence of the intensity of sensation (E) on the strength of the stimulus (J).

German physicist, psychologist and philosopher G.T. Fechner (1801-1887) expressed this dependence, which was first discovered by E. Weber, with the following formula (basic psychophysical law): E = k . logJ + c (the intensity of the sensation increases in proportion to the logarithm of the stimulus strength), where k is the proportionality coefficient; c is a constant that is different for sensations of different modalities.

The American scientist S. Stevens believes that the basic psychophysical law is better expressed not by a logarithmic, but by a power function. However, in any case, the strength of sensation increases significantly more slowly than the magnitude of physical stimuli. These patterns are associated with the characteristics of the electrochemical processes occurring in the receptors when converting the effect into a nerve impulse.

5. Time threshold - the minimum duration of exposure to the stimulus required for the occurrence of sensations. For vision it is 0.1-0.2 s, and for hearing - 50 ms.

6. Spatial threshold - determined by the minimum size of a barely perceptible stimulus. For example, visual acuity is expressed by the ability of the eye to distinguish small details of objects. Their sizes are expressed in angular values, which are related to linear sizes by the formula tgC/2=h/2L, where C is the angular size of the object, h is the linear size, L is the distance from the eye to the object. With normal vision, the spatial threshold of visual acuity is 1", but the minimum acceptable dimensions of image elements for confident identification of objects should be 15" for simple objects, and at least 30-40 for complex ones.

7. Latent period of reaction - the period of time from the moment the signal is given to the moment the sensation occurs. It is different for sensations of different modalities. For example, for vision it is 160-240 ms. It should also be remembered that after the end of the stimulus, the sensations do not disappear immediately, but gradually (the inertia of vision is 0.1-0.2 s), therefore the duration of the signal and the interval between appearing signals must be no less than the time the sensations persist.

When designing modern technology, engineers need to know and take into account the psychological capabilities of a person to receive information. The main characteristics of analyzers can be found in the relevant manuals and reference books on engineering psychology.

4. Changes in sensitivityand processes of interaction between analyzers

There are two main forms of change in the sensitivity of the analyzer - adaptation and sensitization.

Adaptation called a change in the sensitivity of the analyzer under the influence of its adaptation to the current stimulus. It can be aimed at either increasing or decreasing sensitivity. For example, after 30-40 minutes of being in the dark, the sensitivity of the eye increases by 20 thousand times, and subsequently by 200 thousand times. The eye adapts (adapts) to the dark within 4-5 minutes - partially, 40 minutes - enough and 80 minutes - completely. Such an adaptation, which leads to an increase in the sensitivity of the analyzer, is called positive.

Negative adaptation accompanied by a decrease in the sensitivity of the analyzer. So, in the case of constant stimuli, they begin to be felt weaker and disappear. For example, it is a common fact for us that the olfactory sensations noticeably disappear soon after we enter an atmosphere with an unpleasant odor. The intensity of the taste sensation also weakens if the corresponding substance is kept in the mouth for a long time. Close to what is described is the phenomenon of dulling of sensation under the influence of a strong stimulus. For example, if you come out of the darkness into bright light, then after “blinding” the sensitivity of the eye sharply decreases, and we begin to see normally.

The phenomenon of adaptation is explained by the action of both peripheral and central mechanisms. When mechanisms regulating sensitivity act on the receptors themselves, they speak of sensory adaptation. In the case of more complex stimulation, which, although captured by receptors, is not so important for activity, central regulation mechanisms come into play at the level of the reticular formation, which blocks the transmission of impulses so that they do not “clutter” consciousness with excess information. These mechanisms underlie habituation-type adaptation to stimuli ( habituations).

Sensitization - increased sensitivity to the effects of a number of stimuli. Physiologically it is explained by an increase in the excitability of the cerebral cortex to certain stimuli as a result of exercise or interaction of analyzers. According to I.P. Pavlov, a weak stimulus causes an excitation process in the cerebral cortex, which easily spreads (irradiates) throughout the cortex. As a result of the irradiation of the excitation process, the sensitivity of other analyzers increases. On the contrary, under the influence of a strong stimulus, an excitation process occurs, which tends to concentrate, and, according to the law of mutual induction, this leads to inhibition in the central sections of other analyzers and a decrease in their sensitivity. Thus, when a quiet tone of equal intensity is sounded and at the same time the rhythmic impact of light on the eye, it will seem that the tone also changes its intensity. Another example of the interaction of analyzers is the well-known fact of increased visual sensitivity with a weak taste sensation of sour in the mouth. Knowing the patterns of changes in the sensitivity of the sensory organs, it is possible to sensitize a particular analyzer by using specially selected side stimuli. Sensitization can also be achieved as a result of exercise. These data have important practical applications, for example, in cases where it is necessary to compensate for sensory defects (blindness, deafness) at the expense of other, intact analyzers or in the development of pitch hearing in children involved in music.

Thus, the intensity of sensations depends not only on the strength of the stimulus and the level of adaptation of the receptor, but also on the stimuli currently acting on other sense organs. A change in the sensitivity of the analyzer under the influence of irritation of other sense organs is called interaction of sensations. The interaction of sensations, like adaptation, appears in two opposite processes: an increase and a decrease in sensitivity. Weak stimuli, as a rule, increase, and strong ones decrease, the sensitivity of analyzers

The interaction of analyzers is also manifested in the so-called synesthesia . With synesthesia, the sensation occurs under the influence of irritation characteristic of another analyzer. Visual-auditory synesthesia most often occurs when visual images (“color hearing”) appear under the influence of auditory stimuli. Many composers possessed this ability - N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A.N. Scriabin et al. Auditory-gustatory and visual-gustatory synesthesia, although they are much less common, we are not surprised by the use in speech of expressions like: “sharp taste”, “sweet sounds”, “screaming color”, etc.

5. Disorders of sensations

Sensory disturbances are very numerous. However, in most cases, all observed sensation disorders can be classified into one of three main groups: hyperesthesia, hypoesthesia and paresthesia.

Hyperesthesia - increased sensitivity to real ordinary or even weak influences. In these cases, both external and intero- and proprioceptive stimuli cause an extremely intense reaction due to a sharp decrease in the lower absolute thresholds of sensations. For example, the sound of a typewriter deafens the patient (acoustic hyperesthesia), a burning candle blinds (optical hyperesthesia), and a shirt adjacent to the body irritates so much that it seems to be made “of barbed wire” (hyperesthesia of the skin sense), etc. Such mental hyperesthesia is observed in neuroses, intoxication with certain substances, in the initial stages of clouding of consciousness, and in acute psychoses.

Hypesthesia - decreased sensitivity to real stimuli, increased lower absolute thresholds of sensations. In this case, the patient almost does not react to an injection, to a fly crawling on his face, etc. Reduced sensitivity to temperature stimuli can lead to accidents - burns and frostbite. In extreme cases of hypoesthesia, the analyzer is completely unable to respond to stimulation, and this phenomenon is called anesthesia. Anesthesia usually occurs with a complete anatomical interruption of one of the peripheral nerve trunks or destruction of the central part of the analyzer. Loss of sensation usually extends to tactile, pain and temperature sensitivity (total anesthesia) or only to certain types of it (partial anesthesia). Neurologists distinguish radicular anesthesia, in which sensitivity in the zone of innervation of a certain dorsal root of the spinal cord is completely impaired, and segmental, in which disorders occur in the innervation zone of a certain segment of the spinal cord. In the latter case, anesthesia can be as follows: total, so dissociated, in which the absence of pain and temperature sensitivity is combined with the preservation of proprioceptive sensitivity or vice versa. In some diseases, such as leprosy (leprosy), specific damage to skin receptors occurs with a subsequent weakening and loss of temperature, then pain, and then tactile sensitivity (proprioceptive sensitivity is preserved for the longest time during leprosy anesthesia).

At mental hypoesthesia and anesthesia the corresponding analyzer is anatomically and physiologically formally preserved. Thus, hypoesthesia and anesthesia can be instilled in a person in a hypnotic sleep. Mental amblyopia (blindness), mental anosmia (insensitivity to smells), mental ageusia (loss of the sense of taste), mental acusia (deafness), mental tactile and pain anesthesia are often found in hysterical neurotic disorders. Within the framework of hysterical anesthesia, disorders of pain sensitivity of the “stockings” and “gloves” type are described, i.e., from the point of view of neurologists, patients develop areas of insensitivity to pain with clear boundaries that do not correspond to the zones of innervation of certain roots or nerves.

Paresthesia . If hypoesthesia and hyperesthesia can be qualified as quantitative disorders of sensitivity, then paresthesia is associated with qualitative changes (distortion) of information coming from the receptor to the cortical part of the analyzer. Probably everyone knows about the sensations that arise from prolonged compression of a nerve by an uncomfortable position - “I rested my arm,” “I spent my time on my leg.” When conduction along the nerve is disrupted, sensations of “crawling goosebumps”, skin tightening, tingling, burning appear (these are peculiar fluctuations in the modality of sensation). Paresthesia is often a sign of neurological or vascular damage.

They are close to paresthesia and senesthopathy, but occupy an intermediate position with visceral hallucinations, since they are even less associated with any real irritation of the peripheral part of the analyzer.

Senestopathies, “psychosomatic sensations”, or “sensations” - vague, often migrating, very unpleasant and painful sensations that are projected inside the body (inside the bodily “I”): squeezing and stretching, rolling and trembling, “suction”, “sticking” etc. They never have a clear localization, and patients are not even able to describe them correctly. Senestopathies occur in many mental illnesses. They can be constant or episodic. Sometimes they occur in the form of attacks, acute attacks, which allows us to talk about senestopathic crises. They are often accompanied by panic reactions, autonomic disorders, fear of madness, expressive postures and gestures. There are different approaches to assessing the clinical significance of senestopathy and their classification. So, A.K. Anufriev (1978) distinguishes five types of senestopathy for latent depression: cardiovascular, central neurological, abdominal, musculoskeletal, and skin-subcutaneous.

List of used literature

1. Ananyev B.G. Theory of sensations. – L.: Lenizdat, 1961.

2. Luria A.R. Sensation and perception. – M.: Education, 1978.

3. Sidorov P.I., Parnyakov A.V. Clinical psychology. – 3rd ed., revised. and additional – M.: GEOTAR-Media, 2008.

English sensation) - ^psychophysical process of direct sensory reflection (cognition) of individual properties of phenomena and objects of the objective world, i.e. the process of reflection of the direct impact of stimuli on the sense organs, irritation of the latter (see Analyzer), as well as 2) arising as a result of this process subjective (mental) experience of strength, quality, localization and other characteristics of the impact on the sense organs (receptors).

Initially, the doctrine of philosophy arose and developed in philosophy as part of the theory of knowledge. According to the established tradition, in philosophy the term O. is interpreted broadly, covering all phenomena of sensory reflection (see Sensory reflection), including perception and memory representations. Already in the 5th century. BC e. Heraclitus and Protagoras considered philosophy as a source of human knowledge. In the 18th century O. becomes the central topic of discussions among representatives of empirical psychology and philosophy. The mechanistic understanding of thoughts as the elementary “building blocks” of the psyche has become particularly widespread in associative psychology. Thus, W. Wundt distinguished between perception and perception, while perception was understood as a complex of associatively related perceptions.

In the works of domestic psychologists (for example, A. N. Leontiev), the idea of the active, effective nature of the processes of reflecting even individual properties of objects was established. During these processes, the dynamics of the movement of the sense organs are “likened” to the properties of perceived objects (see Perceptual actions), and it is quite obvious that such an active “likening” is at the same time a reconstruction, restoration, and not a passive copying. Of great importance for overcoming naive-associative views on O. were the works of representatives of Gestalt psychology, who rightly rejected the existence of isolated O., from which perception is built as a result of association. It was clearly shown that the same stimulus does not always generate the same O., on the contrary, it can be felt very differently depending on the whole in which it appears. Currently, the problems of vision are being intensively developed in the psychophysics of sensory processes and various branches of psychology.

The diversity of the environment reflects the qualitative diversity of the surrounding world. O.'s classification may have different bases. 1. The division of visual perception by modality is widespread, in connection with which visual, auditory, tactile, and other visual sensors are distinguished. Within individual modalities, a more detailed classification into qualities or submodalities is possible, for example, spatial and color visual visual signals. Known difficulties for such a classification represents the existence of intermodal O., or synesthesia. 2. English physiologist Ch. Sherrington (1906) proposed a classification of oxygen based on the anatomical position of the receptors and their function. He identified 3 main classes of oxygen: 1) exteroceptive, arising from the influence of external stimuli on receptors that are located on the surface of the body; 2) proprioceptive, reflecting the movement and relative position of body parts due to the work of receptors located in muscles, tendons and joint capsules (see Proprioceptors); 3) interoceptive (organic), signaling with the help of special receptors about the occurrence of metabolic processes in the internal environment of the body (see Interoceptors, Organic sensations). In turn, exteroceptive perceptions are divided into distant (visual, auditory) and contact (tactile, gustatory). Olfactory perceptions occupy an intermediate position between these subclasses of exteroception. This classification does not take into account the known independence of O.’s function from the morphological localization of receptors. In particular, visual images can have an important kinesthetic function (N.A. Bernstein, J. Gibson). 3. An attempt to create a genetic classification of O. was made by the English. neurologist X. Head (1918), who identified the more ancient protopathic sensitivity and the younger epicritic.

O. arises in phylogenesis on the basis of elementary irritability as sensitivity to stimuli that do not have direct environmental significance (neutral stimuli), thereby reflecting the objective connection between biotic and abiotic environmental factors. In contrast to the activities of animals, the activities of humans are mediated by his practical activities and the entire process of historical development of society. Numerous data on the possibility of broad restructuring of sensitivity under the influence of objective labor activity speak in favor of the historical understanding of philosophy as “a product of the development of all world history” (K. Marx). As a source of human knowledge about the world around us, oxygen enters into the integral process of cognition, forming the sensory fabric of human consciousness. A variety of psychosensory disorders should be distinguished from true O. See also Duration of sensation, Intensity of sensation.

FEELING

constructing images of individual properties of objects in the surrounding world in the process of direct interaction with them. The classifications of sensations use different bases. According to modality, visual, gustatory, auditory, tactile and other sensations are distinguished. Based on the neurophysiological substrate, exteroceptive, proprioceptive and interoreceptive sensations are distinguished. Based on genetic basis (G. Head, 1918), more ancient protopathic and younger epicritic sensitivity are distinguished.

FEELING

Sensation; Empfmdung) is a psychological function that comprehends immediate reality with the help of the senses.

“By sensation I understand what the French psychologists call “la fonction du reel” (the function of reality), which constitutes the totality of my awareness of external facts received by me through the function of my senses. Sensation tells me that something is, it is not tells me what it is, but only testifies that this something is present” (AP, p. 18).

“Sensation should be strictly distinguished from feeling, because feeling is a completely different process, which can, for example, join sensation as a “sensory coloring”, “sensory tone”. Sensation refers not only to external physical stimulation, but also to internal, that is, to changes in internal organic processes" (PT, par. 775).

“Therefore, sensation is, first of all, sensory perception, i.e., perception accomplished through sensory organs and “bodily sense” (kinesthetic, vasomotor sensations, etc.). Sensation is, on the one hand, an element of representation, because it conveys representation is a perceptual image of an external object, on the other hand, an element of feeling, because through the perception of a bodily change it gives the feeling the character of affect. By transmitting bodily changes to consciousness, sensation is also a representative of physiological drives. However, it is not identical with them, because it is purely perceptual function" (ibid., par. 776).

"One should understand the difference between sensual (sensual) or concrete sensation and abstract sensation<...>The fact is that a specific sensation never appears in a “pure” form, but is always mixed with ideas, feelings and thoughts. On the contrary, abstract sensation is a differentiated mode of perception, which could be called "aesthetic" insofar as it, following its own principle, separates itself both from all admixture of differences inherent in the perceived object, and from all subjective admixture of feeling and thought, since he is thereby elevated to a degree of purity never accessible to concrete sensation. For example, the specific sensation of a flower conveys not only the perception of the flower itself, but also its stem, leaves, the place where it grows, etc. Moreover, it is immediately confused with feelings of pleasure or displeasure caused by the sight of a flower, or with olfactory perceptions evoked at the same time, or with thoughts, for example, about its botanical classification. On the contrary, abstract sensation immediately singles out some conspicuous sensory attribute of a flower, for example its bright red color, and makes it the sole or main content of consciousness, apart from all the above-mentioned impurities" (ibid., par. 777).

“Sensation, since it is an elementary phenomenon, is something unconditionally given, not subject to rational laws, as opposed to thinking or feeling. Therefore, I call it an irrational function, although the mind manages to introduce a large number of sensations into rational connections. Normal sensations are proportional, i.e. that is, when assessed, they correspond, to one degree or another, to the intensity of physical stimulation. Pathological sensations are not proportional, that is, they are either abnormally reduced or abnormally elevated; in the first case they are delayed, in the second they are exaggerated. Detention occurs from the predominance of another function over sensation - exaggeration from an abnormal merger with another function, for example, from the fusion of sensation with the still undifferentiated function of feeling or thought (PT, par. 779).

FEELING

sensation) Elementary particles of experience from which PERCEPTIONS and ideas are formed, i.e. light, sound, olfactory, tactile, taste, pain, heat, cold. The sensations depend on the organ being stimulated, and not on the object stimulating it.

FEELING

The first stage of human cognitive activity. O. is a reflection of the properties of objects in the objective world, both the external environment and one’s own body. They arise as a result of the influence of objects in the external world on the senses. O. represent the process of sensory-figurative reflection of objects and phenomena in the unity of their properties. The process of perception is formed on the basis of sensations. Sensations are distinguished by modality (visual, auditory, etc.). Three main classes of O.: exteroceptive (distant and contact); proprioceptive or kinesthetic; interoceptive or organic. In the genetic aspect, H. Head shared the more ancient protopathic and younger epicritic sensitivity.

Feeling

According to my understanding, it is one of the main psychological functions (see). Wundt [For the history of the concept of sensation, see /78- Bd.I. S.350; 117; 118; 119/] also considers sensation one of the elementary mental phenomena. Sensation or the process of sensation is that psychological function that, through mediation, transmits physical irritation to perception. Therefore, sensation is identical with perception. Sensation should be strictly distinguished from feeling, because feeling is a completely different process, which can, for example, join sensation as a “sensory coloring”, “sensory tone”. Sensation refers not only to external physical irritation, but also to internal, that is, to changes in internal organic processes.

Therefore, sensation is, first of all, sensory perception, that is, perception accomplished through sensory organs and “bodily sense” (kinesthetic, vasomotor sensations, etc.). Sensation is, on the one hand, an element of representation, because it conveys to the representation a perceptual image of an external object, on the other hand, it is an element of feeling, because through the perception of a bodily change it gives the feeling the character of affect (see). By transmitting bodily changes to consciousness, sensation is also a representative of physiological drives. However, it is not identical with them, because it is a purely perceptual function.

One should distinguish between sensual (sensual) or concrete (q.v.) sensation and abstract sensation (q.v.). The first includes the forms discussed above. The latter designates an abstract type of sensation, that is, isolated from other psychological elements. The fact is that a specific sensation never appears in a “pure” form, but is always mixed with ideas, feelings and thoughts. On the contrary, abstract sensation is a differentiated kind of perception, which could be called "aesthetic" insofar as it, following its own principle, separates itself both from all admixture of differences inherent in the perceived object, and from all subjective admixture of feeling and thought, and because he is thereby elevated to a degree of purity never accessible to concrete sensation. For example, the specific sensation of a flower conveys not only the perception of the flower itself, but also its stem, leaves, the place where it grows, etc. Moreover, it is immediately confused with feelings of pleasure or displeasure caused by the sight of the flower, or with those caused by at the same time with olfactory perceptions, or with thoughts, for example, about its botanical classification. On the contrary, abstract sensation immediately singles out some conspicuous sensory attribute of a flower, for example its bright red color, and makes it the sole or main content of consciousness, apart from all the above-mentioned impurities. Abstract sensation is inherent mainly in the artist. It, like any abstraction, is a product of functional differentiation, and therefore there is nothing original in it. The initial form of functions is always concrete, that is, mixed (see archaism and concretism). A concrete sensation, as such, is a reactive phenomenon. On the contrary, abstract sensation, like any abstraction, is never free from will, that is, from the directing element. The will aimed at the abstraction of sensation is an expression and confirmation of the aesthetic attitude of sensation.

Sensation is especially characteristic of the nature of the child and primitive man, since it, in any case, dominates thinking and feeling, but not necessarily over intuition (see). For I understand sensation as conscious perception, and intuition as unconscious sensation. Sensation and intuition seem to me to be a pair of opposites or two functions that mutually compensate each other, like thinking and feeling. The functions of thinking and feeling develop as independent functions from sensation, both ontogenetically and phylogenetically. (Of course, also from intuition, as it necessarily complements the opposite of sensation.) An individual whose attitude as a whole is oriented by sensation belongs to the sensing (sensitive) type (see)

Sensation, since it is an elementary phenomenon, is something unconditionally given, not subject to rational laws, as opposed to thinking or feeling. Therefore, I call it an irrational function (see), although reason manages to introduce a large number of sensations into rational connections. Normal sensations are proportional, that is, when assessed, they correspond - to varying degrees - to the intensity of physical stimulation. Pathological sensations are disproportionate, that is, they are either abnormally reduced or abnormally elevated; in the first case they are delayed, in the second they are exaggerated. Retention arises from the predominance of another function over sensation; exaggeration comes from an abnormal merger with another function, for example, from the fusion of sensation with a still undifferentiated function of feeling or thought. But in this case, the exaggeration of the sensation stops as soon as the function merged with the sensation differentiates itself. Particularly clear examples are provided by the psychology of neuroses, where very often a significant sexualization of other functions is found (Freud), that is, the fusion of sexual sensations with other functions.

FEELING

constructing images of individual properties of objects in the external world in the process of direct interaction with them. From the standpoint of materialism, according to the theory of reflection, sensations are truly a direct connection between consciousness and the outside world, the transformation of the energy of external stimuli into facts of consciousness - into information. They provide a direct connection between consciousness and the external environment, reflecting the properties of objects in the objective world. Reflection in sensation is the result of not just the impact of an object on a living being, but the result of their interaction - the interaction of processes that meet each other halfway and give rise to an act of cognition; the result of the interaction of the organism with the physical and chemical properties of the environment when they directly affect the receptors.

In the act of sensation through the senses, a connection with the environment is established. It is in it that the transition of the energy of the external world into an act of consciousness takes place. Images of sensations perform regulatory, cognitive and emotional functions. Sensations and the preservation of their traces are the natural basis of the psyche in phylogenesis and ontogenesis.

The central pattern of sensations is the existence of a perception threshold.

Within the framework of the reflex concept of I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov conducted studies that showed that according to physiological mechanisms, sensation is an integral reflex that unites the peripheral and central parts of the analyzer through direct and reverse connections.

The problems of sensations are being intensively developed in the psychophysics of sensory processes and various branches of physiology. The variety of sensations reflects the qualitative diversity of the world.

Classification of sensations can be carried out on different grounds. They, like perceptions, can be classified by modality, highlighting visual, gustatory, auditory, tactile sensations, etc. Within individual modalities, a more detailed classification is possible - for example, spatial and color visual sensations. Intermodal sensations, or synesthesia, present known difficulties for such a classification.

You can divide sensations into contact and distant.

One of the classifications identifies three main classes of sensations:

1) exteroceptive sensations that arise when external stimuli act on receptors located on the surface of the body; they, in turn, are divided into two subclasses: a) distant - visual, auditory; b) contact - tactile, gustatory; olfactory sensations occupy an intermediate position between these subclasses.

2) proprioceptive (kinesthetic) sensations, reflecting the movement and relative position of body parts (due to the work of receptors located in muscles, tendons and joint capsules);

3) interoceptive (organic) sensations, signaling with the help of specialized receptors about the occurrence of metabolic processes in the internal environment of the body.

But this classification does not take into account the known independence of the function of sensations from the morphological localization of receptors. Thus, visual sensations can perform an important proprioceptive function.

There are known attempts to create a genetic classification of sensations (G. Head, 1918). Thus, the more ancient - eryopathic and younger - epicritic sensitivity are distinguished. Protopathic sensations, unlike epicritic ones, do not provide an exact localization of the source of irritation either in external space or in the space of the body, are characterized by a constant affective coloring and reflect subjective states rather than objective processes.

According to the concepts developed in Russian psychology, sensation arises in phylogenesis on the basis of elementary irritability - as sensitivity to stimuli that do not have direct environmental significance, reflecting the connection between biotic and abiotic environmental factors.

Unlike the sensations of animals, human sensations are mediated by his practical activities and the entire process of historical development of society. From the standpoint of materialism, in favor of understanding sensation as a product of the development of the entire world history, there are numerous data on the possibility of wide restructuring of sensitivity under the influence of objective work activity, as well as on the dependence of the perception of individual properties of objects on socially developed systems of sensory qualities (such as the system of phonemes of the native language, scales musical or color tones).

sensation) - feeling: the result of processing in the brain information about the objects surrounding a person, which enters it in the form of messages (signals) from receptors. Messages coming from exteroceptors are interpreted by the brain in the form of specific sensations - visual and auditory images, smell, taste, temperature, pain, etc. Messages coming from interoceptors usually very rarely reach consciousness and cause any sensations to arise in a person.

Feeling

Kinds. The classifications of sensations use different bases. According to modality, visual, gustatory, auditory, tactile and other sensations are distinguished. Based on the neurophysiological substrate, exteroceptive, proprioceptive and interoreceptive sensations are distinguished. On the basis of genetics, G. Head (1918) identified the more ancient protopathic and younger epicritic sensitivity.

FEELING

1. Any unprocessed, elementary experience of feeling or awareness of some conditions inside or outside the body, caused by the stimulation of some receptor or system of receptors, sensory data. This definition represents a kind of operational principle for a number of theories of sensory experience and is what is presented in most introductory textbooks, where sensation is usually distinguished from perception, the latter being characterized as resulting from the interpretation and detailed elaboration of sensations. However, many psychologists dispute the very idea that one can have any sensation at all without elaborating, interpreting, labeling, or recognizing what it is. 2. In Titchener’s structuralism, it is one of the three basic elements of consciousness (along with feelings and images). 3. The process of sensation. 4. The name of the field of psychology that studies these basic processes of sensory experience. The main focus here is on the study of physiological and psychophysical principles.