Perception and Sensation Activity

Tasharnie BullockHCI College

Perception and Sensation Activity

For this sensation activity, I had my sister blindfold me, and she dared me to do the house chores while blindfolded. She had me do my entire morning routine while blindfolded, from making breakfast, cleaning the dishes, tidying the house and doing laundry. I must admit that it was a fun yet challenging experience at the same time. I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy the experience. The first task I completed was making my bed as soon as I woke up while blindfolded. This was not difficult for me because it is something I enjoy doing every day. The first thing I do as soon as I wake up is making my bed, and I do it, in the same manner every day. I find it difficult to do anything else when I have not made my bed. So for me, this task was a walk in the park. The next task was to make breakfast while blindfolded. I like making my bed every day, I enjoyed completing this task while blindfolded. I did not struggle because I am not the kind of person that takes a heavy breakfast in the morning. A cup of black coffee and toast is all I need. Preparing breakfast was easy because I just need to fill my coffee maker and throw some bread in the toaster. Next, I had to do the dirty dishes. I was lucky as the dirty dishes were not that many and all I had to do was place them in the dishwasher. Again since this is the routine I follow every day, I did not find it like much of a task. However, I struggled a bit to wash the wine glasses because I prefer to hand-wash them. Since I washed them myself, I had no way to know when they got clean, and whether I got all the spots, I had to rely on my senses to know if I had cleaned them thoroughly. Apart from the wine glasses, the rest of the dishwashing experience was not hard. The blindfold did not hinder me from doing the job right. Afterwards, I washed some dirty laundry while blindfolded. I also did not struggle with this task; the only task was sorting the clothes and throwing them in the washer and dryer. Again this is a task I do by myself nearly every other day, which is why I did not mind doing it while blindfolded.

Yes, I do think that when a person loses one of their senses, their other senses tend to get stronger. I do believe that this is the case because I experienced it myself as I was completing this blindfold exercise. Before doing this exercise, I did not know the impact that loss of one of the senses can have on the rest of the senses. But after carrying out these exercises, I now believe that all senses are interrelated. I made my bed, made breakfast, washed dishes, and did laundry all while blindfolded. I can tell you for sure that when one of our senses is blocked and non-functional, the rest of the senses have a way of compensating. Because my vision was blocked, I found a way to make the most use of my sense of my senses of touch, smell, and hearing. I used my hands to feel the wine glasses and determine whether they were clean enough. For me to complete the tasks successfully, I had to rely on my other senses. I could not move around the house from one room to the next while in a blindfold without the help of my other senses. Because of this, I believe that when one sense is lost, the other sense tends to compensate for that loss by getting stronger.