Sensory Stimulus Experience, Essay Example

A sensory stimulus is something that evokes a response in a cell or organ. Sensory organs, the ears, eyes, skin, tongue, and nose, act as receptors to stimuli and transmit the message to our brains. Sometimes it is a good message, such as when we wake up to the smell of our favorite breakfast foods cooking or feel the refreshing coolness of jumping into a swimming pool on a hot day. Sometimes the message interpreted by the brain is not so enjoyable. For instance, the smell experienced when passing by a recently hit skunk on the side of the road combined with the stomach-churning image of the dead skunk itself; the mouth-watering taste sensation of your favorite desert or the chilling sound of nails drawn slowly down a chalkboard. Together, these different experiences are examples of the five senses: hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell.

How our brains interpret the stimulus messages sent by sensory organs varies according to each individual. Just as we have unique thoughts and emotions, we have unique sensory experiences. These, like our thoughts and emotions, are often shaped by events and experiences in childhood and throughout our lives. Sometimes a negative memory will be associated with a particular smell or sound and so that smell or sound will create negative sensory experiences whenever heard or smelled. For instance, if you were lost in the supermarket as a young child and the song YMCA was playing while you wondered around looking for your mother, you might have a negative association with the song and think it is the most horrible collection of noise you have ever heard. People have these associations, good and bad for many different reasons, but the main point is that they have them. Sometimes, sensory experiences can lead to humorous actions.

In high school, I had a classmate who loved perfume, cologne and scented sprays. This classmate had a dresser drawer full of different perfumes, colognes, and sprays and each day, would wear a different scent. As is often the case in high school we had a clique, a group of seven of us who hung out almost exclusively. Given that each individual experiences sensory experiences differently, we all had differing opinions about the scents my classmate wore. Some of them I rather liked, others I did not. The others in our group felt the same about different scents. What happened because of this was rather humorous.

My classmate and I rode the bus together, so while on the bus I would text the others and let them know which scent was worn that day. See, which of us hung out with my classmate that day depended on which particular scent was worn on that day. There were at least three of us together, including the scentsy classmate, in each class. It was part of the reason we all hung out. So we would switch our seats, this person sitting across the room one day, someone else sitting across the room the next. We would come up with fake errands during lunch for those that didn’t like the scent that day. This continued for months before it finally occurred to my classmate that something weird was going on.

When my classmate finally realized their smell was offending some of us, it was embarrassing at first. Then my classmate was angry. Eventually, though, my classmate realized that not everyone liked or disliked all of the scents, though we did like them. The reason for going to such humorous lengths, of course. My classmate toned down the scenting and we all got to experience how different individuals experience sensory stimulus differently.