As Dr Schaefer spoke today, he mentioned in passing the usage of "tactile memory" as a means in which med students learn of human anatomy. (He spoke of learning the feel of "normal" or "healthy" organs in order to determine illnesses and abnormalities).
This brought to mind a series of questions: How do you distinguish memory of different senses? Is there even a distinction? For example, if the "tactile" memory remembers an item as soft, but the "visual" memory forces you to recall the same object as having a rough exterior, what trumps the other?
I list the five 'sense-based memories' as ways of knowing in this order: tactile, taste, visual, smell, and sound. My opinions are based on my own experiences with the senses; I'm curious to see opinions of others.
To explain my preference of the senses as WOK:
The first is tactile, just because so much information can be gathered from studying an object with one's hands. For example, taking an object in one's hands (with all other senses disregarded), one can learn the shape, a general idea of the material, one can hazard a guess from the shape at the usage of the object.
2. Taste. This appears quite strange in list of importance, but it makes sense (at least for me...) With taste, one can do similar tests as the ones possible with the hands. Putting an object in one's mouth can help determine the texture, (possibly) the size, an idea of the material (metal, for example, has a distinct taste to another material, such as wood or plastic), the durability of the object.
3. Visual. The eyes can determine color, identify shape and use of the object, possibly texture, material. The eyes are limited as to they cannot directly contact the object; unlike touch or taste, the eye is limited to only what the object "seems" to look like: if I had a pencil, for example, carved out of wood, painted like a generic Number 2 pencil, complete with lead colored paint, shiny metallic paint, and pink paint for the rubber, my eyes could be deceived into believing that it's an actual pencil. But by feeling it (or by tasting the materials) I would be able to determine that a) it does not taste like lead at its tip, the pencil lead is not separating from the wood at my touch (or in my mouth) , it must not be a real pencil, and b) the eraser is not textured correctly, this is not a pencil.
4/5. To be completely honest, I find that smell and sound are rather close in validity. The nature of both senses is so determinant upon the item being studied that I feel that there is no fair way for me to judge one more useful than the other as a WOK.
How do you disagree/agree with these orders?
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2 comments:
Trying to decide which sense is more useful is like trying to decide which way of knowing is more useful. There's a reason we have more than one sense. One would use all of them depending on the situation. However I would say that sight is the most important as far as survival goes. As far as distinguishing the senses the receptors for each are in different parts of the brain so i guess they would be remembered as such. But I'm not exactly sure what your trying to ask. The only time you might have a knowledge issue is when you sense something and it goes against what you remembered. For example in the state of Washington during the beginning of summer there is still snow on the mountains. So if one had not been to the a mountain during the early summer in washington one might assume that it is winter but that would not be the case. Is this what you are talking about? I'm just not sure what you are asking.
Stephanie-I was just wondering how other people would order their senses (as levels of importance, depending on what each individual thought of the particular applications of each sense as a way of knowing).
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