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Milty's Mag, December 1941
31858063105104_008
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Milty's Mag Page eight quently becomes is a result of the environment to which he is subjected. And by environment psychologists mean every single sensory stimulus which the individual experiences from the first minute of birth on. Therefore, since evidence tends to show that primitive likes and dislikes run more or less in the same direction for most people, there is actually no basis on which to postulate a difference of sensory perception. What differences there are between the likes and dislikes of individuals are explainable by conditioning. We cannot, as Schumann asks us to do, disregard conditioning, for conditioning enters into every perceptual organization we make following the first moments of our lives. When it comes to likes and dislikes of a higher stage than those thus far discussed, conditioning is all-important. In music, while inborn characteristics do have their part (naturally the person who cannot distinguish between C and C-sharp is not going to appreciate the subtleties of Ravel's Daphne and Chloe Suite) experience plays a major role in determining to what extent he will be able to organize complex musical patterns. Appreciating the appearance of another person is a mental organization of the very highest order, and it can be stated pretty definitively that it is dependent upon experience. Apparently Schumann fails to make the distinction between the observation of simple sensory stimuli and the subsequent organization of such stimuli into meaningful patterns. You cannot say that merely because A thinks a given female is beautiful and B does not, that A is receiving different stimuli than B. Between the stimulation and the final appreciation lies a process of mental organization that is so complex that psychologists have just begun to trace it, even using the shorthand of symbolic logic. It is within that purely neural process that the secret of likes and dislikes lies. One or two more points will serve to tie up loose ends. If differences in likes and dislikes is the result of differences in sensory perception, then what happens when a person changes likes and dislikes? When I finally came around to liking spinach, alcohol, and tobacco, was it because my senses changed? I think not. In reference to the liver which Schumann mentioned, there are two complicating factors which must be mentioned: First, the taste of liver is not a simple stimulus, but a complex one which is subject to mental organization; second, when speaking of foods and odors, chemistry must be taken into account. People might be allergic to them. So, finally to make a conclusion: While there may exist subjective differences in sensory perception between individuals, there appears to be no reason, either logical or experimental, for these differences to have any effect upon human behavior, and, conversely, there is no reason for deducing the present of these difference from observed behavior.
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Milty's Mag Page eight quently becomes is a result of the environment to which he is subjected. And by environment psychologists mean every single sensory stimulus which the individual experiences from the first minute of birth on. Therefore, since evidence tends to show that primitive likes and dislikes run more or less in the same direction for most people, there is actually no basis on which to postulate a difference of sensory perception. What differences there are between the likes and dislikes of individuals are explainable by conditioning. We cannot, as Schumann asks us to do, disregard conditioning, for conditioning enters into every perceptual organization we make following the first moments of our lives. When it comes to likes and dislikes of a higher stage than those thus far discussed, conditioning is all-important. In music, while inborn characteristics do have their part (naturally the person who cannot distinguish between C and C-sharp is not going to appreciate the subtleties of Ravel's Daphne and Chloe Suite) experience plays a major role in determining to what extent he will be able to organize complex musical patterns. Appreciating the appearance of another person is a mental organization of the very highest order, and it can be stated pretty definitively that it is dependent upon experience. Apparently Schumann fails to make the distinction between the observation of simple sensory stimuli and the subsequent organization of such stimuli into meaningful patterns. You cannot say that merely because A thinks a given female is beautiful and B does not, that A is receiving different stimuli than B. Between the stimulation and the final appreciation lies a process of mental organization that is so complex that psychologists have just begun to trace it, even using the shorthand of symbolic logic. It is within that purely neural process that the secret of likes and dislikes lies. One or two more points will serve to tie up loose ends. If differences in likes and dislikes is the result of differences in sensory perception, then what happens when a person changes likes and dislikes? When I finally came around to liking spinach, alcohol, and tobacco, was it because my senses changed? I think not. In reference to the liver which Schumann mentioned, there are two complicating factors which must be mentioned: First, the taste of liver is not a simple stimulus, but a complex one which is subject to mental organization; second, when speaking of foods and odors, chemistry must be taken into account. People might be allergic to them. So, finally to make a conclusion: While there may exist subjective differences in sensory perception between individuals, there appears to be no reason, either logical or experimental, for these differences to have any effect upon human behavior, and, conversely, there is no reason for deducing the present of these difference from observed behavior.
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