Quantitative Psychological Theory and Musings

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Another Busted Myth: 5 Senses

I may as well post this now, for those who like shorter, punchier offerings.  It is commonly taught and repeated that we have 5 senses.  Well, we don't.  We have at least 7.  Below is a section from my very last post, which was on the subject of learning:

...senses include sight, hearing, touch, smell, pain, proprioception, and some vestibular system functions. The latter two are not commonly thought of as senses, but demonstrably are. Proprioception is revealed as the ability to know the orientation of your limbs, even though you are not using sight, hearing, touch, or pain reception to supply such information. The vestibular system allows you to know the orientation of your entire body, without the use of the above mentioned first five senses, when the system is relatively unperturbed. Hence it offers critical input facilitating walking or other activities that require balance.

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