Читать книгу An Introduction to Intercultural Communication - Fred E. Jandt - Страница 106

Can we really say that there is a world external to our minds—that is, independent of our awareness of it? We do make that assumption. Early 20th-century quantum mechanics posited that on a subatomic level the observer is an active part of the observed. Wexler (2008) wants us to recognize how integrated our minds are with the external world: “The relationship between the individual and the environment is so extensive that it almost overstates the distinction between the two to speak of a relationship at all” (p. 39). Sensory input is a physical interaction; for example, cells in our mouths and noses have receptor molecules that combine with molecules from the environment to initiate electrical impulses. Our perception and thought processes are not independent of the cultural environment.

If our perception and thought processes are such a part of “what is out there,” what, then, is the relationship between changes in the cultural environment and who we are? Wexler points out that we humans shape our environment and, hence, it can be said that the human brain shapes itself to a human-made environment. Our brain both is shaped by the external world and shapes our perception of the external world.

Sensation is the neurological process by which we become aware of our environment. Of the human senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, including pain, temperature, and pressure, are the most studied (Gordon, 1971). The world appears quite different to other forms of life with different sensory ranges: A bat, for example, senses the world through ultrasound; a snake does so through infrared light; some fish sense distortions of electrical fields through receptors on the surface of their bodies—none of these are directly sensed by humans. But is there significant variation in sensation among individual humans? You need to remember that sensation is a neurological process. You are directly aware not of what is in the physical world but, rather, of your own internal sensations. When you report “seeing” a tree, what you are aware of is actually an electrochemical event. Much neural processing takes place between the receipt of a stimulus and your awareness of a sensation (Cherry, 1957). Is variation in human sensation attributable to culture? Pioneering psychologist William James explained that sensory data come to us not “ready-made” but in an “unpackaged” state that we assemble into something coherent and meaningful from rules of perception we learn in our culture (see, e.g., James, 1890).