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The term ‘acuity’ refers to the actual physical ability of the sensory organs to receive input. A person’s visual acuity refers to the person’s ability to see; we characterize one’s visual acuity as 20/ 20 vision, or some other numbers to reflect the accuracy of the eyes to see both close and distant objects. Auditory acuity is the person’s ability to hear, and we also characterize one’s hearing with numbers that reflect the decibels that can be heard accurately. Acuity can be corrected with glasses (for vision) and hearing aids (for hearing). These devices enable the person to have more accurate vision or hearing, and either achieve, or approximate the most accurate acuity (e.g., 20/ 20 vision). It is important to understand the distinction between ‘acuity’ and ‘perception’. Perception refers to the person’s ability to understand, or make meaning out of the sensory input received through the sensory organs (such as the eyes and ears). The perceptual process occurs through mechanisms in the brain that link the current sensory information with memories and past experiences with similar sensory information. Acuity is only the part of the process that receives the input accurately, and although it enables perception to occur, acuity only contributes the physical information and not the interpretation part of the process.
References(s):
Kandel, E., Schwartz, J. & Jessell, T. (2000). Principles of Neural Science,
fourth edition. McGraw-Hill Companies, New York.
Suggested Reading(s):
Coren, S., Ward, L, & Enns, J. (1994). Sensation and Perception. Harcourt
Brace College Publications. Fort Worth.
Return to Sensory Processing Concepts