Page 111 - DMGT518_TRAINING_AND_DEVELOPMENT_SYSTEM

Training and Development System

Notes Hearing

Hearing is another important factor, concerned with knowledge acquisition through talks,
lectures, discussion and the sounds associated with skill stimuli.

Touch

Most important in skill acquisition is the sense of feeling; object, surfaces and textures typical
incoming stimuli.
Smell

This sense is often used as a monitoring device, e.g. the recognition of danger signals such as
burning, gas leak, and also in the setting of standards (e.g. cooking).

Taste

The sampling of materials can be a powerful sensory stimulant and an important aid to learning,
especially in catering and medicine.

Kinaesthesis

This sense often hard to define, is called the ‘sense of muscular feel’. It is demonstrated during
balancing, pushing, pulling and pressing. By experience, we have an innate knowledge of how
much muscular effort we need to exert to perform a certain action. Obviously kinaesthesis is
important in the co-ordinating mechanisms of skill acquisition, and has much to do with practice.

Figure 7.2: The Receptor Process

Sight (Eyes)

Hearing (Ears)
Touch (Skin)
(Discrimination
and
Smell (Nose)
Interpretation)
Taste (Mouth)

Kinaesthesis
(Movement & Balance)
Receptor phase

Perception

Perception is not the same as the use of the senses, since perceiving something implies that we
attach meaning to the stimulus, and can relate it to the previous incoming information. A skilled
cutter in the footwear industry can look at a piece of leather, predict its wear qualities and so
place his pattern accordingly. An ornithologist can distinguish certain types of bird from a flock
which are apparently identical to the lay viewer. There is a discriminatory factor about perception,
and it differs from individual to individual in its power. So obviously perception is important
in skill acquisition particularly the ability to perceive what is important to the satisfactory
completion of the task, from what are merely background factors. Good trainers help the learners’

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