How did sensory perception of sound, smell and light affect performance in battle?
Perception is the organization, translation and reconstructing of incoming information from the senses. During war, soldiers’ perception processes may be dulled/slowed down by continuous exposal to war stimuli. The sensations of size, contrast, repitition and movement (the five main stimuli which force one to pay attention to them) may become warped from tiring/almost surreal scenarios. On the other hand, soldiers’ perception may become even more acute that it was before from constant awareness in order to stay alive. Perceptual sets (internal factors tuned to particular stimuli types) may be formed towards certain sounds, scents, visual scenarios or even daily routine.
