KWC class experiences 'loss' of sight for assignment

Feb. 2—Students in Angela Mackey's Sensation and Perception class at Kentucky Wesleyan College spent time blindfolded to experience the loss of a primary sense — vision.

The blindfolded students were guided by classmates and Mackey around campus to experience challenges someone without sight may face on a daily basis. Each student acts as a guide and are blindfolded during the course of the assignment.

Mackey, an associate professor of psychology, said she has conducted the project about four times since beginning at KWC eight years ago.

"It's not necessarily related to course content, but we're going to get into all of the things about how the visual system works, from how eyes capture light and transferred to the brain and how your brain processes that to come up with an image of what you're seeing," she said.

Mackey said the human species is "extremely visual," and part of the assignment is taking that sense away from students to have them realize what can go wrong without vision.

"We will talk about different issues people can have with vision," she said, "whether it's because they've had brain damage or because specific parts of their brain aren't working as normal."

Getting the students thinking about how much they rely on vision is the main concept of the project — and what happens when they no longer have that, Mackey said.

After the assignment, students write a reflection paper on their experiences.

"When I have them reflect, I have them reflect on both sides of the activity," Mackey said.

When questioned about their experiences being blindfolded, Mackey asks the students to reflect on experiences that they normally wouldn't pay attention to.

"Things like if they had any clue of where we were on campus and how they knew," she said. "Sometimes they knew we went into the Winchester because they could smell the food or they can hear students talking or the clinking of the flagpole."

Because Mackey leads the students around in "unexpected ways," she said sometimes the students have no idea where they are on campus.

"It just kind of depends on the student and what they're paying attention to in terms of whether they really understand where they are," she said.

Some students will make note of how the pathways around the campus are uneven, Mackey said.

"When you're sighted, you don't pay any attention to the fact that there's cracks you can trip on or tree branch pieces that have fallen down," she said.

On the other side of the assignment, when students reflect on their experience as a guide, Mackey said there are similar answers.

"They usually talk about how they didn't like the responsibility of having someone in their care, watching out and being hyper vigilant for that person," she said. "They also tend to talk about how they had no clue how much time we spent."

Mackey said students are led around campus for about 15 to 20 minutes, but some students said it felt like longer.

In past assignments, Mackey said she would have one student "lose" their hearing and their vision.

"I'd give them silicon ear plugs and have them stick those in their ears," she said. "It doesn't completely mask their hearing, but it's enough to where they can't see or hear."

The assignment also helps give students more of a sense of empathy toward people who aren't "normal" in terms of their brains not processing information in the same way, Mackey said.

"That can be with our senses, but it can be with someone who has ADHD and not being able to process information in the same way as a typically-developing person," she said. "I think what this does is build empathy, and anyone who is going to be working in the field of psychology, in terms of clinical or counseling, at least, needs to be able to be empathetic and understand that your experience is not what everyone experiences."