senseconsequences

Senseconsequences is a term used in cognitive science and philosophy to describe the chain of effects following sensory input. It refers to the ways that external signals are perceived, interpreted, attributed meaning, and transformed into beliefs, decisions, and actions. The concept emphasizes the consequences that perception has for behavior and for subsequent information processing.

Core components include sensory input, encoding and filtering, interpretation or meaning attribution, expectations and priors, decision rules or action selection, and feedback effects that alter future perception or learning.

Relation to other ideas: it overlaps with the perception–action cycle, sensemaking, and predictive processing. Unlike purely perceptual accounts, senseconsequences foreground the downstream impact on choices and outcomes.

Applications: in human factors design, user experience, safety engineering, and AI ethics, analyzing senseconsequences helps identify potential biases, unintended harms, and design failures. In experiments, researchers might manipulate sensory cues to observe changes in decisions, mood, or performance.

Critics argue that the term can be vague and that empirical measurement of 'consequences' is context-dependent. Some scholars stress cultural and individual variation in interpretation and response. Related terms include sensemaking, the perception–action loop, and predictive processing, all of which inform how sensory data translate into real-world outcomes.