Stimuli: The Foundation at L1

Function & Name

Stimulus as the 1st Level in the Primary Hierarchy of Communication: the foundation and the means of all communication.

The sender actively emits or generates stimuli and these are the elemental psychological means in any communicative event. To have any communicative effect, the stimulus must generate sufficient impact to make contact. This impact is biologically mediated via a recipient's sensory organs, but for our psychosocial purposes, communication depends on noticing and perceiving.

So this is Communication at Level-1. «Stimulus» is the THEE-name for «the psychosocial use of biological mechanisms for sending or receiving a message.»

Technology?Closed Of course, biology may use technology to simplify, amplify, mechanize or otherwise mediate communication: but the drum must be physically hit or the keyboard must be physically tapped. Our bodies cannot be removed from the equation.

There do not appear to be any alternate names or even close synonyms for 'stimulus'

Stimuli are not intrinsically meaningful, but they serve as the essential infrastructure i.e. they are pure means for communication. Read an evolutionary story about this.

To restate: For a communicative event to occur:

  • the sender (or initiator) must generate Stimuli-L1 that are psychosocially appropriate and recognizable i.e. have the potential to convey meaning or make sense and that are intense enough to create an impact.
  • the recipient must notice the Stimuli-L1 i.e. give attention to what is sensed or felt and recognize the potential for meaning. ClosedExamples of sensing stimuli:
  • hearing sounds
  • smelling odours
  • feeling touch/pressure
  • sensing tastes
  • feeling pain
  • seeing sights, especially in regard to the body (e.g. postures, gestures, a look in the eye, facial movements).

In all THEE Primary Hierarchies: At L1, the form taken by the entity is the most simple and the most concrete that can be judged to be an example of the psychosocial phenomenon. However, it is evidently the infrastructure or means, rather than the phenomenon itself—which in this case is: Communication.

From a Communication perspective, Stimulus fits all requirements:

  • created by a person
    i.e. fits the initiator/sender criterion;
  • noticeable by a person
    i.e. fits the recipient criterion;
  • depends on biology
    i.e. fits the human criterion;
  • the simplest deliberate form of Communication
    i.e. fits THEE's L1 criterion. 

As we will see, Stimuli are:

  • intrinsic to all the more complex, higher-level forms of communication
    i.e. fits the hierarchy criterion.

Errors & Failure

A human Stimulus must be socially recognizable as a communication—or it is just another stimulus-sensation, amongst innumerable stimuli that bombard us, continually, as long as we live. 

Speculation about Animals:Closed They communicate via stimuli and sensing; bodily organs and cells also communicate with each other (neuronally, chemically). Except perhaps in animals very close to man, these communications are pre-programmed or instinct-based and interaction is not socially planned.

Communication can fail spectacularly at the Stimulus Level due to:

  • inattention—to stimuli-sensations;
  • deliberately ignoring the stimulus;
  • biological deficiencies  e.g. blindness, deafness. ClosedMore.
  • Stimuli-L1 are necessary but insufficient for our communications: proceed to the next level.

Originally posted: 18-Mar-2011; Last updated 25-Sep-2011.