Colorado POST Practice Exam 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The choice of hallucinating that someone has attacked you serves as a clear example of sensory distortion. Sensory distortion occurs when a person's perception of reality becomes altered, leading them to experience sensations that do not correspond to actual external stimuli. In this case, the individual perceives an attack that is not occurring, suggesting that their sensory experience is heavily distorted.

This scenario reflects how the brain can misinterpret or create sensations that do not have a direct link to reality. Hallucinations, particularly tactile or auditory ones, are classic examples of sensory distortion because they involve the perception of stimuli that are not present, leading to potentially dangerous misconceptions about the immediate environment.

Other options do not quite capture the essence of sensory distortion in the same way. For example, believing a friend has betrayed you primarily falls into the realm of cognitive distortion rather than sensory alteration. Seeing shadows in low light may indicate a misinterpretation of visual stimuli but does not imply a complete fabrication of sensory experience. Lastly, misinterpreting loud sounds as gunfire could suggest a heightened state of alertness or anxiety, which again is not as stark a departure from reality as hallucination.