Final answer:
Jean is experiencing a sensation according to a structuralist perspective, which is the basic information from the senses prior to any cognitive interpretation that would form a perception. Option a.
Step-by-step explanation:
A structuralist would note that Jean is experiencing a sensation when she sees a flash of light. Sensations are the initial information we get through our senses like smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing. Perception, on the other hand, is the interpretation of these sensations, a process that involves higher levels in the nervous system and ultimately the brain. It's important to differentiate between sensation and perception because sensation is the direct outcome of stimulation on sensory receptors, whereas perception is our cognitive interpretation of these sensations.
Perception plays a role as a source of justification for our beliefs, but it goes beyond mere acquaintance with sensory data. According to philosophers like Russell, knowledge by acquaintance is directly related to sensations and sense data, while inferential knowledge, or propositional knowledge, requires induction from past experiences to reach a belief about the reliability of perception. Hence, when Jean sees the flash of light, she is directly experiencing a sensation, not yet engaging in the process of perception, which would be the interpretation or assumption made based on that sensation.