Perception

Definition

Perception is a process of organizing and interpreting information to give it meaning.

Perception provides a meaning awareness and knowledge of the world. Perception is the
acquisition and processing of sensory information in order to see, hear, taste, smell or feel
objects in the world. Perception may involve conscious awareness of objects and events.

Perception is an active process in which past experiences influence. Those experiences

involve learning, memory, beliefs and motivational factors.

In perceptual process sensations are interpreted using knowledge and understanding of

the world, so that they have become meaningful experiences. So perception is not a passive
process of simply absorbing and decoding incoming sensation. Human beings take sensations
and create a coherent world, and fill in missing information about what they see, hear or touch.

Perception is so quick and familiar that it is difficult to appreciate the processes that
allow us to turn the signals from sensory receptor into our personal experience of reality. By
shaping experience, perception, perceptions influence thoughts, feelings and actions. Perception
is a wondrous process which examines how people detect incoming energy, organize sensations
into distinct and stable patterns and recognize them.

In everyday life two processes of sensation and perception are virtually inseparable. The
brain automatically perceives the information it receives from sense organs. For this reason most
psychologists refer to sensation and perception as a unified information processing system
(Goldstein, 2002). According to David Marr (1982), the purpose of perception is to represent
information from the outside world internally.

Stages of Perception

The perception process consists of three stages: selection, organization, and interpretation.

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Selection

Selection is the first stage in the process of perception, during which we convert the
environment stimuli into meaningful experience. In daily life we are bombarded constantly by
such a large variety of information that at a blink moment we may encounter these stimuli: the
words we are hearing, the witness of an accident, the ticking of a clock, to name but a few. Since
our world embraces everything, these are countless stimuli arriving at our sensory organs
simultaneously and waiting to be processed. However, we cannot perceive all the information
available to us, because in doing so we would experience information overload and disorder.
Therefore, we perceive only part of the information from the environment through a selective
process, just as Singer (1987, p.9) notes: “We experience everything in the world not as it is—
but only as the world comes to us through our sensory receptors.”

Organization

The second stage in perception process is organization. After selecting information from
the outside world, we need to organize it in some way by finding certain meaningful patterns.
This organization stage is accomplished by putting things or people into categories, and that is
why it is also termed categorization by some researchers. In this stage of perception, the social
and physical events or objects we encounter will immediately have shape, color, texture, size,
etc.

Perception at this stage enjoys two characteristics. First, the organizing process gives human
perception structure. We always put raw stimuli from the outside world into structured
meaningful experience. Second, the process shows that human perception possesses stability.
That is to say, after we select stimuli and put them into categories, the selected stimuli become
durable.

Interpretation

The third stage in perception is interpretation, which refers to the process of attaching
meaning to the selected stimuli. Once the selected stimuli have been categorized into structured
and stable patterns, we try to make sense of these patterns by assigning meanings to them. But
different people may give different interpretations of the same stimulus. For instance, a police

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officer’s arriving at the crime spot can be interpreted differently—the victim may regard it as
soothing and relief-giving, but the criminal will definitely be frightened by it.

Laws of Perpetual Organization

Simplicity

We tend to organize stimuli in the simplest possible way. We don’t see the pattern as a
complicated figure. People tend to group features of a stimulus in a way that provide the simplest
interpretation of the world (Hatfield, Epstein, 1985, Biederman, 1987).

Similarity

We tend to group together elements that appear similar. Similar elements perceived to be
a part of group. Similarity also affects the perception of sound.

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Proximity

We tend to see the objects in group depending on how they are spaced. The closer objects
are more likely to be perceived as belonging together.

We see not separate six lines, but 3 sets of 2 lines. Proximity means events that occur close
together in space or in time are perceived as belonging together as part of the same figure.

Continuity

The principle of continuity (good continuation) suggests that we tend to see things as
ending up consistent with the way they started off. We tend to perceive a series of stimuli smooth
or continuous. Sensations that appear to create a continuous form are perceived as belonging
together.

The principle may account of some of the ways we organize our perception of people. We are
shocked when an outstanding student of school suddenly performs poor at college. We are
shocked because we want to perceive him as brilliant student like always.

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Common Fate

Sets of objects that are moving in the same direction at the same speed perceived
together.

Thus a flock of birds, although separated in space will be perceived as group. Common fate is
like continuity but for moving stimuli.

Closure

It is the tendency to fill in the missing parts of a figure and see the figure as complete.
The principle of closure states that when individual see a disconnected or incomplete figure, they
fill in the spaces and see it as a complete figure. Closure is a good example that perception is an
active process.

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.

Factors of Perception

Following are the group of factors

1. Objective Factors

2. Subjective Factors

Objective Factors

There are a number of characteristics of stimuli that influence our perception.

Intensity; The louder a sound, the more likely a person is to perceive it. The brighter a light, the
more likely it is to be in the focus of perception.

Size; A full page advertisement is more likely to be noticed than a half- column one.

Distinct & Striking; distinct and striking things are perceived sooner than dull and unclear
things.

Movement; When things move suddenly in still and motionless environment ,it is quickly
perceived .e.g. birds sitting quietly on tree are not quickly perceived as compared to ones about
to fly.

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Novelty; A new and novel thing is perceived sooner than old and used thing.

Duration; Television and radio advertisements of long duration are attended to more than those
of short duration.

Repetition; Repetition causes us to adapt to the repeated stimulus.

Abrupt Change; Any change in stimulus conditions, such as increase in noise, often attracts
attention.

Subjective Factors

Sometimes, perception is determined not only by the physical characteristics of stimuli

but by the characteristics of the perceiver.

Motives or Needs; when people are motivated, they tend to see and hear what they want to hear.
In other words, we may be set to perceive the world in ways that agree with our motives and
match our goals.

Interests & Values; we attend to those aspects of world that relate to our interest.

Past Experience; much of our daily activity is dependent upon past experience. We have
learned to react to cues & symbols. E.g., on seeing a moving line on the sky, we guess it to be an
airplane.

Age; Age brings a change in perception as well. A child perceives things in different way as
compared to a young person.

Social & Cultural Influences ; The normal perceptual experiences of a culture may lead its
members to develop perceptual biases, suggestions and prejudices.