PERCEPTION

Meaning of Perception

 Perception is a process by which

individuals organize and interpret
their sensory impressions in order
to give meaning to their
environment.
 PERCEPTION
Perception refers to the interpretation of the
sensory data. It is a process through which the
information from outside environment is
selected, received, organized and interpreted
to make it meaningful. This input of meaningful
information results in decisions and actions.
 Perception is primarily an individual process so
that different people may perceive an identical
situation differently.
 People behave on the basis of what they
perceive reality to be and not necessarily as
what reality is.
Major Influences on the perception
Process
Characteristics of the
Perceiver
•Needs
•Values
•Experiences
•Attitudes

Characteristics of the Perception

Perceived •Overall
•Appearance understandi
•Communication ng of
•Behavior perception

Characteristics of the
Situation
•Physical Location
•Social setting
•Organizational Setting
PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION

Perceptual Organization is the

process by which we group outside
stimuli into recognizable and
identifiable patterns and whole
objects.
Factors which contribute to perceptual
organization

1. Figure Ground
2. Perceptual Grouping
 Continuity
 Closure
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Figure-Ground
 The tendency to distinguish
and focus on a stimulus that
is classified as figure as
opposed to background.
 The perceiver uses his
perception in organizing
incoming stimuli into
recognizable figures that are
seen against a ground.
Perceptual Grouping

Perceptual grouping identifies our

tendency to group several individual
stimuli into a meaningful and
recognizable pattern.
Factors underlying this grouping are:
 Continuity
 Closure
 Proximity
 Similarity
Factors of Perceptual Grouping

 Continuity: - It relates to the

tendency to perceive objects as
continuous patterns. The continuity
principle says that the person will
tend to perceive continuous lines or
patterns.
Closure

 Closure
 The tendency to organize
perceptual stimuli so that,
together, they form a
complete message.
Contd’
 c)Proximity: - The principle of proximity
states that a group of objects or people
who are physically close to each other may
be perceived as related to each other so
that they stand out as one unit.
 Similarity: - The principle of similarity
states that the greater the similarity
among the objects or people, the greater
the tendency to perceive them as a
common group.
Perceptual Selectivity

It refers to the tendency to select

certain objects from the
surrounding for attention such that
these objects are consistent with
our existent beliefs, values and
needs.
Factors Influencing Stimuli Selection
Factors of Stimuli Selection

External Factors Internal Factors

•Intensity •Learning and

•Size Perception
•Contrast •Motivation and
•Repetition Perception
•Movement
•Novelty
•Familiarity
•Order
External Factors:

Intensity
 The intensity of an external
stimulus determines its probability
of being perceived.
 A bright light , a strong odor or a
loud noise are more likely to be
noticed.
 Size: a larger object is more likely to
be noticed than a smaller object.
 Contrast :The stimuli that contradicts
most with the background or the
expectation of people receive
maximum attention.
 Repetition: the more number of times
a stimuli is repeated, the more it is
likely to be noticed.
 Motion: People give more attention to
moving objects than to stationary
objects.
 Novelty and Familiarity: New objects in a
familiar situation or familiar objects in
situation draw the perceiver’s attention.
For example, during job rotation, when
an employee is shifted from one job to
another , he is likely to give more
attention to new job because he has to
perform new duties.
Internal factors

 People select those stimuli from the

environment that appears to them
and suit them based on their
learning and motivation.
Barriers to Perceptual Accuracy

 Stereotyping
 Halo Effect
 Expectancy
 Perceptual Defense
 Projection
 Stereotype: We often tend to classify
people and events into already known or
perceived general categories.
1. Gender role stereotype

2. Age stereotypes

 Halo Effect: It refers to the tendency of

judging a person entirely on the basis of
a single trait that may be favorable or
unfavorable.
 Expectancy: It is a tendency to perceive
people, objects or events on the basis of
what we expected them to be in the first
place. It is also called as “ Pygmallion
effect”.
This phenomenon is also rightly
remarked as
“SELF- FULFILLING PROPHECY”
 Perceptual Defense: It is the mental
process by which we tend to protect
ourselves from such objects, situations
or stimuli that are emotionally disturbing
or perceptually threatening.
 Projection: It refers to the tendency of
people to see their own traits in other
people, i.e. they project their own
characteristics into others.
Perception process
 Perceptual Process
 Perception is a process of receiving, selecting, organising, interpreting, checking and
reacting to stimuli. This is like an input-through put-output process in which the stimuli
can be considered as 'inputs' transformation of 'input' through selection, organization
and interpretation as 'through puts' and the ultimate behaviour/action as 'output'. The
whole perceptional process can be presented as follows : These are explained one by
one
 1. Receiving Stimuli : The first process in the perception is the presence of stimuli.
The stimuli are received from the various sources. Through the five organs. It is a
physiological aspect of perception process. Stimuli may be external to us (such as
sound waves) and inside us (such as energy generation by muscles).
 2. Selection of Stimuli : After receiving the stimuli or data, some are selected. Others
are screened out. Two types of factors affect selection of stimuli for processing :
external and internal factors. External factors relate to stimuli such as intensity of
stimuli, its size, movement, repetition, etc. Internal factors, relate to the perceiver such
as his/her age, learning, interest, etc. Normally, he will select the objects which interest
him and will avoid that for which he is indifferent. This is also called 'selective
perception'.
3. Organization of Stimuli : Organising the bits of information into a
meaningful whole is called "organization". There are three ways by which
the selected data, i.e., inputs are organised. These are :
 (i) Grouping, (ii) Closure and (iii) Simplification.
 (i) Grouping : In grouping, the perceiver groups the various stimuli on the
basis of their similarity or proximity. For example, all the workers coming
from the same place may be perceived as similar on the basis of proximity.
 (ii) Closure : When faced with incomplete information, people fill up the
gaps themselves to make the information meaningful. This may be done on
the basis of past experience, past data, or hunches. For example, in many
advertisement, alphabets are written by putting electric bulbs indicating
the shape of the concerned alphabets but broken lines. In such cases,
people tend to fill up the gap among different bulbs to get meaning out of
these.
 (iii) Simplification : People identify main stimulus features and assesses
how they are organized. He interprets a stimulus situation, the perceiver
simples the information
 Perceptual Process
Stimuli Organising (Or Receiving Stimuli)

Perceptual Organisation
Selective Attention (or Selecting Stimuli)

Interpreting (Assigning meaning) Response