Perception

 Sensation
 The process through which the senses pick up visual,
auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit
them to the brain;
 Sensory information that has registered in the brain
but has not been interpreted called sensation
 Perception
 The process by which sensory information is actively
organized and interpreted by the brain
 The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting
raw sensory data into useful mental representations
of the world.
 Eyes, ears, skin, nose, and tongue and
contain receptor cells

 These receptor cells receive and process

sensory information from the environment
 Transduction: sensory receptors (eyes, ears,
nose, skin, tongue) convert the stimulus
into neural impulses which are sent to the
brain
 Perceptual processes include:

Selection refers to choosing which of many stimuli

that will be processed.

Organization involves collecting the information into

some pattern.

Interpretation involves understanding the pattern.

 Following are the group of factors
1. Objective Factors
2. Subjective Factors
 There are a number of characteristics of
stimuli that influence our perception.
1. Intensity
2. Size
3. Distinct & Striking
4. Movement
5. Novelty
6. Duration
7. Repetition
8. Abrupt Change
1. 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.
2. Size; A full page advertisement is more likely to
be noticed than a half- column one.
3. Distinct & Striking; distinct and striking things
are perceived sooner than dull and unclear
things.
4. 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.
5. Novelty; A new and novel thing is perceived
sooner than old and used thing.
6. Duration; Television and radio
advertisements of long duration are attended
to more than those of short duration.
7. Repetition; Repetition causes us to adapt to
the repeated stimulus .
8. Abrupt Change; Any change in stimulus
conditions, such as increase in noise , often
attracts attention.
 Sometimes, perception is determined
only by the physical characteristics of stimuli
not
but by the characteristics of the perceiver.
These are
1. Motives or needs
2. Interests & values
3. Past experience
4. Age
5. Preparatory set
6. Social & cultural factors
1.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.
2.Interests & Values; we attend to those
aspects of world that relate to our interest.
3.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.
4.Age; Age brings a change in perception as
well. A child perceives things in different
way as compared to a young person.
5.Preparatory Set; This refers to a person’s
readiness to respond to one kind of sensory
input, but not to other kinds.
6.Social & Cultural Influences ; The normal
perceptual experiences of a culture may lead
its members to develop perceptual biases,
suggestions and prejudices.
 We perceive objects in different manners as
compared to their position in the
environment. Objects may be moving or
static, when we have to perceive motion. We
may have to locate sounds and voices in the
space around us.
1. Form Perception
2. Size Perception
3. Depth Perception
4. Perception of Movement
5. Time Perception
 Gestaltists proposed laws of organization that
specify how people perceive form.

 Figure and ground are basic organizational

themes for perception.
 Figure is perceived as distinct from the
background.
 Figure is closer to the viewer than the
background.
 Reversible Figures: Figure and ground can
be switched
 Formation of a figure: There are some factors
which would bring some order to perception
1. Nearness: Stimuli that are near to each other,
tend to be grouped together
2. Similarity: Stimuli that are similar in size, shape,
color, or form tend to be grouped together
3. Continuation or continuity: Perception tends
towards simplicity and continuity
4. Closure: refers to the tendency to complete a
figure, so, that it has a consistent overall
form
 Three types of constancy are explained
briefly here:

1. SizeConstancy
2. Shape Constancy
3. Color Constancy
1. Size Constancy:

Size constancy is the tendency to perceive objects in a
consistent manner despite the changing sensations that
are received by our senses. visual constancy plays an
important role in helping us adapt to our environment
 successfully.
Learning plays an important role in the development of
constancy. Once we know that certain objects in our
environment have certain characteristics ,we tend to perceive
them in the same way, regardless of the conditions under
which they are perceived.
 When we know that an object is of a certain size, we tend
to perceive it as being that same size, regardless of how far it
is from our eyes.
 In Size constancy ,the perceiver has the ability to judge
true or measured size, regardless of the distance involved.
2.Shape Constancy; When we know that
the object is a certain shape ,we tend to
perceive it as the same shape, regardless
of the viewing angle. We have learned to
make corrections in our perception
dependent on the angle from which we
observe.
3.Color Constancy; Colors of objects tend
to remain constant in perception when we
know their true color. Visual objects also
appear constant in their degree of
whiteness, grayness and blackness.
The ability to view the world in three
dimensions and to perceive distance is
known as depth perception.

“This ability helps to perceive three-dimensional

space and to accurately judge distance”.
When you ride in a moving vehicle and look
out the side window, the objects you see
outside appear to be moving in the opposite
direction
Objects very far away, such as the moon and
the sun, appear to move in the same
direction as the viewer
 Perception of Movement; Movement or Motion is
perceived by following the progressive change of
an object’s position in space with time. It has
two types.
1. Real Movement; The perception of the actual
movement of objects in the world is termed as
“real motion/movement perception”.
2. Apparent Movement; It is movement perceived
in the absence of physical movement of an image
across the retina. This can be produced by a
rapid succession of motionless stimuli that
minimize the changes that occur in real
movement. There are several types of apparent
motion/movement:
 We perceive time in , seconds, minutes, and
hours which pass into days weeks months
and in years and even in centuries. Time is
perceived in terms of Past, Present, and
Future
 Perception of time is less in children than
elders
 Several factors influence time perception:
1. Subjective( i age, activity, motivation,
ntelligence )
2. Objective: