Difference between revisions of "Perception"
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Children described as thrill seekers are more likely to show taste preferences for intense sour flavors (Liem, Westerbeek, Wolterink, Kok, & de Graaf, 2004), which suggests that basic aspects of personality might affect perception. Furthermore, individuals who hold positive attitudes toward reduced-fat foods are more likely to rate foods labeled as reduced fat as tasting better than people who have less positive attitudes about these products (Aaron, Mela, & Evans, 1994).<ref name=":0" /> | Children described as thrill seekers are more likely to show taste preferences for intense sour flavors (Liem, Westerbeek, Wolterink, Kok, & de Graaf, 2004), which suggests that basic aspects of personality might affect perception. Furthermore, individuals who hold positive attitudes toward reduced-fat foods are more likely to rate foods labeled as reduced fat as tasting better than people who have less positive attitudes about these products (Aaron, Mela, & Evans, 1994).<ref name=":0" /> | ||
| − | Gestalt Principles of Perception | + | == Gestalt Principles of Perception == |
| − | == | + | == Extra Sensory Perception == |
| + | Extra sensory perception is the ability to perceive objects or events in ways that cannot be explained by known sensory capacities. The study of extra sensory perception phenomena is termed as '''Parapsychology'''. Events that seem to lie outside the region of accepted scientific laws are called psi-phenomena.<ref name=":2">https://www.nios.ac.in/media/documents/secpsycour/English/Chapter-5.pdf</ref> | ||
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| + | An example of extrasensory perception is when a person intuitively ‘feels’ that his brother who is in another city is not well. Another example could be when you just ‘know’ that an earthquake is going to happen in your city.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
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| + | '''Clairvoyance''' is the ability to perceive events or gain information in ways that appear unaffected by distance or normal barriers. '''Telepathy''' refers to the perception of another person’s thoughts or the ability to read someone else’s mind. '''Pre-cognition''' is termed as the ability to predict or perceive future events accurately. '''Psycho-kinesis''' refers to the ability to exert influence over inanimate objects by will-power (mind over matter). Very rarely we find persons are able to move objects only through concentration but without touching them. A few psychologists strongly believe in extrasensory perception but a majority does not subscribe to it.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
== Perception Vs Pratyaksha Pramana == | == Perception Vs Pratyaksha Pramana == | ||
Revision as of 09:08, 2 November 2023
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Perception is the mental process of interpreting the information received by the sense organs from the environment. Sensation is a physical process, whereas, perception is a psychological process. For example, upon smelling the scent of roses, a sensation is the scent receptors in the body detecting the odor of roses, but the perception may be "Mmm, this smells like roses."[1]
Introduction
Perception is a set of psychological processes that help us understand the world around us. We encounter numerous stimuli every second through our sensory organs. It brings about awareness and interpretation of our environment. It involves selection, organization, and interpretation of the sensory information based on one's previous experiences, needs, aspirations and even considering other's experiences.[2]
Sensation
Sense organs are the primary sources for gathering information from the world around us and providing it to the mind for further processing. Sense organs receive the reflection emanating from the objects which are then reflected in the inner mind. A stimulus is a detectable input from the environment.
Sensory receptors are specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli. When sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor, sensation has occurred. For example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes in cells that line the back of the eye. These cells relay messages, in the form of action potentials to the central nervous system.[1]
Sensory Organs
It is well known that the five major senses are vision, hearing (audition), smell (olfaction), taste (gustation), and touch (somatosensation). They contain sense receptors which are specialized cells unique to each sense organ and respond to specific forms of stimulation. However, a combination of sensations are generally evoked, for example, when one takes a bite into a crisp apple, one can hear the sound of crunch, get the taste of sweetness, feel the smooth skin of the fruit, see the red color of the skin and smell the aroma of apple.
| Sense | Perceptual Experience | Stimulus | Sense Organ | Sensation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sight | Vision | Light waves | Eye | Colors, patterns, textures, forms |
| Hearing | Audition | Sound waves | Ear | Music, noise, voice, tones |
| Touch | Tactile | External touch | Skin | Touch, cold, warmth, pain, mechanical compression |
| Smell | Olfactory | Volatile substances, Aerosols (Chemical) | Nose | Odours both pleasant and unpleasant, strong and mild |
| Taste | Gustation | Soluble solutions, Liquids (Chemical) | Tongue | Taste of sweet, salt, bitter etc. |
Somesthesis - the mechanical senses
Somesthesis refers to the mechanical senses that provide information about
- balance (the vestibular sense)
- body position and movement (proprioception and kinesthesia)
- pain (nociception)
- temperature (thermoception)
Kinesthesis is a term applied to communicating information about movement and location of body parts and receptors for these are found in joints and ligaments.
Vestibular or equilibratory sense is concerned with the sense of balance and knowledge of the body position. Receptors for this sense are in semicircular canals and vestibular sacs found in the inner ear. The vestibular organ monitors head and eye movements.
Process of Sensation
It involves three steps.
- Reception: The process of receiving information in the form of light, heat or other physical energy by the sense organs having specialized sensory receptor cells is called reception. The minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a sensory experience in a receptor cell is called 'absolute threshold.' For example, the tick of a watch six meters or twenty feet away can be heard under quiet conditions. A message below that threshold is said to be 'subliminal'; such a message is processed but a person is not consciously aware of it. The minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli 50% of the time is termed as 'just noticeable difference threshold'. Examples include the noticeable difference in the pressure on the arm, and differences in the volume of music.
- Transduction: The conversion of received physical energy or sensory stimulus energy into electric impulse or action potential is known as transduction. The electric impulses are the 'readable' forms of sensory information.
- Transmission: The electric impulses travel from the source sensory organ to the brain for interpretation via the nerve fibers.
Psychophysics is a study of the relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli and the psychological experience with them. Sensory system is used to detect events happening in our environment.
Definition of Perception
An awareness about the external stimuli gathered by the sense-organs is the result of a higher mental process called 'perception'. It helps us interpret the world around us and in making an appropriate decision in simple and complex situations and stimuli. Perception is a process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the sensory information based on previous experiences, other's experiences, needs or expectations.
Process of Perception
Broadly, the process of perception involves three steps, when a stimulus is encountered.
1. Selection
Selection is the first stage of perception. At a given time, due to various factors, the human brain consciously or unconsciously, processes only some stimuli ignoring the others. For example, when engaged in deep conversation we tune out of many sounds in the background and do not register them. The selected stimulus becomes the "attended stimulus."[2]
Subsequent to selecting the stimulus the interpretation depends on how the information is organized for processing. Selection is influenced by some factors like attention.
2. Organization
It is the second stage of perception. It refers to the way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced. In this stage, stimuli are arranged mentally in a meaningful pattern, thus, organizing the information received. This process occurs unconsciously explained by certain principles such as those of Gestalt. Perception involves both bottom-up and top-down processing. Bottom-up processing refers to the fact that perceptions are built from sensory input. On the other hand, how we interpret those sensations is influenced by our available knowledge, our experiences, and our thoughts. This is called top-down processing.[1]
3. Interpretation
In this third stage of the process of perception, meaning is assigned to the organized stimulus. Interpretation and assigning meaning to the stimuli is based on one's own experiences, expectations, needs, beliefs, other's experiences and other factors. This stage is subjective in nature and the same stimuli can be interpreted differently by different individuals.[2]
Factors affecting sensation and perception
Sensory Adaptation
Although our perceptions are built from sensations, not all sensations result in perception. In fact, we often don’t perceive stimuli that remain relatively constant over prolonged periods of time. This is known as sensory adaptation.[1]
Imagine a person entering a classroom having an old analog clock. Upon first entering the room, he can hear the ticking of the clock; as he engages in conversation with classmates or listens to professor greet the class, he shall no longer be aware of the clock ticking. The clock continues to tick, and that stimulus continues to affect the sensory receptors of the person's auditory system even as time passes. The fact that he no longer perceives the sound demonstrates sensory adaptation and shows that while closely associated, sensation and perception are different.[1] When exposed to a stimulus over a period of time there will be a diminished sensitivity to it. Constant and persistent exposure to a stimulus may make a person unresponsive to it. For example, the water in a hot tub is hot initially and after a certain period of time it no longer seems as hot. So is the case with band aid which cannot be senses after wearing it for a while.
Attention
Attention plays a significant role in determining what is sensed versus what is perceived. Imagine a party full of music, chatter, and laughter. When one is absorbed in an interesting conversation with a friend, and he/she gets tuned out all the background chatter or conversations which can be termed as noise. On interruption the person would probably be unable to answer what song was just played. Failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of attention is called inattentional blindness.[1]
Selective Attention : One of the most important functions of attention is selectivity. The selected stimulus of interest is the one on which total attention is focused, while ignoring other relevant stimuli.
Sustained Attention: Some activities involve prolonged attention such as computer games, and gazing at the radar screen. It is the ability to attend a stimulus for a longer period of time without being distracted.
Motivation
Motivation can also affect perception. Have you ever been expecting a really important phone call and, while taking a shower, you think you hear the phone ringing, only to discover that it is not so. If so, then you have experienced how motivation to detect a meaningful stimulus can shift our ability to discriminate between a true sensory stimulus and background noise.[1]
Cultural influence
The shared experiences of people within a given cultural context can have pronounced effects on perception. For example, Marshall Segall, Donald Campbell, and Melville Herskovits (1963) published the results of a multinational study in which they demonstrated that individuals from Western cultures were more prone to experience certain types of visual illusions than individuals from non-Western cultures, and vice versa.[1]
One such illusion that Westerners were more likely to experience was the Müller-Lyer illusion. The lines appear to be different lengths, but they are actually the same length. These perceptual differences were consistent with differences in the types of environmental features experienced on a regular basis by people in a given cultural context. People in Western cultures, for example, have a perceptual context of buildings with straight lines, what Segall’s study called a carpentered world (Segall et al., 1966). In contrast, people from certain non-Western cultures with an uncarpentered view, such as the Zulu of South Africa, whose villages are made up of round huts arranged in circles, are less susceptible to this illusion (Segall et al., 1999).[1]
Personality
Children described as thrill seekers are more likely to show taste preferences for intense sour flavors (Liem, Westerbeek, Wolterink, Kok, & de Graaf, 2004), which suggests that basic aspects of personality might affect perception. Furthermore, individuals who hold positive attitudes toward reduced-fat foods are more likely to rate foods labeled as reduced fat as tasting better than people who have less positive attitudes about these products (Aaron, Mela, & Evans, 1994).[1]
Gestalt Principles of Perception
Extra Sensory Perception
Extra sensory perception is the ability to perceive objects or events in ways that cannot be explained by known sensory capacities. The study of extra sensory perception phenomena is termed as Parapsychology. Events that seem to lie outside the region of accepted scientific laws are called psi-phenomena.[3]
An example of extrasensory perception is when a person intuitively ‘feels’ that his brother who is in another city is not well. Another example could be when you just ‘know’ that an earthquake is going to happen in your city.[3]
Clairvoyance is the ability to perceive events or gain information in ways that appear unaffected by distance or normal barriers. Telepathy refers to the perception of another person’s thoughts or the ability to read someone else’s mind. Pre-cognition is termed as the ability to predict or perceive future events accurately. Psycho-kinesis refers to the ability to exert influence over inanimate objects by will-power (mind over matter). Very rarely we find persons are able to move objects only through concentration but without touching them. A few psychologists strongly believe in extrasensory perception but a majority does not subscribe to it.[3]