PERCEPTION

Definition: It is a constructive process by which we go beyond the stimuli that are presented to us and attempt to construct a meaningful situation OR A process organism interprets and organizes sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world The Gestalt Laws of organization A series of principles that describes how we organize bits and pieces of information into meaningful wholes. The principles were set in forth in the early 1900s by a group of German psychologists who studied patterns, or gestalts. They discovered a number of principles that are valid for vision, some of them are given below Closure: In this type of principle we most likely fill empty spaces to find what real picture is. This principle is also applied to the students of learn alphabets

Proximity: The law of proximity states that the closer objects is to one another the more likely we are to mentally group them together. We perceive group of boxes that are closet to one another, note that we do not see the second and third boxes from the left as pair because they are spaced farther apart

Simplicity: This law states that the people intuitively prefer the simplest, most stable of possible organization. The law of simplicity states that you will see the illustration as three overlapping disks, because that is the simplest interpretation.

Similarity: The law of similarity leads us to link to gather parts of visual field that are similar in color, lightness, shape, texture, or any other quality

If peoples are exposed to picture given below they will perceive the rows of circles of same color rather they perceive the columns of circles blue and red colors One fundamental gestalt principle that remains influential that two objects considered together form a whole that is different from the simple combination of objects. In nut shell images are perceived as pattern or a whole rather than merely sum of distinct. Feature Analysis: Focusing on the parts of the whole We perceive a shape, pattern or object through the reaction of specific neurons to the individual element that make up the stimulus. Features analysis begins with the evidence that individual neurons in the brain are sensitive to specific spatial configuration such as angles, curves, shapes and edges. The presence of these neurons suggests that any stimulus can be broken down into a series of components features.fir example: The letter R is a combination of vertical line, a

diagonal line, and a half circle. According to the features analysis the brains perceptual processing system initially respond to its component parts. Psychologist Anne Treisman has a different perspective. She suggests that the perception of objects is best understood in the terms of a two stage processes (preattentive stage & focused attention stage) In preattentive stage we focus on physical features of stimulus such as its size, shape, color. In focused attention stage we pay attention to particular features of an object choosing and emphasizing features that were initially considered separately Top-Down processing &Bottom-down processing Ca- yo- re-d tis en-en-e w-ic- ha- ev-ry ir-d l-tt-r m-ss-ng. If you look at this you will not fell too much difficulty to read this sentence which says that (Can you read this sentence which has every third letter missing). You are able to read because of two simultaneous processes Top-down & Bottom-Down processing Top-Down processing: perception that is guided by higher level knowledge, experience, expectation and motivation. You are able to do something because of your experience or anything else. Top-Down processing is illustrated by the importance of context in determining how we perceive Example: A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 Here id we read above line we read it as English alphabet but if we read line below we read them as numbers. If you concentrate more on this you will find that B in alphabet and 13 in numbers are same but we gave them different meaning because of their context Bottom-up processing: perception that consists of progression of recognizing and [processing information from individual component of stimuli and moving to the perception of whole. Before understanding any word we must understand the individual letter, if we do not the letter than we can not know the word Perceptual Consistency: It is a phenomenon in which physical objects are perceived as unvarying and consistent despite id changes in their appreances or in the physical environment. Its example can be when you see a person at a great distance from you; you do not perceive that person is of normal size and far away. Similarly when we view a skyscraper from far away its image on our retina is small yet we perceive the building as very large Depth perception: Translating 2-D to 3-D

The ability to view the world in three dimensions and perceive distances is known as depth perception. Different images are formed by our both eyes. The difference in the image seen by left eye and right eye binocular disparity. You can predict the distances by binocular disparity at length less than 3 meters The prediction of distance of far away objects id perceived by the monocular cues that is to obtain the sense of depth and perception only by one eye. Few of the monocular cues are given below Motion Perception: It is the change in the position of an object on the retina caused by the movement of your body relative to the object. When you are in a car you see the trees nearer to moving backwards with greater speed but the trees far away from you seems to move forward with slower speed Relative Size: Two objects of same size gives different images on the retina when they are nearer or far away from you Texture Gradient: It provides information about distance because the details of the things that are far away are less distinct. The mountain away from you will A texture gradient arises whenever we view a surface from a slant, rather than directly from above Linear Perspective: Train road appears away from each other when viewed nearer but it appears closer to each other when viewed from a distance. Motion perception: As worlds turns The speed and location of a body is judged by perception of motion. For one thing the movement of an object across the retina is perceived relative to some stable like a batter perceive the speed and location of ball by relating it to the pitch which is not in motion. When ball comes closer to us the image on the retina is expanding but we so not perceive that the ball is expanding rather we perceive is coming nearer. The movement of image across the retina brings about the perception of motion. If we perceive we see that expanding stimulus viewed at constant distance then we would perceive the world as moving every time we move our heads. Illusion A visual illusion occurs when your perceptual experience of a stimulus is substantially different from the actual stimulus you are viewing. To experience another illusion, look at the illustration entitled Zllner Illusion. What shape do you see? You may see a trapezoid that is wider at the top, but the actual shape is a square. Such illusions are natural artifacts of the way our visual systems work. As a result, illusions provide important insights into the functioning of the visual system. In addition, visual illusions are fun to experience.

Subliminal Perception: perception of stimuli about which a person has no awareness. The term subliminal means literally below the threshold. In psychological usage the threshold is the level at which a person is aware of a stimulus, such as light or sound. For example, a person with normal hearing can hear any sound from 20 cycles per second at the bottom threshold to 20,000 cycles per second at the top. There is some indication, however, that a persons senses can to some degree receive and transmit stimuli to the brain that are below the threshold and can do so without that person being aware of it Extrasensory Perception (ESP): knowledge of external objects or events without the aid of the senses. Since ancient times, people have wondered about various so-called psychic experiences that seem to defy scientific explanation. Often these phenomena have been associated with communication with the dead. Mediums, which purport to mediate between the living and the dead, were particularly popular in the 19th century. Often mediums deliver utterances while in a trancelike state, and their followers believe that they can deliver messages from the deceased.