PERCEPTION

Are the horizontal lines parallel or do

they elope?
Perceptions vary from person to person. Different
people perceive different things about the same
situation.
But more than that, we assign different meanings to
what we perceive and the meanings might change for
a certain person.
 DEFINITION
• Perception refers to interpretation of what we
take in through our senses.
• Perception is the process by which organisms
interpret and organize sensation to produce a
meaningful experience of the world.
• The way we perceive environment is what
makes us different from other animals and
different from each other.

• Perception influenced by learning, motives,

values, attention and expectations.
 4 LAWS OF PERCEPTION
• 1. Proximity/ Nearness
We tend to perceive three columns of two
lines each rather than six different lines. The
lines are grouped together because of how
close they are to each other.
• Proximity occurs when elements are placed
close together. They tend to be perceived as a
group.
• 2. Similarity
Refers to our tendency to group things
together based upon how similar to each
other they are. We tend to see two rows of
blue dots and two rows of grey dots.
• Similarity occurs when objects look similar to
one another. People often perceive them as a
group or pattern.
• 3. Continuity
Although merely a series of dots, it begins to
look like a “+” as we perceive the upper left
side etc
• Continuity occurs when the eye is compelled
to move through one object and continue to
another object.
• 4. Closure
Closure refers to the tendency to complete a
familiar objects that gaps. Even at a first glance,
we perceive a circle and a triangle.
• Closure occurs when an object is incomplete
or a space is not completely enclosed. If
enough of the shape is indicated, people
perceive the whole by filling in the missing
information
• Although the panda above is not complete,
enough is present for the eye to complete
the shape. When the viewer's perception
completes a shape, closure occurs.
closure
similarity
continuity
proximity
The Factors That Influence Perception
1. Selective Attention
Refers to the fact that we give same
messages priority and put others on old. It
gives priority to a particular incoming
sensory message.
Selective Attention is the process of
discriminating between what is important
and is irrelevant
• 2. Stimulus Features
One hundred men and one girl
 3. Values and Individual Need
Bias, prejudice, motives.

• Values are those things that really matter to

each of us. Caring for others, for example, is a
value; so is the freedom to express our
opinions.
4. Past experiences
Current experiences better than past
experiences
• 5. Motivation
For example: if you are hungry,
food- related words are more likely to
gain your attention than other words

• 6. Emotion
An emotional stimulus can shift
attention away from other information.
WHAT CAN SEE YOU SEE FROM THIS PICTURE ?
Gestalt principle of
Perception
GESTALT APPROACH
 Figure Ground Relationships

• Elements are perceived as either figures

(distinct elements of focus) or ground (the
background or landscape on which the figures
rest)
• Determining the figure ground relationship is
also the very first thing people do when they
direct their gaze; new things come into view
and our brains need a basis upon which to
make sense of things.
• We have to determine which elements are
figures (requiring immediate concern and
attention) and which are ground (not so
important right now, but do provide context).
• Our perception of the figure ground
relationship allows us to organize what we see
by how each object relates to others.
• Gestalt is a psychology term which means
"unified whole". It refers to theories of visual
perception developed by German
psychologists in the 1920s. These theories
attempt to describe how people tend to
organize visual elements into groups or
unified wholes when certain principles are
applied. These principles are:
 GESTALT APPROACH

• Gestalt comes from the German Language,

means :

• “wholeness”
• Perfect
• Form
Illusions
Many people claim to have seen ghosts, flying
saucers, big foot or people floating on the air.
May be they are flying, may be they saw
something extraordinary or may be they saw
something ordinary but misinterpreted it.

An illusion is a misinterpretation of a visual

stimulus
 GESTALT APPROACH
• Perceptual learning is responsible for a
number of illusion.
• In an illusion, length, position, motion or
direction is consistently misjudged.
• In hallucination, people perceive objects or
events that have no external reality.
• Therefore illusions is a misleading or distorted
perception