Perception I INTRODUCTION Perception, process by which sensory stimulation is organized into usable e perience!

On a "airly simple le#el, perceptual psychology in#estigates such $uestions as how a "rog distinguishes "lies "rom the thousands o" other ob%ects in its world! On the more comple human le#el, perceptual psychology attempts to unra#el such $uestions as how the brain translates stationary "lashing lights into an illusion o" motion, or how an artist responds to colours or shapes and translates them into painting! II P&RC&PT' Perceptual psychologists recognize that most o" the raw, unorganized sensory stimuli that come "rom seeing, hearing, and the other senses are almost instantaneously and subconsciously (corrected) into percepts, or usable e perience! *or e ample, a car mo#ing along a road is seen as "ull+sized no matter how small or large the image it actually ma,es on the retinas o" an obser#er-s eyes! 'imilarly, a musical theme can be "ollowed through a maze o" indi#idual notes and rhythms no matter how many times the composer has changed the ,ey! Perception is not a simple matter o" organizing direct sensory stimuli into percepts! Percepts themsel#es, gained "rom past e perience, also become organized, thus greatly ad#ancing the accuracy and speed o" the indi#idual-s present perception! The study and theory o" percepts reach beyond academic psychology to possible practical applications in learning, education, and clinical psychology! To (underperceptualize).to "ail to organize sensory stimuli.o"ten means to e perience the world as chaos! To (o#erperceptualize).to organize sensory stimuli to the e tent that stimuli not "itting into that organization are shut o"" or stimuli are percei#ed when none e ist.means to e perience the world in a state o" depression or hallucination! Despite the "undamental role that perception plays in the li#es o" humans and all but the most simple animals, its processes remain largely obscure, "or two main reasons/ because researchers ha#e had only limited success in brea,ing down perception into analysable units.and because empirical and scienti"ically #eri"iable "indings are di""icult to obtain or repeat, as the study o" perception depends mostly on sub%ecti#e and introspecti#e reports! III C01''IC10 T2&OR3 One phenomenon that researchers ha#e attempted to e plain is the principle o" perceptual constancy! Once an ob%ect has been percei#ed as an identi"iable entity, it tends to be seen as a stable ob%ect ha#ing permanent characteristics, despite #ariations in its illumination, the position "rom which it is #iewed, or the distance at which it appears! There"ore, although a gi#en ob%ect produces a much smaller retinal image at 455 m than at 65 m, it tends to be percei#ed as ha#ing an intrinsic size! 1ccording to the classical theory o" perception ad#anced by the 7erman physiologist and physicist 2ermann 0udwig *erdinand #on 2elmholtz in the mid+48th century, constancy.as well as depth perception and most other percepts.is a result o" an indi#idual-s ability continually to synthesize past e perience and current sensory cues! 1s a newborn animal or a human in"ant e plores its world, it soon learns to organize what it sees into a three+dimensional pattern, ta,ing as its guides largely those disco#ered by 0eonardo da 9inci/ linear perspecti#e, occlusion o" a "ar ob%ect by a near one, and increasing haze as ob%ects become more distant!

Using tactile and audio cues as well, the growing in"ant $uic,ly learns a host o" speci"ic associations that correspond to the properties o" ob%ects in the physical world! 'uch associations, or percepts, are made automatically and with such speed that e#en a trained adult cannot decipher, with any degree o" accuracy, the #isual cues "rom which they are deri#ed! Proponents o" the classical theory o" perception belie#ed that most percepts are deri#ed "rom what they called (unconscious in"erence "rom nonnoticed sensations)! Only when one is e periencing an illusion or misreading #isual cues, as when cars and houses appear li,e toys "rom the altitude o" an aircra"t, does one become aware o" such sensations and gain some insight into their role in the organization o" percepts! :uch e perimental research in perception consists o" testing sub%ects with illusory material in an attempt to separate indi#idual perceptual units "rom the process as a whole! I9 7&'T10T T2&OR3 1ccording to 7estalt psychology, which gained popularity a"ter ;orld ;ar I, perception is to be understood not by analysing isolated units such as single sensations, but by ta,ing into account total con"igurations <7erman, 7estalten= o" mental processes! In this #iew, the real perceptual unit is the "orm/ a mental structure that ta,es its attributes "rom a corresponding structure o" brain processes! & periments by proponents o" the 7estalt theory showed that perception o" "orm does not depend on perception o" indi#idual elements ma,ing up the "orm! Thus, (s$uareness) can be percei#ed in a "igure made up o" "our red lines as well as in one o" "our blac, dots! 'imilarly, the mind e periences music not as a compounding o" indi#idual notes "rom #arious instruments and #oices, but according to laws o" organization by which the indi#idual percei#es a single, organized unit "rom beginning to end! 1lthough the 7estalt mo#ement made important contributions to learning and the creati#e process, the introspecti#e reports that it depended on to e plain perception remained too sub%ecti#e to be o" much scienti"ic #alue! *urthermore, the (innate physiological processes) to which the 7estaltists attributed their laws o" organization ha#e been largely discredited! 9 CURR&NT R&'&1RC2 'ince the start o" perceptual studies, psychologists ha#e attempted to dissect the perceptual process along what are assumed to be its innate and learned lines! & periments in which #isually nai#e animals and human in"ants shied away "rom so+called #isual cli""s were thought to demonstrate that depth perception is inborn! Through similar e periments designed to demonstrate innate abilities, theorists o" this school attempted to estimate proportions o" innate and learned perceptual beha#iour! :ore recently, howe#er, many psychologists ha#e come to realize that such a dichotomous approach has little scienti"ic basis and does little to "urther the study o" perception! Ta,ing an approach closer to the classical theory, they propose that perceptual ability comes "rom the ability o" an animal or human to organize its total e perience, which is meant to include the many physiological growth e periences that precede what is commonly considered the "ormal e perience o" learning! They argue that although an in"ant in the #isual+cli"" e periment may lac, #isual e perience, it ne#ertheless has had other sensory e perience with its en#ironment that may contribute to its ability to percei#e #isual depth! Through many such earlier e periences, animals and humans learn, so to spea,, how to learn!

In a recent disco#ery that shows some promise o" unra#elling the mystery o" perception, researchers in e perimental psychology ha#e "ound that speci"ic retinal and ner#e cells o" amphibians and mammals can recognize speci"ic shapes and mo#ements in the retinal image, instead o" simply reacting to gi#en amounts o" light energy re"lected by ob%ects! 'uch ner#e and retinal cells respond to particular con"igurations such as discs and rings, to particular mo#ements o" ob%ects, and to simultaneous stimulation o" similarly located cells in the retinas o" both eyes! Gestalt psychology 7estalt Psychology, school o" psychology that deals mainly with the processes o" perception! 1ccording to 7estalt psychology, images are percei#ed as a pattern or a whole rather than merely as a sum o" distinct component parts! The conte t o" an image plays a ,ey role! *or instance, in the conte t o" a city silhouette the shape o" a spire is percei#ed as a church steeple! 7estalt psychology tries to "ormulate the laws go#erning such perceptual processes! 7estalt psychology began as a protest! 1t the beginning o" the 65th century, associationism dominated psychology! The associationist #iew that stimuli are percei#ed as parts and then built into images e cluded as much as it sought to e plain> "or instance, it allowed little room "or such human concepts as meaning and #alue! 1bout 4845, 7erman researchers :a ;ertheimer, ;ol"gang ?@hler, and ?urt ?o"",a re%ected the pre#ailing order o" scienti"ic analysis in psychology! They did not, howe#er, re%ect science> rather they sought a scienti"ic approach more nearly related to the sub%ect matter o" psychology! They adopted that o" "ield theory, newly de#eloped in physics! This model permitted them to loo, at perception in terms other than the mechanistic atomism o" the associationists! 7estalt psychologists "ound perception to be hea#ily in"luenced by the conte t or con"iguration o" the percei#ed elements! The word 7estalt can be translated "rom the 7erman appro imately as (con"iguration)! The parts o"ten deri#e their nature and purpose "rom the whole and cannot be understood apart "rom it! :oreo#er, a straight"orward summation process o" indi#idual elements cannot account "or the whole! 1cti#ities within the total "ield o" the whole go#ern the perceptual processes! The approach o" 7estalt psychology has been e tended to research in areas as di#erse as thin,ing, memory, and the nature o" aesthetics! Topics in social psychology ha#e also been studied "rom the structuralist 7estalt #iewpoint, as in ?urt 0ewin-s wor, on group dynamics! It is in the area o" perception, howe#er, that 7estalt psychology has had its greatest in"luence! In addition, se#eral contemporary types o" psychotherapy are termed 7estalt! These are constructed along lines similar to 7estalt psychology-s approach to perception! 2uman beings respond holistically to e perience> according to 7estalt therapists, any separation o" mind and body is arti"icial! 1ccurate perception o" one-s own needs and o" the world is #ital in order to balance one-s e perience and achie#e (good 7estalten)! :o#ement away "rom awareness brea,s the holistic response, or 7estalt! 7estalt therapists attempt to restore an indi#idual-s natural, harmonic balance by heightening awareness! The emphasis is on present e perience, rather than on recollections o" in"ancy and early childhood as in psychoanalysis! Direct con"rontation with one-s "ears is encouraged!

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