Basic Phenomena of Perception

Psychologist Dr. Doping talks about approaches to the study of the perception of reality, visual illusions and the definition of the concept of "perception" in psychology.

The perception in psychology is defined as an active process of construction of sense as a result of the impact of energy on the organs of feelings emitted or reflected by objects of the external world. In this definition, everything is important, because in fact the images we can also occur without any effects, they are images of perception. For example, memory images, or images of the imagination, which we are so actively build, but can not assume external influences, or dream images, even images of hallucinations, which we believe is absolutely real, but at the same time in the world around them do not correspond.

For improving cognitive process and perception you should take nootropics: Phenotropil and Picamilon, Pantogam and Noopept, Cytamine Cerebramin as well as Semax.

As for the perception of the image, it is important that, on the one hand, it is always the result of some influence, the image corresponds to a particular object in the external world, on the other hand, we actively build. On the one hand, the image would be intrusive if it arises by itself, on the other hand, it is beyond doubt contributed to our experience, our knowledge. That is, in fact, the image on the dual nature, and we do not notice in everyday life: in front of us is a cup - we see a cup.

But this dual nature is very easy to prove if we use the so-called mixed, or dual, image, when at the same impact in the same image, we can see completely different. This ambiguity can be both spatial and content. A typical example of spatial ambiguity - the so-called Necker cube, which is painted in his time Swedish crystallographer Necker, and which we can see how the call to us one or the other edge, or bypassed internet dancer, which rotates in one direction or the other in fact absolutely no changing.

With all the ambiguity of the content exactly the same. This is the famous vase-profile Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, it is no less well-known picture is already a hundred years ago, "The wife or mother-in-law?", Which introduced the Edwin Boring in 1930, which, looking at the same picture into use of psychologists, we see the flirtatious Turning girl, an ugly old woman, and can arbitrarily switch treatment at absolutely the same, constant impact on the senses.

That is, it turns out that the image is actually there are traces of this influence, psychologists call it sensual fabric, and there is some objective content or value, the source of which, in fact, is our experience, our knowledge. In this sense, we see not only what affects us, and what we know about the world. Accordingly, all the theory of perception, who will try to explain it, too, are divided into two classes. Firstly, it is a theory that tries to explain the process of constructing an image through the description of the impact, and such theories are called object-oriented, such as Gestalt psychology, or the famous ecological optics James Jerome Gibson, who is trying to describe the visual perception of the world through the description of the structure, acting on the senses.

And another group of theories attempting to explain it by analyzing the descriptions of our ideas about the world, which we use in the construction of the image, and such theories are called subject-oriented. Usually they are, in essence, put forward some hypotheses about how this knowledge about the world is arranged. For example, even Hermann von Helmholtz tried to explain the process of constructing the image of the unconscious inference with small parcel in the form of current exposure, a large parcel of our past experience and perception as a way inference, which is completely automatically. Jerome Bruner suggested that our perception - the process of categorization, which too comes quickly, not realizing, and we can expand it, only if you make it difficult perception of conditions, for example to blur the image, make it partially masked, and that's when people will look for signs of trying to understand what kind of thing. Richard Gregory tried to describe this process as an extension of object-hypotheses that of the image is in front of us. For example, it is very nicely analyzed the attempts of astronomers understand how still look the planet Saturn, on the basis of what was given at various times telescopes.

In fact, this duality of perception of the image is clearly visible in the phenomena, those phenomena that psychologists analyzed when studying perception. American psychologist Floyd Allport in the 50-ies identified six classes of phenomena, and we'll see that some of them are more of an object in nature, are more concerned with the impact, and some more subjective, more concerned with what is happening in the mind of the perceiver .

The first class of the phenomena of perception, that can analyze a psychologist - the so-called sensory quality, ie especially those experiences that makes us encounter with perceived object. We are bound to see what color it, he or shiny matte, rough or smooth as it sounds, if we on it click, and so on. Naturally, these individual sensations or sensory quality, the image can not be reduced, even though the very first psychologists in the XIX century attempted to describe the image of perception as the sum of the individual sensations that were isolated in a special way - through introspection, scrutinizing inward consciousness of separation to the smallest elements. However, when we look at the world around us, we certainly do not see the color, not the distribution of brightness and the integral objects that have a certain form.

Indeed, the perception of objects of a certain shape, a certain way localized in space, moving or still - is the second class of phenomena of perception, which is designated as Allport configurational phenomena, or configuration. Actually, the very first of these phenomena - this distinction between figure and ground. When we have something to watch and to listen to something, or even something feels always vary the perceived object or figure and the background against which the object is for us. We usually understand whether this object is flat, or he has a third measurement, and analysis of the distance and depth - it is just too refers to studies of configurational phenomena of perception. We understand it is moving or stationary, even if you are moving yourself, and even if the image of the object is shifted on our retina.

But in addition to the sensory qualities of the images and configurations in perception there is another interesting property, namely the property remain unchanged when changing the perception of the environment. This feature images maintain their characteristics unchanged when changing conditions of perception called constancy. For example, we see the open door as a rectangle, while its projection on the retina is a trapezoid. We see people who are at different distances as having the same height, although again projected onto the retina of one zone to another will. We see the white paper as white in the darkness and the light. And in psychology conducted many studies in order to understand why, so that we perceive things constant, plays a role here if the context in which they are presented, or may be, in the visual system stem some special calculations allow you to save it constancy.

But that's only three classes of phenomena, we still have three. Fourth grade - the so-called reference system, or subjective scale that allow us to compare the images and feelings with each other. This is true of even relatively simple sensations. We can say, was louder or quieter sound, we can say, brighter or less coverage, but we can compare the images and even images of complex objects, such as paintings, we can say that we like the most, this is less. Why? Must we have any subjective scale, allowing us to rank the items on a variety of properties.

Finally, the two main phenomena perceptions that only has inherent person - a phenomena objectivity and installation. Strictly speaking, the objectivity - is the dimension of the image that appears in humans due to the fact that each object has a certain value. We perceive no amount of sensory qualities, no configuration - we perceive objects: cups, watches, cars, telephones and so on. This is the first thing that comes to mind when we see this or that object. And the objectivity of our perception, which is not obvious at first glance, will have an effect if we distort the conditions of perception - put on, for example, a person such glasses, which will turn the world upside down, or change its depth, make concave convex objects. In this case, it turns out that our knowledge and experience will prevail over the influence. For example, we can never see the concave face, although easily see a number of concave convex plastic cup. That is an appeal in depth takes place only in accordance with the logic of the possible, except in accordance with our knowledge of how to actually look the objects of the world and how we can use them.

The latter class of phenomena of perception - installation phenomena related to our willingness to see the world, and not otherwise, to take such items and not other. Behind this willingness may be our condition, this includes the famous proverb "Fear has big eyes": we see frightening things larger in size than they really are. In the same way we perceive the desired object. As a long time in the famous study showed Jerome Bruner, children subjectively exaggerate the size of the coins, which they are asked to evaluate, while the size of the paper circles do not exaggerate. On the other hand, the installation can be determined by the context in which the object is presented: one and the same circle, we take for the letter "o" among letters, numbers among the numbers 0 and the circle among the other geometric shapes. Finally, the installation can stand our past experience, we are ready to accept things the way he imposes on us. The native, who arrived in London, sees the sign of the police to stop a welcome sign - in his experience no other interpretation.

And we see that these six classes of phenomena of perception - sensory quality, configuration, constancy, reference system, objectivity and installation - are ranked by the degree of contribution of the knowing subject in what will eventually be seen. And, accordingly, subject-oriented theory best explains the phenomenon of objectivity and installation, and object-oriented theory is more interested in configurations, constancy and sensory qualities.