Topic: Perception

Outline:
Perception
Organizational Process in Perception (Gestalt Psychology)
Identification and Recognition Process

Compiled by
Nabeela Hassan
MPhil in Psychology
MSc in Psychology
B.ed
 Perception

Definition:
Perception: The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting stimuli; it includes
identification, recognition, and images of the stimulus in question; previous experiences have a
role to play in it. Perception is holistic. Perception is the mental organization and interpretation of
sensory information.

The Gestalt psychologists studied extensively the ways in which people organize and select from
the vast array of stimuli that are presented to them, concentrating particularly on visual stimuli.
Perception is influenced by a variety of factors, including the intensity and physical dimensions of
the stimulus e.g. such activities of the sense organs as effects of preceding stimulation; the subject's
past experience; attention factors such as readiness to respond to a stimulus; and motivation and
emotional state of the subject. Stimulus elements in visual organization form perceived patterns
according to their nearness to each other, their similarity, the tendency for the subject to perceive
complete figures, and the ability of the subject to distinguish important figures from background.

If you look at the following figures you may see two rectangles, and a triangle. Why don’t we see
them as different separate triangles and rectangles???

A Comprehensive Definition of Perception would be that of a cognitive process involving:

 Acquisition,
 Interpretation,
 Selection,
 Organization of sensory information, that involves past experiences as well as neurological
processes that affect recognition and interpretation.
Gestalt Psychology:
The Gestaltists made an important and lasting contribution to our understanding of perceptual
processes. They did show that certain, explicit, factors do affect the way in which incoming stimuli
are organized into figures.

 It developed as a reaction to structuralism in the early 1900s

 In contrast to the structuralist approach of breaking down conscious experience into
elements, or focusing upon the structure of mind, the Gestalt school emphasized the
significance of studying any phenomenon in its overall form.
 Gestalt psychology emphasized that the “WHOLE” is more than the sum of its parts, and
it is different from it too.
 Concentrated on how people consider individual elements together as units or wholes.
 The concept of Gestalt applies to everything, objects, ideas, thinking processes and human
relationships.
 Any phenomenon in its entirety may be much greater than when seen in a disintegrated
form.

Max Wertheimer

 The founder of Gestalt psychology; Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler followed
Wertheimer.
 Introduced “Phi phenomenon” (when two lights are in close proximity to each other,
flashing alternately, appear to be one light moving back and forth; therefore the whole
was different from the separate parts.
 Movement is perceived whereas it never occurred.

Figure and Ground

 How do we perceive a figure against a background?

 We do not just passively receive what is reflected on to our retinas; we try to give a meaning
to what we see, and therefore ‘understand’ our sensations.

Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization

Organizing raw sensory stimuli into meaningful

experiences involve “cognition”, a set of mental
activities that includes thinking, knowing, and
remembering. Knowledge and experiences are
extremely important for perception, because they help us
make sense of the input to our sensory
systems.
•
Organizational Process in Perception:
We organize our experiences according to certain rules, in a simple way:
 The Law of Closure.
 The Law of Proximity.
 The Law of Continuity.
 The Law of Similarity.
 The Law of Simplicity.
 The Law of Common Fate.
 The Law of Enclosure/ Connectivity.
1. Law of Closure:
The perceptual tendency to fill in the gaps and complete the contours; perceiving the disconnected
parts as the whole object. We mentally close the gaps and perceive the figure given below as
wholes.

2. The Law of Proximity.

Objects that are placed near each other will be visually groped together.

3. Law of Continuity:
We tend to group the stimuli into smooth and continuous patterns or parts. Humans have a
capability to continue contours whenever the elements of the pattern establish an implied direction.
 4. Law of Similarity:
The tendency to perceive objects, patterns or stimuli which are similar in appearance as a group;
parts of the visual field that are similar in color, light, texture, shape, or any other quality are seen
as one.

5. Law of Enclosure/ Connectivity:

It is our perceptual tendency to perceive features/ patterns, such as dots or objects as a single unit
when uniform and linked; lines, dots, areas, objects etc are perceived as single or same unit when
combined or linked.

Depth Perception
Definition: Depth perception is the perceptual tendency/ ability to see objects in three dimensions,
although the image that falls on the retina of the eye is two-dimensional; thus enabling us to
perceive distance.
“Depth Perception” is the skill to perceive depth and distance e.g. we are able to judge the distance
of the incoming car, height of the cliff or of a roof top, size of an object, weight of a sand bag etc,
in a glance, just by having a look at it.
This sort of perception is largely due to the fact that we have two eyes which are slightly distant
from each other, so the brain integrates the two slightly different images and combines them into
one consolidated view; However the differences in images or ‘Binocular Disparity’ is not ignored
by the brain. Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk discovered this phenomena in 1960 by using the
miniature cliff with a drop- off covered by sturdy glass.
Placed the young infants of 6- 14 months at the edge of visual cliff. Their mothers motivated them
to crawl on the glass, but most of them refused to do so, indicating that they could perceive
depth__ this may be due to the fact that they learned to perceive depth in the crawling age.
Depth Cues to Perception
There are two important cues for the perception of depth. These include:
 Monocular cues for depth perception.
 Binocular cues for depth perception.

(I) Monocular cues for depth perception.

 Also known as “pictorial cues” because painters use these cues in order to tell about depth;
these lead to three- dimensional information.
 Depth and location can be perceived with single eye also.
(a) Relative motion
A monocular cue for perceiving depth and distance in which when we move, the objects at different
distances change their relative positions with the visual image___ with those that are closest seem
to be moving faster.
(b) Relative Size
The monocular cue for depth perception in which we assume that the two objects are similar in
size, the one that make the smaller image appears to be more distant.
(c) Linear Perspective
The monocular cue for the perception of depth and distance in which two parallel lines seem to be
converging at some point indicating increasing distance. Rail road tracks, highway tracks etc
appear to be converging at some distance and so, contribute to the rail- crossing accidents by
making people to overestimate the train’s distance: a massive train size makes the perception that
it is moving slowly.
(d) Relative Brightness
A monocular cue for depth perception in which the dimmer objects seem to be more distant.
Nearby objects seem to reflect more light than the farther ones. When going for a walk in a thick-
fog morning, one may judge distance wrongly as due to fog the objects may be perceived to be
farther than they do on the clear shiny morning. That is why they contribute to increasing accidents.
(e) Light and Shadow
Perceptual phenomenon for the perception of depth and distance in which when light strikes an
irregular object, certain parts are brightly illuminated whereas others lay in shadow. These
shadowed parts tell us about the depth of the parts concerned___ painters use this phenomenon
when portraying something on the canvas such as human face and its various structures.
(II) Binocular Cues for Depth Perception
 The ability to judge distance and depth such as retinal disparity and convergence with two
eyes, which are slightly apart from each other.
 Our eyes are slightly apart from each other having a distance of about 2 ½ inches or 6 cm,
so the images that fall on the two retinas are slightly different.
 These two slightly different images are then integrated and processed by the brain, but it
does not ignore the possibility of difference in images__ known as “ binocular disparity”
(a) Selective Attention
 Perceptual process in which the person chooses the stimulus which he is interested in;
paying attention to only the stimulus of interest.
 Humans give attention to the objects that are exceptionally bright, loud, novel, or high in
contrast___ we are also motivated to give attention to the objects that are meaningful as
well as relevant e.g. if we are thirsty, we will give more attention to water and the like.
 Advertisers extensively use this phenomena of selective attention using bright contrasts,
high volumes and more rapid speech than usual__ and most importantly broadcast at that
time when people are particularly sensitive to their content e.g. the food- related ads are
shown at lunch or dinner times.
(b) Stroop Task
 Difficult and frustrating exercise in which one is confronted with two powerful and
competing
stimuli___ the meaning of the word and the colors in which they are written e.g. I LIKE
YOU, if written in red ink.
 In these cases, it has been observed the people pay more attention to the reading/ content
of the stimulus rather than the color from which it has been written (because they are
experienced with reading than with naming colors).

(c) Dichotic Listening

 A procedure in which individual wears earphones in which different messages are sent to
each ear at the same time.
 After hearing the stimuli, the individual is asked to reproduce them aloud as it comes to
one ear: “ shadowing”.
 In this process, individual can easily identify the talking person as man or woman and
whether change in voices takes place during the message or not.
 Experiments suggest that although people pay full attention to one stimulus at a
time, they also pay some level of attention to the other stimuli as well; it shows the
possibility of learning something although being unaware of it. The phenomenon
of selective attention is of particular importance for the people who have to constantly
monitor e.g. such as pilots, traffic controllers, rescue workers, and firemen.

(d) Relative Motion

 While looking at moving automobiles, the ones that are nearer seem to be moving more
rapidly than those at a moderate distance, and those that are more distant seem to be
moving along.
 Relative motion can also be interpreted through experience, when one can fairly tell
the speed of a train or a bus by noticing outside the window as to how rapidly the nearby
objects are passing.
(e) Perceptual Constancy
 A perceptual tendency to perceive object as unchanging in size, shape, color, lightness
etc., even though changes in illumination and retinal image do take place.
 There are a number of constancies identified by psychologists

Lightness Constancy: Means that the object’s lightness or brightness remains the same in
spite of changes in illumination.

Color Constancy: Closely related with lightness constancy and refers to the perception of color of
the object remaining the same in spite of changes in lighting conditions.
Color constancy can be seen if one has worn a pair of sunglasses with colored lenses. In spite of
the fact that the colored lenses change the color of light reaching your retina, you still perceive
white objects as white and red objects as red. The explanations for color constancy parallel those
for lightness constancy. One proposed explanation is that because the lenses tint everything with
the same color, we unconsciously “subtract” that color from the scene, leaving the original colors.

Size Constancy: refers to our ability or tendency to perceive objects as remaining of the same size
despite having distance from the observer. When an object is near to us, its image on the retina is
large. When that same object is far away, its image on the retina is small. In spite of the changes
in the size of the retinal image, we perceive the object as of the same size. For example, when you
see a person at a great distance from you, you do not perceive that person as very small. Instead,
you think that the person is of normal size and far away.

Visual Illusion: Also known as optical illusion. Illusion is misperception, or false perception.
It is when the physical stimulus constantly and persistently produces error in perception.
There are various types of illusion of which the most famous are as follows.

(i) Muller- Lyer Illusion

The visual illusion in which the two lines of the same lengths appear different because of the
change in position of arrows at each end of two lines__ arrows pointing out appear shorter than
the arrows pointing inwards.
 Causes of Illusions:
 Sensory deficits and defects
 Readiness and expectation
 Atmospheric variables
 Effect of drugs
 Artistic manipulation