INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Perception

Submitted To: Sir Kashif

Submitted By: Abdul-Hayee

Roll No: 699

Semester: First

Program: BS English

Session: 2022-2026
 Contents
 Perception

 Importance of Perception

 Nature of Perception

 Factors of Perception

 Objective Factors

 Subjective Factors

 Social Factors

 Forms Perception

 Factors in Form Perception

 Perceptual Constansy
 Perceptual Organization
 Principal of Perceptual Organization

 Laws of Perceptual Organization

Perception
Defination:
Perception refers to our sensory experience of the world. It is
the process of using our senses to become aware of objects,
relationships.1 It is through this experience that we gain information
about the environment around us.

Perception relies on the cognitive functions we use to process

information, such as utilizing memory to recognize the face of a friend
or detect a familiar scent. Through the perception process, we are able to
both identify and respond to environmental stimuli.
Perception includes the five senses; touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste.
It also includes what is known as proprioception, which is a set of senses
that enable us to detect changes in body position and movement.

Many stimuli surround us at any given moment. Perception acts as a

filter that allows us to exist within and interpret the world without
becoming overwhelmed by this abundance of stimuli.

Imporatnce of Perception:-
Perception is a subjective, active, and creative process
through which we assign meaning to sensory information to understand
ourselves and others. It can be defined as our recognition and
interpretation of sensory information. It also includes how we respond to
the information.
It is the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the
external world by means of the sensory receptors. It is our sensory experience of
the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli
and actions in response to these stimuli.

1. Perception is very important in understanding human behavior because

every person perceives the world and approaches life problems differently.
Whatever we see or feel is not necessarily the same as it really is. When we
buy something, it is not because it is the best, but because we take it to be
the best.
 2. If people behave based on their perception, we can predict their behavior in
the changed circumstances by understanding their present perception of the
environment. One person may view the facts in one way, which may be
different from the facts seen by another viewer.

Nature of Perception:-
“Perception refers to the interpretation of sensory data. In other
words, sensation involves detecting the presence of a stimulus whereas
perception involves understanding what the stimulus means. For example,
when we see something, the visual stimulus is the light energy reflected from
the external world and the eye becomes the sensor. This visual image of the
external thing becomes perception when it is interpreted in the visual cortex
of the brain. Thus, visual perception refers to interpreting the image of the
external world projected on the retina of the eye and constructing a model of
the three dimensional world.”

From the above explanation it becomes clear that perception is

something more than sensation. It correlates, integrates and
comprehends diverse sensations and information from many
organs of the body by means of which a person identifies things
and objects, the sensations refer to.

Perception is determined by both physiological and

psychological characteristics of the human being whereas
sensation is conceived with only the physiological features.
Thus, perception is not just what one sees with the eyes it is a
much more complex process by which an individual selectively
absorbs or assimilates the stimuli in the environment,
cognitively organizes the perceived information in a specific
fashion and then interprets the information to make an
assessment about what is going on in one’s environment.

Perception is a subjective process, therefore, different people

may perceive the same environment differently based on what
particular aspects of the situation they choose to selectively
absorb, how they organize this information and the manner in
which they interpret it to obtain a grasp of the situation.

Factors of Perception

Subjective Factors:
These factors refer to individuals. These are inherent in people.
There are many subjective factors which determine our
attention.

Interest:
Objects of our interest draw our attention immediately. For
example, while moving on a road a sportsman is attracted
towards the shop where sports materials are placed. A person
who is interested in a particular singer will immediately divert
his attention the moment he listens his voice.

Motives:
Motives are powerful forces which make us to divert our
attention. For example, a hotel will draw the attention of a
hungry person because he has a drive for food.

Mental set:
Our set or readiness of mind is very important in attending to
any stimulus. For example, when a person is in fantasy he may
not listen to any call. On the other hand, if he is waiting for a
phone call eagerly, he will listen to that immediately.

Emotional state:
Attention is disturbed during emotional state. It also affects our
perception. For example, when a person is highly excited due to
fear, he may not listen or understand what others say.

Habits:
Our attention is diverted automatically towards the things to
which we are habituated. For example, a smoker remembers
smoking even if he is otherwise busy in some work. A person
habituated to take food at a particular time remembers food at
correct time. Attention of a nurse is automatically diverted
towards a serious patient

Objective Factors
Objective Factors:
These factors pertain to particular aspects of objects which are
inherent in objects.

Movement:
A moving object draws our attention more easily than a
stationary object. For example, flickering lights draw our
attention than non-flickering lights. A moving vehicle draws our
attention more than a stationed vehicle.

Intensity:
More intense light, sound or smell draws our attention more
easily than less intense one. For example, a high voltage bulb
will be observed quicker than low voltage bulb, very bright
colour than dim colour, or a very loud sound than a normal
sound.

Novelty:
New kinds of objects draw our attention quickly. Advertising
agencies adopt this technique very effectively. For example,
latest fashion dress, shoes, pen, etc.

Size:
A bigger or a smaller object draws the attention of people very
easily than average level size of any object, For example, a 7′
taller man, a 2′ dwarf, a very fat man, a very huge multistoried
building can draw our attention quickly.

Change:
A change in our environment draws our attention quickly. For
example, regular sound of a moving clock does not draw our
attention, but the movement it stops, our attention is diverted.
A show piece placed in a new place, a radio playing a song stops
due to electricity failure draws our attention.

Repetition:
When a stimulus is presented repeatedly our attention is
diverted, For example, repeated horn of a fire brigade or
ambulance.

Clarity:
An object or sound which can be experienced clearly draws our
attention than the stimuli which are not clear. For example,
during night times stars and planets which are seen clearly draw
our attention.
Colours:
Colourful objects draw our attention more easily than black or
white objects.

Contrast:
An object that is strikingly different from its background draws
our attention. For example, a black spot on a white shirt.

Social Factors
1. Social perception sometimes becomes biased and erroneous
due to social prestige, high status in the society, higher
responsibility, wealth, high caste and high socio-economic
status. It is also influenced by physical features,
attractiveness, power and recognition, education etc.
2. Attractive high status persons engaged in important jobs are
generally perceived to be more responsible for their actions
than ineffective, low status persons. Studies provide
support to this view.
3. Similarly, people who think themselves as powerful in
controlling their own destiny and own actions perceive
others as controllers of their own fate. On the other hand,
persons who feel having less power or powerless perceive
others as controlled by external events. According to
Mann, “Perception of social causality is influenced by an
appraisal of situational pressures, the status of the
person and the personality of the judge.”
4. Trust, confidence, personal relationship and close
association with the person also influence social perception.
A stranger is perceived in a different way than an already
known person. While trust, confidence and good personal
relationship help in attribution of positive factors leading to
positive social perceptions, lack of confidence, mistrust,
bias and prejudice, unpalatable attitudes lead to negative
social perception.
5. The role of need, value and past experience also cannot be
underestimated in social perception. Feelings of gratitude
are influenced by one’s perception. ‘X’ obliged by ‘Y’
always perceive ‘Y’ as a better person compared to another
person who has not obliged him. Further the perception
becomes more positive when he perceives the favour and
obligation to be intentional than incidental or unintentional.
6. That somebody has done something intentionally, this
perception develops during middle childhood, Piaget has
found that children under seven years tend to perceive an
action harmful or dangerous from the amount of damage it
has caused. But older children judge such actions by the
 past history and intention of the person responsible for the
act.
7. Status of the person also influences the perception and
judgment of older children. Generally person of high status
is perceived and attributed having good intentions in
whatever he does than a person with low status.
8. In social perception, perception of intention plays a major
role as one’s reaction and self evaluations are effected and
influenced by the action of another. When good intention is
added to the action of a person the perception of the person
becomes positive and when bad intention is added the
perception of the person becomes negative.

Forms Perception
Form perception is the recognition of visual elements of objects,
specifically those to do with shapes, patterns and previously
identified important characteristics. An object is perceived by
the retina as a two-dimensional image,[1] but the image can vary
for the same object in terms of the context with which it is
viewed, the apparent size of the object, the angle from which it
is viewed, how illuminated it is, as well as where it resides in the
field of vision.[2] Despite the fact that each instance of
observing an object leads to a unique retinal response pattern,
the visual processing in the brain is capable of recognizing these
experiences as analogous, allowing invariant object recognition.
[3] Visual processing occurs in a hierarchy with the lowest
levels recognizing lines and contours, and slightly higher levels
performing tasks such as completing boundaries and recognizing
contour combinations. The highest levels integrate the perceived
information to recognize an entire object.[4] Essentially object
recognition is the ability to assign labels to objects in order to
categorize and identify them, thus distinguishing one object
from another.[3] During visual processing information is not
created, but rather reformatted in a way that draws out the most
detailed information of the stimulus.

Factors of Form Perception

Perceptual Constansy
perceptual constancy, also called object
constancy, or constancy phenomenon, the tendency of
animals and humans to see familiar objects as having standard
shape, size, colour, or location regardless of changes in the
angle of perspective, distance, or lighting. The impression
tends to conform to the object as it is or is assumed to be,
rather than to the actual stimulus. Perceptual constancy is
responsible for the ability to identify objects under various
conditions, which seem to be “taken into account” during a
process of mental reconstitution of the known image. For
example, snow appears white in the low illumination of
moonlight, as well as in sunlight 800,000 times as bright.
Perceptual constancy is reduced by limited experience with
the object and by decreasing the number of environmental
cues that aid in identification of the object.

Perceptual Organization
 Perceptual organisation is a process that groups the visual
elements so that it is easy to determine the meaning of the visual
as a whole. It is an essential concept because it allows
individuals to make sense of the things that they see at a rapid
pace. The perceptual organisation also helps to lead the viewer to
the appropriate conclusion that suits our purpose.

In everyday life, various stimuli keep on stimulating the sense

organs of a human body. The sense organs are the recipient of
these stimuli which are converted to sensations and transmitted
to the related parts of the brain, which helps it in interpreting.
This is what perception is. It involves the process of sensation as
well as interpretation.

Perception is all about viewing and experiencing and this is why

even two people can’t see similar objects the same way.  The
information that we have access to governs our beliefs and
mindset. It is ultimately the perception that leads to individual
interpretation, and this is why everyone sees things in their way.

Perceptual selectivity is about external and internal variables,

and the perceptual organisation is about organising inputs into
whole objects that can be easily identified. It is the perceptual
process of an individual that takes into account the incoming
information and gives it a meaningful picture. It is also defined
as an integrated approach where different psychological and
physiological processes like mental state, clarity of sensations
and accuracy of sense organs are involved so that the perception
does not go haywire.
Several factors play a prominent role in the perceptual
organisation theory. These principles or laws can explain the
way perception acts independently from the features and
characteristics of individual stimuli. It has been proved that
human perception sometimes has little connection to the
stimulus situation in hand. There is a reason for it as perception
is an active and complicated process that is influenced by
numerous other factors besides the stimulus characteristics.

 Principal of Perceptual Organization

 This article throws light upon the six main principles of

perceptual organisation. The principles are: 1. Closure 2.
Pragnanz 3. Proximity 4. Similarity 5. Continuity 6.
Inclusiveness.
Principle # 1. Closure:

 Gestalt psychologists claimed that when we receive

sensations that form an incomplete or unfinished visual
image or sound, we tend to overlook the incompleteness
and perceive the image or sound as a complete or finished
unit. This tendency to fill in the gaps is referred to as
closure.

 Show figure 7.2 to your friend for a brief time. The partial
outlines of the figure will be filled out and your friend
might say that it is a square, though it is not, in-fact, one.
But even if it is seen as an incomplete square it shows that
 your friend first saw a square and later registered its
incompleteness. This illustrates that the principle of
closure was in operation. This shows a tendency to
perceive meaningful objects.

Principle # 2. Pragnanz:

 The term pragnanz indicates fullness or completeness.

Gestalt psychologists are of the view that the process of
perception is dynamic and goes on changing until we reach
a stage of perceiving with maximum meaning and
completeness. Once we reach this point, the perceived
gestalt remains stable. Such a stable gestalt is called a good
gestalt.
 The perceptual process according to gestalt psychology
tends to move towards a good gestalt. This phenomenon is
very obvious in the case of children. If once they perceive
something, they keep on asking questions about it which
may appear silly to an adult. Closure is one basic
mechanism which illustrates the principle of pragnanz.
 The reader should not confuse between perceiving a good
gestalt and the accuracy of perception. The term good
gestalt means that at that stage the perceptual process is
 stable and that under given conditions a clear figure-
ground demarcation has been arrived at.
 Apart from the above principles, other principles which
play a role in the organisation of perception are proximity,
similarity, continuity, etc. They explain how perception
takes place in the presence of a large number of stimuli.
Perceptual organisation, under such circumstances, is
determined to a great extent by the laws of association-
similarity, continuity, etc. These principles are explained
with the aid of illustrations below.

Principle # 3. Proximity:

 When objects are close to each other, the tendency is to

perceive them together rather than separately. Even if the
individual items do not have any connection with each
other they will be grouped under a single pattern or
perceived as a meaningful picture (Fig. 7.3).

 For instance, when the English teacher in the class

questions a student, ‘What is often?’ This is completely
different from the question, ‘What is of..ten?’Both the
sentences contain the same sounds but the way the speaker
 groups the sounds and where he pauses will determine how
the sounds are perceived.

Principle # 4. Similarity:

 Similar elements tend to be perceived as belonging

together. Stimuli that have the same size, shape and colour
tend to be perceived as parts of the pattern as shown in
Fig.7.4

 Principle # 5. Continuity:

 Anything which extends itself into space in the same
shape, size and colour without a break is perceived as a
whole figure (Fig. 7.5). For example, when several dots
form a curved line, an individual may perceive the figure
as two different continuous lines irrespective of the factors
like proximity and similarity of the dots. Thus, the whole
figure is organised into a continuum though the dots are
unconnected (Fig.7.5).
Principle # 6. Inclusiveness:
 The pattern which includes all the elements present in a
given figure will be perceived more readily than the other
figures. For example, in Fig.7.6 the hexagonal figure
formed by all the dots may be perceived more readily than
the square formed by the four middle dots. Single dots at
either end act as a fence or enclosure within which all the
other elements are included.

 We have here examined some of the factors which play a

role in the organisation of perception. These principles
explain how perception is often independent of
 characteristics of individual stimuli. While discussing the
phenomena of sensation it was mentioned that often our
perception bears very little connection to the actual
stimulus situation. We now know that this is because of the
fact that perception is a complex and active process
influenced by many factors other than stimulus
characteristics.

 Laws of Perceptual Organization

Perceptual organisation is a process that groups the visual

elements so that it is easy to determine the meaning of the visual
as a whole. It is an essential concept because it allows
individuals to make sense of the things that they see at a rapid
pace. The perceptual organisation also helps to lead the viewer to
the appropriate conclusion that suits our purpose.

In everyday life, various stimuli keep on stimulating the sense

organs of a human body. The sense organs are the recipient of
these stimuli which are converted to sensations and transmitted
to the related parts of the brain, which helps it in interpreting.
This is what perception is. It involves the process of sensation as
well as interpretation.

Perception is all about viewing and experiencing and this is why

even two people can’t see similar objects the same way.  The
information that we have access to governs our beliefs and
mindset. It is ultimately the perception that leads to individual
interpretation, and this is why everyone sees things in their way.
Perceptual selectivity is about external and internal variables,
and the perceptual organisation is about organising inputs into
whole objects that can be easily identified. It is the perceptual
process of an individual that takes into account the incoming
information and gives it a meaningful picture. It is also defined
as an integrated approach where different psychological and
physiological processes like mental state, clarity of sensations
and accuracy of sense organs are involved so that the perception
does not go haywire.

Several factors play a prominent role in the perceptual

organisation theory. These principles or laws can explain the
way perception acts independently from the features and
characteristics of individual stimuli. It has been proved that
human perception sometimes has little connection to the
stimulus situation in hand. There is a reason for it as perception
is an active and complicated process that is influenced by
numerous other factors besides the stimulus characteristics.
 Laws of Organization
 A group called the Gestalt psychologists consisted of Max Wertheimer,
Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka. Together they proposed a number
of laws of perceptual organization. The five laws of perceptual
organization are as follows: the Law of Similarity, the Law of Pragnanz,
the Law of Proximity, the Law of Continuity, and the Law of Closure
(Cherry, Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization).

 The Law of Similarity suggests that “similar things appear to be

grouped together” (Goldstein, 2011, p.60). This grouping can occur

with either visual or auditory stimulation. An example of the Law of
Similarity is a pattern of dots. Some perceive the pattern of dots as
horizontal rows, vertical rows, or even as both horizontal and vertical
rows as seen in figure 1 below.

        Gestaltpsychology)   Figure 2 (Unknown, Gestaltpsychology)

 The Law of Pragnanz or the Law of Simplicity suggests that “reality is
reduced to the simplest form possible” (Cherry, Gestalt Laws of
 Perceptual Organization). An example of this law at work is the
Olympic symbol. The Olympic symbol consists of a series of five
circles and is perceived as a simple figure not a series of complicated
shapes.

 The Law of Proximity also known as the Law of Familiarity suggests

that objects near each other appear to be grouped together. An example
of this law can be seen above in figure 2. The dots are perceived to
resemble a paw print because of the close proximity of the maroon dots.

 The Law of Continuity suggests that lines are perceived to follow the
smoothest path whether the result is curving, overlapping, or straight
lines. A good example of the Law of Continuity is rope that is
overlapping other parts of itself. Figure 2 below shows a rope
overlapping itself.

       
 The final law is the Law of Closure. This law suggests that
“objects grouped together are seen as a whole” (Cherry, Gestalt
Laws of Perceptual Organization). Figure 4 above is an example
of the Law of Closure. Our minds fill in the missing gaps to
complete the shapes or images.
 All of the Gestalt Laws try to explain how we perceive objects in
our environment. ‘The whole is different from the sum of its parts’
is a Gestalt belief and is what led to the development of the
principles explaining perceptual organization. These principles or
phenomenon are considered to be mental shortcuts for solving
problems or called heuristics.

The End