VISUAL

PERCEPTION
REPORT BY : JERARD SIMBAJON
What is Visual Perception?
 Visual perception refers to the brain’s ability to make sense of
what the eyes see. This is not the same as visual acuity which
refers to how clearly a person sees (for example “20/20
vision”). A person can have 20/20 vision and still have
problems with visual perceptual processing.
Why is visual perception important?
 Good visual perceptual skills are important for many every day
skills such as reading, writing, completing puzzles, cutting,
drawing, completing math problems, dressing, finding your sock
on the bedroom floor as well as many other skills. Without the
ability to complete these every day tasks, a person self esteem
can suffer and their academic and play performance is
compromised.
The Brain
 The brain receives information from the retina, then using a hierarchical
method processes this information using different parts of the brain e.g
Lateral geniculate, Nucleus and the primary and secondary visual cortex
of the brain.

 The main problem with visual perception is that it is not simply a

translation of the image seen by the retina, making it difficult for scientist
to explain what we actually see.
Hermann Von Helmholtz
 Hermann Von Helmholtz, seen as the
founder of Visual Perception studies
believed vision was a form of unconscious
inference. (Inference is the act or process of
deriving a conclusion based solely on what
one already knows)
 Twowell known assumption are that Light
comes from above and that Objects are
viewed from above, not below.
Homo Significans
 The world is seen in a Different ways by different creatures, as Humans we put a large emphasis on
Visuals. We do not always believed our eyes. We know that a pencil in a glass jar will look bend and
that the moon closer to the horizon will appear bigger and that there are such things as Optical
Illusions.
 Humans as a species are driven by a desire to Find Meaning. This is relates to the title, because as
humans we are all “Homo Significans” – Meaning Makers

This is proved with a few simple shapes and lines, that the mind strived to find Meaning in.

You more likely see 5 pairs close together than 4 pairs more spaced
with a line either spare. We do this because the brain puts the closer
object together.
The Scintillating Grid Optical
Illusion Illusion

Dots which are not center in your An optical illusion is an illusion

visual field should appear to flash caused by the visual system and
from black to white, in a characterized by a visual percept that
'scintillating' effect. If you focus on appears to differ from reality.
one of the dots it will appear
Gestalt Theory
 The Gestalt Principles can be Split into 3 groups
• Figure and Ground
• Similarity, Proximity, and Continuity
• Closure, Area, Symmetry
 Figure and Ground
 Figure and Ground Explains how we put different elements together to make one
scene or a whole image

“Figure” Is the more dominant shape and “Ground” can be referred to as the background
Similarity
 When we have similar objects of size, shape and colour again we form groups.

This image grouped by colours This image grouped by Shape

 Proximity
 When objects which are closer to each other we tend to associate them together to form groups.

You will see column if you focus on white stars

You will see rows if you focus on white stars
 Continuity
 Seeing things as a whole is important however seeing in a whole is not
necessarily what are we meant to see.

Continuity makes us see 2 lines crossing but it’s actually 4 lines, A-O, O-D, C-O, and O-B
Closure
 Ifwe have a large pattern with missing components we tend to fill in a
missing parts to create the image we actually see.

Soccer Ball Star Airplane

Area
 This principle shows us that when areas are overlapping, the smallest area is seen as
the figure and the larger is the ground. When we look at this object, we see this as one
object on top the another instead of a hole in a larger area.

Area We can reverse this perception by adding

shading. On a black larger object we now
see is hole
 Symmetry
 Object which a symmetrical, we are more likely to group them together.
 This Principle also describes looking at an image and perceiving it as a whole figure
instead of individual parts.
We can see here is :
2 Overlapping Diamonds
2 Large Diamonds and 1 small
diamond
2 Large shapes and 1 diamond

you are seeing this and according to principle you are most likely viewing this as 2 overlapping diam
Conclusion
 Visionis not necessarily what we see but how our brain interprets the world
around us, our own experiences can shape how we perceived this world.

“Seeing is Believing”