“Humans see what they want to see.

" - Rick
Riordan, 'The Lightning Thief'.

LESSON 2 –
PERCEPTION
Learning Objectives:

– Describe perception and sensation

– Describe our sensory system operate and how it
affects our perception
– Differentiate between gestalt approach to
perception from computational approach
– Comparison of approaches to perception and motion
perception
– Define perception, action approaches and how it
differs from other approaches
A. SENSATION VS. PERCEPTION
A. SENSATION VS. PERCEPTION
Sensation – Detecting stimuli from the body or
environment
- sensory receptors detect stimuli and convert them into
neural impulses

Perception is the set of processes by which we recognize,

organize, and make sense of the sensations we receive
from environmental stimuli
- occurs when stimulation of the sensory receptors results
in experiences such as seeing, hearing, taste, smell, and
touch
- Encompasses many psychological phenomenon
SENSATION TO REPRESENTATION
PERCEPTION
 We do not perceive the world exactly as our eyes see
it
 Our brain actively tires to make sense of the many
stimuli that enter our eyes and fall on our retina
 Perception does not consist of just seeing what is
being projected onto your retina, the process is much
more complex
 Your brain processes visual stimuli, giving the stimuli
meaning and interpreting them.
B.MORE THOUGHT
ON PERCEPTION
(HOW SENSORY
SYSTEM WORKS)
  Provided a useful framework
for studying perception
 Introduced concepts of distal
(external) object, informational
medium, proximal stimulation,
and perceptual object

JAMES
GIBSON
ELEMENTS OF PERCEPTUAL
EXPERIENCE

 Distal Stimulus – the object in the external world

 Informational Medium – reflected light, sound
waves, chemical molecules, or tactile information
coming from the environment
 Proximal Stimulus – representation of the distal
stimulus in sensory receptors
 Perceptual Object – Mental representations of the
distal stimulus
PERCEPTION
 Imagine a tree falling
 The event creates a pattern on an informational
medium (can be in the form of sound waves)
 Information comes into contact with the appropriate
sensory receptors of the eyes
 Perception occurs when a perceptual object is created
in you that reflects the properties of the external world
Perception
 Occurs when the informational medium
carries information about a distal object to a
person
 Person’s sense receptors pick up on the
information
 Proximal stimulation occurs
 Person perceives the object
SENSATION
 SENSATION – focuses on qualities of stimulation
 Is that shade brighter than the red of an apple?
 Is that sound of that falling tree louder than the sound
of thunder?
 How well do one person’s impressions of color or
sounds match someone else’s impressions of those
same colors or sounds?
PERCEPTION

 Same color or sound information,

typically answers questions of identity and
of form, pattern, and movement
 Is the red thing an apple?
VISUAL PERCEPTION
 MODALITY VISION –Sight
 DISTAL OBJECT- Grandma’s Face
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM – Reflected light from
Grandma’s face (visible electromagnetic waves)
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Photon absorption in
the rod and cone cells of the retina, the receptor surface
in the back of the eye
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Grandma’s face
 AUDITORY PERCEPTION
 AUDITION- Sound
 DISTAL OBJECT- A falling Tree
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Sound waves
generated by the tree’s fall
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION
Sound-wave conduction to the
basilar membrane, the receptor
surface within the cochlea
of the inner ear
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT
– A falling tree
OLFACTORY PERCEPTION

 OLFACTION- Smell
 DISTAL OBJECT- Bacon being fried
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Molecules
released by frying bacon
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION –
Molecular absorption in the cells of the
olfactory epithelium, the receptor cells on
the tongue and soft palate, combined with
olfactory stimulation
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Bacon
GUSTATORY PERCEPTION
 GUSTATION - Taste
 DISTAL OBJECT- Ice Cream
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Molecules of ice
cream both released into the air and dissolved in
water
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Molecular contact
with taste buds, the receptor cells on the tongue and
soft palate, combined with olfactory stimulator
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Ice Cream
 GUSTATION – Touch
 DISTAL OBJECT- A Computer Keyboard
 INFORMATIONAL MEDIUM-Mechanical pressure
and vibration at the point of contact between the
surface of the skin and the keyboard
 PROXIMAL STIMULATION – Stimulation of
various receptor cells within the dermis, the innermost
layer of skin
 PERCEPTUAL OBJECT – Computer keys

TACTILE PERCEPTION
SENSORY ADAPTATION
 Receptor cells adapt to constant stimulation by
casing to fire until there is a change in
stimulation
 Through this, we may stop detecting the
presence of stimulus
GANZFELDEFFECT

 Refers to an unstructured visual field.

When your eyes are exposed to a uniform field of
stimulation, you will stop perceiving that
stimulus after a few minutes and see just a gray
field instead.
 This is because your eyes have adapted to the
stimulus
MENTAL PERCEPT
 Mental representation of a stimulus that is
perceived
 Without it, you could not meaningfully grasp what
you previously had sensed
DIFFERENT VIEWS ON HOW
WE PERCEIVE THE WORLD
 Bottom-Up Theories – describe approaches where
perception starts with the stimuli whose appearance
you take in through your eye; data driven or stimulus
driven theories

 Top-Down Theories – Perception is driven by high-

level cognitive processes, existing knowledge, and the
prior expectations that influence perceptions; when
people expect to see something, they may see it even
if it is not there or is no longer there
BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING THEORIES
 DirectPerception
 Template Theories
 Feature-Matching Theories
 Recognition-by-components Theory

TOP DOWN PROCESSING THEORIES

 Constructivist Approach
BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING THEORIES
 Direct Perception
- the information in our sensory receptors,
including the sensory context, is all we need to
perceive anything. As the environment supplies
us with all the information we need for
perception, this view is sometimes also called
ecological perception.
- sufficient contextual information usually exists
to make perceptual judgments
BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING THEORIES
 Template Theories
- Suggest that we have stored in our minds myriad
sets of templates
- We recognize a pattern by comparing it with our
set of templates
- We then choose the exact template that perfectly
matches what we observe
Templates – highly detailed models for patterns we
might potentially recognize
BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING THEORIES
 Feature-Matching Theories
- we attempt to match features of a
pattern to features stored in memory,
rather than to match a whole pattern
to a template or a prototype

 Recognition-by-components Theory
- we quickly recognize objects by
observing the edges of them and then
decomposing the objects into geons.
The geons also bcan be recomposed
into alternative arrangements
TOP DOWN PROCESSING THEORIES

 Constructivist Approach

perceiver constructs a cognitive perception of a

stimulus. According to constructivists, for the
period of perception we quickly form and test
various hypotheses about percepts.
The percepts are based on three things:
• what we sense (the sensory data)
• what we know (knowledge stored in memory)
• what we can infer (using high-level cognitive
processes).
The perceiver uses sensory information as the
foundation for the structure but also uses other
sources of information to build perception
(Intelligent Perception
 HOW THE THEORIES GO
TOGETHER

BOTTOM UP TOP DOWN

THEORIES THEORIES
 Emphasize the  Emphasize the
completeness of importance of prior
information from the knowledge in
combination with
receptors themselves
relatively simple and
ambiguous
information from
sensory receptors.
Bottom up and top down theories works
together for perceiving the world around
D. THE PERCEPTIONS OF
GROUPS (GESTALT LAWS)
 Gestalt approach to form perception
 Developed in Germany in the early 20th century
 Useful for understanding how we perceive groups
of objects or even parts of objects to form integral
Wholes
 Founded by Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler, and
Max Wetheimer
 Based on the notion that the whole differs from the
sum of its individual parts
LAW OF PRAGNANZ
 We tend to perceive any given visual array in a
way that most simply organizes the different
elements into a stable and coherent form.
 We do not merely experience a jumble of
unintelligible, disorganized sensations
 We tend to perceive a focal figure and other
●

sensations as forming a background for the figure

on which we focus.
GESTALT PRINCIPLES TO
FORM PERCEPTION
 Figure-Ground
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Continuity
 Closure
 Symmetry
FIGURE GROUND

 When perceiving a visual field, some objects

(figures) seem prominent, and other aspects of
the field recede into the background (ground)
PROXIMITY

 When we perceive an assortment of objects,

we tend to see objects that are close to each
other as forming a group.
SIMILARITY

 We tend to group objects on the basis of their

similarity
CONTINUITY

 We tend to perceive smoothly flowing or

continuous forms rather than disrupted or
continuous ones.
CLOSURE

 Wetend to perceptually close up or

complete objects that are not, in fact,
complete
 SYMMETRY

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 We tend to perceive objects as forming mirror
images about their center
 When we view the configuration of assorted
brackets, we see the assortment as forming four
sets of brackets, rather than eight individual
items, because we integrate the symmetrical
elements into coherent objects
E, Computational Approach to
Perception
- an approach to perception that focuses on how
computations by the nervous system translate raw sensory
stimulation into an experience of reality
- This approach hold the contention that human mind is
an information processing system and that cognition and
consciousness together are a form of computation
- Mind as Computer, could be understood in terms of
information processing that some mental operations
might be carried out by computers, possibly telling us
something about the way human cognition works.
- The physical brain is compared with the computer’s
hardware, cognition with its soft ware. Although
computers and soft ware aren’t perfect analogies
- mental functioning in terms of representation and
computation.
Computational Approach to Perception

sees the individual as a processor of information, in much

the same way that a computer takes in information and
follows a program to produce an output.

• (1) information made available by the environment is

processed by a series of processing systems (e.g.
attention, perception, short-term memory);
• (2) these processing systems transform or alter the
information in systematic ways;

• (3) the aim of research is to specify the processes and

structures that underlie cognitive performance;

• (4) information processing in humans resembles that in

computers.
Motion Perception

• Motion perception is the process of inferring the

speed and direction of elements in a scene based on
visual input.
• Monocular vision,, can detect nearby motion;
however, this type of vision is poor at depth
perception. the eye sees a two-dimensional image in
motion, which is sufficient at near distances but not
from farther away.
• binocular vision is better at perceiving motion from a
distance. both eyes are used together to perceive
motion of an object by tracking the differences in size,
location, and angle of the object between the two
eyes.
Motion Perception
Motion Perception
Phi Phenomenon
Auto-Kinetic Effect
Action Approach to Perception,

- An approach that views how

people perceive their environment and events
within it in terms of their ability to act .
Action - is a means of acquiring perceptual
information about the environment.
- alters your spatial relations to
surrounding objects and, hence, which of their
properties you visually perceive

- Active or passive movements of the body can

also generate useful sources of perceptual
information 
Action Approach to Perception

- An approach that views how

people perceive their environment and events
within it in terms of their ability to act .
Action - is a means of acquiring perceptual
information about the environment.
- alters your spatial relations to
surrounding objects and, hence, which of their
properties you visually perceive

- Active or passive movements of the body can

also generate useful sources of perceptual
information 
Action Approach to Perception

Movement is a system that is – Interactive and

complex rather than hierarchical and reflexive –
Embedded in the environment

Developmental change is the result of a

dynamic interaction between perception and
action driven by active exploration and selection
processes
THEORIES PERCEPTION IS VIEWED AS
1 Bottom Up Theories -Starts with the stimuli
-Data driven
-directs perception
2 Top Down Theories -constructs a cognitive perception
- is guided by higher-level knowledge,
experience, expectations
3 Gestalt - How to organize bits and pieces of
information into meaningful wholes

4 Computational - How to a process of information like

Approach that of a computer as it takes in
information and follows a program to
produce an output
5 Motion-Based -way Inferring speed and direction thru
Theory visual inputs
6 Action A way of getting information from
environment and events within it in
terms of their ability to act
Thank you!!
References
Goldstein, E. B. Cognitive Psychology, 3 rd ed.
Sternberg R. J. Cognitive Psychology, 6 th ed
Eysenck M, Ccogitive Psychology, A Student Handbook

https://zitoc.com/approaches-of-perception-in-cognitive-psychology/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/action-perception/
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https://www.slideshare.net/cece2012/visual-perception-1
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