DEPARTMENT OF

PSYCHOLOGY, UCSSH, MLSU

BA I YEAR UNIT-2 TOPIC 3

PERCEPTION

DR. VARSHA
SHARMA
 LOOK AT THE
PICTURES WHAT
YOU CAN SEE…?
What is perception…?
Perception is the process through
which the information from outside
environment is selected, received,
organized and interpreted to make it
meaningful. This input of meaningful
information results in decisions and
actions.
According to Joseph Reitz,
“Perception includes all those
processes by which an individual
receives information about his
environment—seeing, hearing,
feeling, tasting and smelling. The
study of these perpetual processes
shows that their functioning is
affected by three classes of variables—
the objects or events being perceived,
the environment in which perception
occurs and the individual doing the
 Perception is the act of
seeing what is there to be
seen. But what is seen is
influenced by the perceiver,
the object and its
environment.
 Perception may be defined
as a process by which
individuals organize and
interpret their sensory
impressions in order to give
meaning to their
environment
Perception refers to what is
immediately experienced by
a person and the process
giving rise to our immediate
experience of the world.
Perception is a psychological
function which by means of the
sense organs enables us to receive
and process information on the state
of and alterations in the
environment.
In more common and simple words
perception may be defined as the
process by which the sensory input
of information is organized and
HOW PERCEPTION OCCURS…?

THREE BASIC STAGES

THE PERCEPTION
PROCESS..
SENSATION
Sensation is an important prerequisite
of perception. Human beings must
have some sense organs with proper
functioning.
Role of sense organs is important in
perception.
ATTENTION
Attention is the term given to the
perceptual process that selects certain
inputs for the inclusion in our
conscious experience at any given
time.
ATTENTION
Attention is the term used or given to the
perceptual processes that select certain
inputs for inclusion in our conscious
experience, or awareness at any given
time. It is the process involving the act of
listening, and concentrating on a topic,
object or event for the attainment of
desired ends.
ATTENTION
 “Attention is the concentration of consciousness upon one
object other than upon another”—Dumville.
 “Attention is the process of getting an object or thought clearly
before the mind”—Ross.
 “Attention is being keenly alive to some specific factors in our
environment. It is a preparatory adjustment for response”—
Morgan.
 Thus attention is essentially process and not a product. It helps
in our awareness or consciousness of our environment, which is
of selective kind, because in a given time, we can concentrate
or focus our consciousness on a particular object only.
ATTENTION
 The concentration provided by the process of attention
helps us in the clarity of the perception of the perceived
object or phenomenon. Thus attention is not merely a
cognitive factor but is essentially determined by emotions,
interest, attitude and memory.
 Thus attention is a process which is carried out through
cognitive abilities and helped by emotional and behavioral
factors to select something out of the various stimuli
present in one’s environment and bring it in the centre of
one’s consciousness in order to perceive it clearly for
deriving the desired end.
ATTENTION
 Determinants of Attention:
 One of two types.
 1. External factors or condition
 2. Internal factors
 I. External Factors or Condition:
 These conditions are generally those characteristics of outside situation or stimuli
which make the strongest aid for capturing our attention.
 These can be classified as:
 1. Nature of the stimulus:
 All types of stimuli are not able to bring the same degree of attention. A picture
attracts attention more readily than words. Among the pictures, the pictures of
human beings invite more attention and those of human beings related to beautiful
women or handsome men, who attract more attention. In this way an effective
stimulus should always be chosen for capturing maximum attention.
ATTENTION
 2. Intensity and size of the stimulus:
 In comparison with the weak stimulus, the immense stimulus attracts more attention of an
individual. Our attention become easily directed towards a loud sound, a bright light or a
strong smell, and also a large building will be more readily attended to, than a small one.
 3. Contrast, change and variety:
 Change and variety strike attention more easily than sameness and absence of change, e.g.
we do not notice the ticking sound of a clock put on the wall until it stops ticking, that is any
change in the attention to which you have been attracted immediately capture your attention.
The factor, contact or change is highly responsible for capturing attention of the organism and
contributes more than the intensity, size or nature of the stimulus.
 4. Repetition of stimulus:
 Repetition is the factor of great importance in securing attention. Because one may ignore a
stimulus at first instance, but if it is repeated for several times it captures our attention, e.g. a
miss-spelled word is more likely to be noticed, if it occurs twice in the same paragraph than, if
it occurs only once. While giving lecture the important aspects of the speech are often
repeated so that the attention of the audience can be easily directed to the valuable points.
ATTENTION
 5. Movement of the stimulus:
 The moving stimulus catches our attention more quickly than a stimulus that
does not move. We are more sensitive to objects that move in our field of
vision, e.g. advertisers make use of this fact and try to catch the attention of
people through moving electric lights.
 Duration and Degree of Attention:
 People may possess the ability to grasp a number of objects or in other
words, to attend a number of stimuli in one short “presentation”. This ability
of an individual is evaluated in terms of the span of attention, which differs
from person to person and even situation to situation.
 The term “span of attention” is designed in terms of the quality, size extent
to which the perceptual field of an individual can be effectively organized in
order to enable him to attain a number of things in a given spell of short
duration.
 II. Internal or Subjective Factors:
 These factors predispose the individual to respond to objective factors, to
attend to those activities that fulfill his desires and motives and suit his
ATTENTION

 Some of the subjective factors are:

 1. Interest:
 Interest is said to be the mother of attention. We attend to objects in which
we have interest. We would like to watch a movie or a serial in TV because
we are interested in the subject around which the movie or serial revolves.
In any get-together if any subject of our interest is discussed that attracts
our attention easily and makes us to participate in the discussion. In our
day-to-day life we pay attention to the stimulus we are interested in.
 2. Motives:
 Our basic needs and motives to a great extent, determine our attention,
thirst, hunger, sex, curiosity, fear are some of the important motives that
influence attention, e.g. small children get attracted towards eatables.
ATTENTION
 3. Mind set:
 Person’s readiness to respond determines his attention. If we are expecting a
stimulus, occurrence of that stimulus along with many other stimuli may not come
in the way of attending to that particular stimulus. At a time when students are
expecting the examination time table by the end of the semester the time table put
out on the notice board along with other notices would attract their attention easily.
 4. Moods and attitudes:
 What we attend to is influenced by the moods and attitudes. When we are disturbed
or in angry mood, we notice the smallest mistake of others very easily. Likewise our
favorable and unfavorable attitudes also determine our attention. After discussing
subjective and objective factors, we realize that these factors are interrelated. How
much or in what way we attend to a stimulus depends on subjective as well as
objective factors.
PERCEPTUAL ORGANISATION
 The perceptual organization is a synthetic
process where the human mind selects
specific stimuli through its attention and
interprets it as per its directive. Similarly,
other stimuli in the visual or audio field
select stimuli and organize into a form that
will be perceived in a more meaningful way
than it appears.
PERCEPTUAL ORGANISATION

 Figure-Ground relationship -

 As per the principle of figure-ground relationship

the human brain can perceive a figure in a
meaningful manner in the background and the
beauty of it is that it cannot be separated from that
perceived background.
Figure-Ground relationship


Figure-Ground relationship


Figure-Ground relationship


Perceptual constancy

 – As the name suggests, the term perceptual constancy is

about stability in perception. The tendency of the human
mind to perceive objects as unchanging and stable in size
and shape despite a change in the picture we receive is
referred to as perceptual constancy. The concept of
perceptual constancy depends upon numerous factors, for
instance, imagination, learning, cognitive styles, motivations,
habits, expectancy and experience. The different types of
perceptual constancies are size constancy, brightness and
color constancy, shape and size constancy etc.
Perceptual constancy
Perceptual constancy
Perceptual constancy
Perceptual constancy
Perceptual Grouping/ Organisation

 The tendency of the human mind to group several

stimuli in an easily recognizable pattern is known
as a perceptual grouping. In this principle, the
grouping is based on closure, continuity,
similarity, inclusiveness, pregnanz and proximity.
A detailed description of every one of them is as
follows-
Perceptual Grouping/ Organisation -
 Law of Closure
 The tendency of the human mind to fill in the gaps and
perceive meaningful objects is simply known as the law
of closure as it closes the gap in literal terms. As per
the reports of Gestalt psychologists when the human
mind receives sensations that are unfinished or
incomplete sound or visual image, then it tries to
neglect the incomplete picture. Instead, it observes the
sound or picture as a finished or whole unit. This
inclination is referred to as closure.