PERCEPTION

“Perception is not determined simply by stimulus patterns; rather it is a dynamic searching for the best
interpretation of the available data.” Gregory (1966)

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 overlapping triangles, a cat, and a hut. Why don’t we
see them as different separate triangles, ovals, and rectangles???

Different Connotations of the Word ‘Perception

• Process, act, or faculty of perceiving. 
• Effect or product of perceiving. 
• Represents what is being perceived. 
• Awareness of something with the help of sense organs/ sensations. 
• Feelings, attitudes, opinions, and images people possess about different places, people, and environment 
• of various kinds. 
• Immediate or intuitive cognition or comprehension__ capacity to “analyze”/ "see" with the help of 
• experience. 
• The ability to process or use information coming/ received from the senses 
• Process of classifying sensations.

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

• Acquisition, 

• Interpretation, 

• Selection, and 

• 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 means “Configuration”. 

•  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. 

•  Wertheimer became aware of a form of apparent motion that was called “phi phenomenon”. 

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. 

•  Explanation of phi phenomenon led to a separate school of thought that had deep rooted impact 

on learning, ethics, and social psychology. 

•  We perceive experiences in a way that calls for the simplest explanation, even though reality may be 

entirely different. We tend to organize our experience so that it is as simple as possible. = Gestalt 

Law of Minimum Principle. 

•  Gestalt Psychology maintained that the main task of psychology is to explain attitudes, events, 

behaviors etc as ‘complete’ or ‘whole’__ not in terms of elements or disintegrated parts; the overall 

impact is what makes perception.

Figure and Ground 

•  How do we perceive a figure against a background? 

•  Certain processes are involved in distinguishing a certain figure or object from a ground. 

•  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.