Perception

Perception is more than just seeing or receiving information with our other senses; it’s also about making sense of that information, how incoming messages are organised and understood by the brain.

If you see a picture of a simple shape- like a square or cube- what you are actually seeing is a pattern of light waves. Your brain organises this information so that it makes sense to you; then you recognise it as a cube in doing this, your brain also uses your past experiences of shapes and your understanding of what a square should be like.

The whole process involves applying our knowledge of the world- past experiences, learned behaviour, memory, emotion, expectations and cultural influences.

An example of this is this optical illusion. Some people see two faces whereas some see a vase. This is entirely up to how the persons brain organises information and uses past experiences to determine which shape the audience see. Our brain can fill in the caps due to our knowledge and understanding of how light and shadowing works.

The Effects of Expectation on Perception

It’s a continuous cycle- we are continually adjusting our perception:

What we expect to see affects what we look for…                                                              What we look for affects what we really do see…                                                               And what we really do see affects what we anticipate…

This anticipation means we filter out certain information, only sampling bits of information from the world around us, so directing or channelling our perception. We are prone to notice things that are meaningful to us, we group different visual stimuli together into meaningful shapes. Research has shown that babies are particularly attracted to faces and we are drawn to even a suggestion of figures or faces.

The Nature/ Nature Debate

Another important part of perceptual organisation contributing to how we see figures against backgrounds in depth perception. Having two eyes, which receive slightly different information combined with out knowledge of the world, allows us to judge whether an object is near to us or far away.

The continuing argument, which runs throughout scientific research up to the present day, is the exploration of visual perception as innate or learnt behaviour.

Cross-Cultural Studies

Different experiences can affect our perception, many cross-cultural studies looked at visual illusions, comparing Europeans with other, different societies. Cross-cultural studies show people develop perception appropriate to their environment.

We build up a picture of the world around us, creating a particular understanding that continually develops based on our changing experience and environment.

Most of our perception is subconscious and can so easily be influenced, manipulated and deceived.