Perception
- Perception is the process through which the information from outside
environment is selected, received, organised and interpreted to make it
meaningful to you. This input of meaningful information results in
decisions and actions.
Characteristics –
- Perception is a selective process: We do not perceive each and everything in
the world or around us. We attend to only a part of the stimuli around us. We
select only a limited range of stimuli to which we attend. Attention is a basic
process in perception. It makes our perception selective in nature. What we
select would depend upon our needs, interests, and motives or on the nature
of stimuli to which we are exposed.
- Perception requires sensation: Perception is intimately related to sensation.
In order for perception to occur, we must first experience some sensation.
- Perception involves organization : Perception is not merely a collection of
present sensations and memory traces of past experiences. It is a meaningful
and integrated organization of past and present knowledge.
- Perception involves past experience: Perception involves past experience
also. The present information can be meaningfully understood only when we
integrate our past and interpret it in terms of present or future consequences.
- Change is the basis of perception : Perception is always a response to some
change or difference in the environment. If the world were uniformly the same
we would experience no perception. E.g., change in the weather, style of dress,
food, etc. is easily perceived. Any change in the normal routine is perceived
quickly. - Perception is objective as well as subjective : We all perceive certain
things as the same e.g., table, chair, etc. are perceived by every one of us in a
more or less similar manner. This is objective perception. In many cases our
perception is considerably influenced by our thoughts, motives, interests, etc.
Such perception is subjective in nature, e.g., an ambiguous event may be
perceived differently by different individuals.
- Perception has affective aspect : Our perception often induces emotions in
