Perception

1. AAC602 APPLIED BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
Unit 1 Cognitive process affecting human behavior
Perception: Meaning, Nature and Types
Selective Attention: Meaning, Types, Theories and
Models
Dr. Arpita Sharma Kandpal
Assistant Professor, Dept of Agril Comm, College
of Ag, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar

2. Perception
 Sensory input is so interpreted as to make it meaningful.
 Transformation and recording takes place in sensory inputs before perception of
external objects.
 Brain interprets only selected sensory inputs and depends on past experience.
 Sequence of the events leading to perception may be summarized as follows:
 [1] Object or event in external World stimulate sense receptors.
 [2] Receptors in the sense organ begin to send sensory input to the specific
region of brain (Afferent Code).
 [3] Inputs are then interpreted by the brain in light of previous memories.

3.  Perception is a consequences of the interpretation or meaning resulting from
sensory data.
 Sensory inputs: Electrical Spikes: [1] Patterns, [2] Speed, [3] Place

4.  “Perception is the process through which the information from outside environment is selected,
received, organised and interpreted to make it meaningful. This input of meaningful information
results in decisions and actions.”
 “Perception may be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory
impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”
 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 perceiving.”
 In simple words we can say that 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.

5. Nature of Perception:
 “Perception refers to the interpretation of sensory data.
 In other words, sensation involves detecting the presence of a stimulus whereas perception
involves understanding what the stimulus means.
 For example, when we see something, the visual stimulus is the light energy reflected from the
external world and the eye becomes the sensor.
 This visual image of the external thing becomes perception when it is interpreted in the visual
cortex of the brain.
 Thus, visual perception refers to interpreting the image of the external world projected on the
retina of the eye and constructing a model of the three dimensional world.”
 From the above explanation it becomes clear that perception is something more than sensation.
 It correlates, integrates and comprehends diverse sensations and information from many organs of
the body by means of which a person identifies things and objects, the sensations refer to.

6.  Perception is determined by both physiological and psychological characteristics of
the human being
 Sensation is conceived with only the physiological features.
 Thus, perception is not just what one sees with the eyes it is a much more complex
process by which an individual selectively absorbs or assimilates the stimuli in the
environment, cognitively organizes the perceived information in a specific fashion
and then interprets the information to make an assessment about what is going on
in one’s environment.
 Perception is a subjective process, therefore, different people may perceive the
same environment differently based on what particular aspects of the situation
they choose to selectively absorb, how they organize this information and the
manner in which they interpret it to obtain a grasp of the situation.

7. Selectivity of perception: Attention
 Selective Nature
 Selective feature of the perception is known as attention.
 Attention always divide perceptual field into focus and margin.
 Events we perceive: Focus
 Vaguely aware: Margin
 Unaware the object: Periphery of attention
 Attention is always changing and shifting.
 Shift:[1] Stimulus factors: Characteristics of stimulus.
 [2] Subjective factors: characteristics of the perceiver.

8. Stimulus factors in Attention
 Intensity
 Change
 Repetition
 Size
 Novelty

9. Subjective Factors in Attention
 Motives: Hunger, Thirst, Fear
 Interest: Long term and short term eg: Botanist, Geologist.
 Expectancy: Mental Set and Expectancy plays important role in determining the
direction of attention.
Refers to reediness to attend something more easily than to other thing.

10. Distraction
 Paying attention to something that is not a part of main activity.
 Anger, Worries, Fears, Insecurity: Internal Distraction
 Noise: External Distraction

11. Types of perception
 Depth Perception:
 Ability of a person to perceive the distance is known as depth perception.
 This is very important ability to judge the distance between us and other people,
objects and vehicles moving particularly when we are on roads.
 This is also known as third dimension. The other two dimensions are left and right,
and above and below.
 Cues:
 Depth perception is possible due to certain cues. These cues help us to understand
the distance between one person and the other person or object.

12.  These are of two types:
 a. Monocular cues:
 These are the cues that can operate when only one eye is looking. Some of such cues are:
 Linear perspective:
 The distances separating the images of far objects appear to be smaller.
 For example, imagine that you are standing between railway tracks and looking off into the distance. It appears
that the tracks would seem to run closer and closer together at the other end.
 Aerial perspective:
 The nearer objects appear clearer than the distant objects.
 For example, a hill in far of distance appears farther away because the details do not seem clearly.
 Interposition:
 When one object obstructs our view of another, the front one appears nearer than the partly covered one.
 For example, the hill which appears full is definitely nearer than the partly seen.

13. Gradient structure:
 A gradient is a continuous change in something- a change without abrupt
transitions.
 Regions closer to the observer have a coarse texture and many details. As the
distance increases, the texture becomes finer and finer.
 This happens very gradually and gives a cue about the depth or distance.
 the structures which are nearer appear larger than the distant one which appear
smaller as the move away.

14.  b. Binocular cues:
 Sometimes the depth can be perceived when both eyes are used. This is called binocular
binocular cue. There are 2 binocular cues:
 1. Retinal disparity:
 The image of the object which falls on both the retinas differs. Disparity will be more
when the object is closer than when it is far away.
 Depending upon the correspondence between the distance and the amount of
disparity, the depth can be perceived.
 2. Convergence or divergence of eyeballs:
 When the object moves nearer and nearer to our eyes, our eyeballs converge, and as the
the object moves away from us the eyeballs diverge. This process acts as a binocular cue
to perceive the depth.

15. Perception of Movement:
 When a particular object appears in different places at different times we
understand that the object is in movement.
 Ability to perceive movement is gained from birth itself as a natural process.
 It is only by this ability the organism can understand the world around and can
perceive the dangers / threats in the movement, so that it can easily escape from
such dangers.

16. Apparent motion:
 Sometimes we perceive that the objects are moving. In fact the objects are
stationary, i.e. they will not be moving.
 Hence the perception of an object which is not moving, as an object moving is an
illusion.
 For example, when we are moving fast in a bus, the trees, plants and other non-
moving objects appear to move in the opposite direction.
 In the same way, even the movements of figures in a film appear to move, though
they remain without movement.
 Since moving pictures are taken continuously and the film reel is run very fast, it
produces a movement feeling called stroboscopic motion or phi phenomenon.

17. Factors Affecting Perception
 There are individual differences in perceptual abilities. Two people may perceive the same stimulus
differently.
 a. Perceptual learning:
 Based on past experiences or any special training that we get, every one of us learns to emphasise
some sensory inputs and to ignore others.
 For example, a person who has got training in some occupation like artistry or other skilled jobs
can perform better than other untrained people. Experience is the best teacher for such perceptual
skills.
 For example, blind people identify the people by their voice or by sounds of their footsteps.
 b. Mental set:
 Set refers to preparedness or readiness to receive some sensory input.
 Such expectancy keeps the individual prepared with good attention and concentration.
 For example, when we are expecting the arrival of a train, we listen to its horn or sound even if there
is a lot of noise disturbance.

18.  c. Motives and needs:
 Our motives and needs will definitely influence our perception.
 For example, a hungry person is motivated to recognize only the food items among
other articles. His attention cannot be directed towards other things until his motive is
satisfied.
 d. Cognitive styles:
 People are said to differ in the ways they characteristically process the information.
 Every individual will have his or her own way of understanding the situation.
 It is said that the people who are flexible will have good attention and they are less
affected by interfering influences and to be less dominated by internal needs and
motives than or people at the constricted end.

19.  Extrasensory Perception (ESP):
 Is there any way of knowing about the world in which the information does not
come through the senses?
 But there are some instances reported by people that they have experienced some
perceptions without the aid of their sense organs.
 Psychologists have named the perception that occurs without sensory stimulation
as ‘Extrasensory perception’ (ESP).
 This is otherwise known as sixth sense in common man’s view.
 Some of the common phenomena in ESP are telepathy, meeting the souls,
precognition, psycho-kinesis, reincarnation, etc.

20. Errors in Perception:
 Illusion:
 Illusion is a false perception.
 Here the person will mistake a stimulus and perceive it wrongly.
 For example, in the dark, a rope is mistaken as a snake or vice versa.
 The voice of an unknown person is mistaken as a friend’s voice. A person standing
at a distance who is not known may be perceived as a known person.
 Most of our illusions are visual and auditory. But illusions pertaining to other senses
are also possible.

21.  b. Hallucination:
 Sometimes we come across instances where the individual perceives some
stimulus, even when it is not present.
 This phenomenon is known as hallucination. The person may see an object, person,
etc. or he may listen to some voice though there are no objects and sounds in
reality.
 Hallucinations pertain to all the sensations appear in people, but visual and
auditory hallucinations are more common.
 Usually persons with unsound mind, emotionally disturbed, alcoholics and those
who are in confused states may experience hallucinations. However, among
abnormal people and intoxicated persons hallucinations are very common.

22. Importance of Perception
 (i) Perception is very important in understanding the human behaviour, because every
person perceives the world and approaches the life problems differently- Whatever we
see or feel is not necessarily the same as it really is.
 It is because what we hear is not what is really said, but what we perceive as being said.
 When we buy something, it is not because it is the best, but because we take it to be
the best.
 Thus, it is because of perception, we can find out why one individual finds a job
satisfying while another one may not be satisfied with it.
 (ii) If people behave on the basis of their perception, we can predict their behaviour in
the changed circumstances by understanding their present perception of the
environment.
 One person may be viewing the facts in one way which may be different from the facts
as seen by another viewer.

23.  (iii) With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be determined,
because people’s perception is influenced by their needs.
 Like the mirrors at an amusement park, they distort the world in relation to their
tensions.
 (iv) Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors
when dealing with people and events in the work setting.
 This problem is made more complicated by the fact that different people perceive
the same situation differently.
 In order to deal with the subordinates effectively, the managers must understand
their perceptions properly.