Factors Affecting Perception

7 Key excerpts on "Factors Affecting Perception"

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  A Primer on Organizational Behavior

  • James L. Bowditch, Anthony F. Buono, Marcus M. Stewart(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  An underlying assumption made by perception theorists is that certain types of mental processes that operate in relatively simple visual and auditory situations similarly occur in more complex interpersonal situations. Thus, the ability to examine more complex forms of perception is based on our understanding of these relatively simple perceptual processes. There are a number of internal and external factors that influence the way in which we view the world around us. Before proceeding to an examination of these variables, however, it is necessary to identify two basic sources of perceptual variation: physio- logical limitations and cultural and environmental constraints. We are surrounded by data that are transmitted through our daily interactions with others, the Internet and media, educational experiences, family life and friendships, work experiences, and our socialization processes in general. The physiological aspect of perception defines the 41 42 Chapter 2 Perception, Attitudes, and Individual Differences limits of what we can actually see, hear, smell, and so forth of these data. Yet, even given these limitations, the information that is gathered by our senses does not enter our minds as raw or unprocessed data. Rather, people tend to interpret this information in a way that is congruent with their sets of beliefs, values, and attitudes, which are shaped by larger cultural and environmental experiences. Thus, perception is determined by the interaction among these psychological and broader sociocultural factors. BASIC INTERNAL PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZING PATTERNS Since people are continually subjected to a barrage of visual and auditory stimulation from the outside world, it is necessary to have an internal process or way in which all these data can be selected and organized into meaningful information.

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  Human Aspects of Urban Form

  Towards a Man—Environment Approach to Urban Form and Design

  • Amos Rapoport(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Pergamon

    (Publisher)

  While all people see the world more or less the same way (Gibson 1968, p. 321) they structure it and evaluate it quite differently. Perception is a process involving the interaction of the perceiver and the environment and has always raised complex philosophical issues such as the mind—body problem, the nature of objective reality and the value of introspection. The current position stresses the continuum between sensation, memory and perception, applies information processing and relates perception and cognition (Haber 1968). It follows that perception is affected by the nature of the stimuli, the physiology of perception and the state of the organism — expectation, attention, motivation, selectivity or adaptation. Most current theories of perception stress this interactional aspect, and argue that it must link sensory, cognitive and conative aspects so that the perceptual properties of an object are a function of the way in which the stimuli coming from that object will affect the existing state of the organism (Werner and Wapner 1952). This involves notions of homeostasis, meaningful information, changes in schemata and noticeable differences. If both environ-ment and observer are important, then the various personal and cultural characteristics of the perceiver — for example his past history and experience, adaptation level, and cultural schemata - must be considered (e.g., Gregory 1969; Arnheim 1960). When trying to mail a letter, mail boxes will become very apparent, when hungry - restaurants, when driving — parking places, and as cognitive and emotive states change so will perception. There is also some evidence that culture affects perception (Segall et al. 1966; Stacey 1969; Wober 1966) although these effects are less than for cognition or evaluation. 178 Importance and Nature of Environmental Perception 179 Those theories which include the effects of set, knowledge and learning see perception as a man-environment mechanism.

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  Acquisition and Performance of Sports Skills

  • Terry McMorris(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  2 Sensation and Perception of External Information

  Learning objectives

  At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

  • understand what is meant by indirect or inferred perception
  • describe how information processing theorists explain perception, with particular reference to:
    • – signal detection theory
    • – nature and role of selective attention
    • – nature and role of visual search
    • – how individual differences affect perception
  • understand what is meant by direct perception
  • have a basic knowledge of how ecological psychologists explain perception, including
    • – nature and importance of affordances
    • – how perception and action interact to detect affordances
  • understand the main criticisms of information processing and ecological psychology theories with regard to perception
  • be aware of the main developmental Factors Affecting Perception.

  In this chapter we examine, from an information processing perspective, how we perceive external information particularly for the purposes of making decisions. From an ecological psychology stand point, we are looking at how perception and action combine to recognize the existence of affordances in the environment. The role of perception in the control of movement is covered in Chapter 6 .

  Information processing theory, sensation and perception

  Although information processing theorists argue that sensation and perception are different, the two concepts tend to be treated as one. The senses, which are the most important in the perception of information for decision making, are visual and auditory receptors. Vision is generally considered to be the most important of the senses. Light rays enter the eye through the lens and are detected by the retina. The central portion of the eye, the fovea, is rich in nerve receptors, which allow it to extract detail from an object. The range of foveal or central vision depends on how the eye is focused. This is controlled by the ciliary muscles, which are on either side of the lens. The range is generally regarded as being between 2° and 5°. The vision outside of this range is referred to as peripheral vision. The receptors, here, are less dense and images are less distinct than those found in foveal vision. Although foveal and peripheral vision are commonly used terms, Trevarthen (1968) used the terms focal and ambient vision. Focal vision is identical to foveal vision, but ambient vision differs a little to peripheral vision. According to Trevarthen, ambient vision

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  21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook

  • Stephen F. Davis, William Buskist, Stephen F. Davis, William F. Buskist(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  However, the multiple, simultaneous chains of events that occur in order for us to perceive our surroundings are extremely complex and still not completely understood. Further, what we perceive is not a perfect representation of the environment; it is simply one that is good enough in most ways most of the time for survival. Curiosity about perceptual processes has motivated philosophical discourse and scientific research for hundreds of years. In addition to perception being explored simply to understand how it occurs (pure research approach), it is also studied for many practical, or applied, reasons. There are many ways by which perceptual processes can be dam-aged or not develop properly. The goal of many current researchers is to understand these processes and eventually develop ways to help individuals with perceptual prob-lems. Another application of perception research involves human factors: the use of knowledge about how humans function (physically, perceptually, cognitively) to design safer and more efficient interactions between humans and objects such as machines or computers. This chapter presents an overview of many aspects of perception. Historically and currently, how does the study of perception fit with other areas of psychology, especially those of sensation and cognition? What are some basic principles of perception? What are some of the challenges for and theories of perception? What have special popula-tions of participants allowed us to learn about perception? 246 • SENSORY PROCESSES AND PERCEPTION PERCEPTION AS A FIELD OF STUDY How is perception distinguished from sensation (see Chapter 19)? There are mixed views on the issue. One sim-ple distinction is that sensation is the neural response to a stimulus, and perception is our conscious awareness, orga-nization, or recognition of that stimulus.

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  Principles of Sensory Evaluation of Food

  • Maynard A. Amerine, Rose Marie Pangborn, Edward B. Roessler, M. L. Anson, E. M. Mrak, C. O. Chichester(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 5 Factors Influencing Sensory Measurements This chapter considers some specific variables which influence the sensory evaluation of foods. The chapters that follow will apply these principles to practical problems. I. Attitudinal Factors Studies on individual differences in perception,* intelligence, or special intellectual abilities have been pursued since before the turn of the century (Tyler, 1 9 5 6 ) , but only since about 1950 has there been a systematic study to correlate perceptual differences with personality dif-ferences, such as those defined below. Constancy is defined as the tendency to react to objects in space in terms of their known size, shape, or color. There are great individual differences in constancy, and people who are object-oriented may not be stimulus-oriented. With visual and auditory responses, Tyler reported that a subject might apply any one of six attitudes toward the stimulus: ( 1 ) casual survey of stimulus objects; ( 2 ) inquiring survey; ( 3 ) critical survey of the observer of himself observing; ( 4 ) critical particularizing survey of objects for accurate description; ( 5 ) personal valuation, in terms of pleasantness or unpleasantness; and ( 6 ) impersonal valuation of objects in terms of some conventional standard. These attitudes can affect the observer's response to food. In one set of experiments the attitudes assumed may be independent of the instructions given. It would be valuable to know what percentage of a population assumed each of these attitudes in evaluating the quality of foods, and how each attitude affected the results. Other ways of looking at the perceptual world have been postulated. None of the following can be completely substantiated, but all could prove useful in practice.

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  Cognitive Biases

  • J.-P. Caverni, J.-M. Fabre, M. Gonzalez(Authors)
  • 1990(Publication Date)
  • North Holland

    (Publisher)

  Such definitions cannot be firmly established without precise knowledge of the way the organism processes information (see 1.2). Another aspect of the stimulus problem is the status of contextual variables. We have mentioned above some of the variables that form the experimental context and are assumed to influence the response process. Some other variables determine the sensory intensity of a given dimension. This is the case for the duration of a stimulus, for instance. These factors can be shown to modulate the sensory response to the dimension tested in the experiment. As frequently stressed (cf. Marks, 1986; Bonnet, 19861, a given sensory response results from a constellation of factors which fashion the processing - context to the way the system responds to the stimulus under study. For instance, the visual detection threshold of a light is measured by the luminance of the source, others factors being 226 C. Bonnet constant. These factors are the angular size of the light, its duration of exposure, the wavelength distribution of the light, the precise retinal locus stimulated, in particular its eccentricity, the ambient light of the field surrounding the stimulus during the trial, the ambient light received before the trial etc. All these factors are known to modify the conditions under which the visual system responds to the stimulus. The same factors can influence matching responses, discrimination responses, as well as scaling responses and the corresponding response times. However, their effect may not be related in a monotonic way to the change in their values. Consider the effect of exposure time on the apparent brightness of a light. Starting from very short exposures, the brightness first increases with duration, reaches a maximum called the Broca-Sulzer effect and then decreases a little. In the long range of exposure times, new phenomena will appear, such as an adaptation effect, which will make brightness decline in time.

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  Empirical Foundations Of Psychology

  • N.H. Pronko, J.W. Bowles, Pronko, N H & Bowles, J W, N H & Bowles Pronko(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  PERCEPTION

  AND FACTORS WHICH AFFECT IT

  I.   THE NATURE OF “PERCEPTION”

  N. H. Pronko

  The kinds of behavior isolated in this chapter under the title of perception include the recognition of automobiles, airplanes, whistles, 25-cent pieces, pesos, or shillings, our homes and friends, and the odors, tastes, and feels of objects with which we have been in contact before. Since Aristotle, psychologists have acknowledged that in perceptual behavior objects mean something. For example, sounds are identified as the whistle of a steamboat or train, the putt-putt of a motorboat, the sounds of horses hooves, and so on.

  How stimulus objects come to have meaning older systems of psychology explained in the following manner. First, it was said that there are sensations or elementary sounds, sights, or smells out of which perceptions are “created.” In other words, the train whistle which we hear is at first a meaningless sound which is worked upon by a brain or mind or some equally mysterious synthesizing agent somewhere inside the person. Eventually, it emerges as an interpreted sensation or a perception. This process is said to occur anew each time one hears the sound.

  An alternative theory considers that stimulus objects have no function prior to situations that bring organisms into contact with them. It is out of the chain of reactions involving organisms and stimulus objects that “perceptions” gradually emerge. At first, the infant does not perceive milk bottles, mama, papa, the kitten, streetcars, tugboats, and so forth. It does nothing with respect to these objects, and they do nothing to the infant. However, as it accumulates a historical series of contacts with such objects, they function in certain ways for the child, and vice versa. For example, the kitten is not simply an object but is perceived as something that scratches you if you pull its tail. Mama and papa are discriminated from other people and reacted to in specific ways. Eventually, whistles are not simply noises but are identified as the whistle of the five-fifteen or that of the boy next door.

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