Looking at Perception as the Interpretation of Information Essay

The human brain is capable of perceiving and interpreting information or stimuli received through the sense organs (i.e., eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin) (Weiten, 1998). This ability to perceive and interpret stimulus allows the human being to make meaningful sense of the world and environment around them. However, even as the human being is able to perceive and interpret stimuli information through all sense organs, stimuli is most often or primarily interpreted using the visual (eyes) and auditory (ears) sense organs (Anderson, 2009). However, for the purpose of this paper, the visual information process will be examined.

It may be that a genetic predisposition to perception exists, but that situational factors also have to be in place for it to develop.

"Perception is not determined simply by stimulus patterns. Rather, it is a dynamic searching for the best interpretation of the available data..... which involves going beyond

The first thing that I learned about perception was earlier discovered by a psychologist by the name of Max Wertheimer. He discovered that our body clearly separates images into figures

Perception: a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

Sense perception is one way that allows us to interact and communicate with each other and the world. This is our primary way of knowing because our senses live experiences that we go through. Based on our senses we are to make interpretations of the world. For example, in class, each pair was given a box. Inside the box, there was one metal ball, but you had to figure out the structure or the form of a maze inside the box. We couldn't see inside the box, and we couldn’t touch the inside of the box. By using our sense of hearing and another way of knowing, imagination, we were able to make an educated guess of what the inside structure of the box looked like.

First let us start by defining Sensation and Perception. Sensation is the retrieval process of stimulus from the outside the human body (King, L.A. (2016). Experience psychology. (3rd ed). New York: McGraw Hill). Perception as also defined by (King, L.A. (2016). Experience psychology. (3rd ed.) says that this is the process that the brain uses to interpret all

Perception is something that I find really interesting. One of the biggest reason is because it is created by all of our senses and by our memory of our experiences. These are all things that are slightly different for everyone and seems to create infinite possibilities. I am an amateur artist and while in an art class one of our takes were to create a drawing only using straight lines of any thickness. Some of the drawings started to take on different images based on the angle you were looking at the picture. Once I saw an image it was harder to try to see a different image since I already knew what to expect to see. This is an example of how the top-down process allows your memory and expectations to interfere with our perception of what was drawn on the page.

Perception occurs in three different areas located in the brain. These three streams are covered by the cerebral cortex. The dorsal stream which is also known as the “how” pathway. This stream consists of the primary visual cortex (V1) which is located around the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe and travels all the way into the parietal lobe. The dorsal stream is responsible for controlling your movements, mindfulness of spatial layout, recognizing object locations and unique motion. Then there is the area that is referred to as the “what” pathway which is known as the ventral stream. This stream consists of the medial temporal lobe as well as the limbic system. The temporal lobe supplies long-term memories and the limbic system regulates emotions. The third area is referred to as the “where” pathway, and is called the lateral

Our brains can process perceptions in two ways: Bottom up and top down. In bottom up processing, there are 3 different ways that a person interprets or perceives what they see. Template matching uses prior knowledge of an object and creates a template using that prior knowledge. For example, the brain can use a template of the letter A in order to perceive an A. Template matching is very particular and uses every detail to create a template. However, prototype is a more generic type of matching. Prototype uses an idealized representation of an object or event. For example, to perceive a dog, the brain uses a generic idea of a dog (head, pointy ears, wet nose, big jowls). The third type of bottom up processing is called categorical perception.

Perception is defined as how you look at others and the world around you. Being able to select, organize and intercept information starts the perceptual process. Perception affects the way people communicate with others. An individual’s pattern of thinking can affect their perception of others. Most people communicate best with people of similar cultures.

A percept is used to explain what a person sees and experiences (Zakia 65). This means that a percept is directly related to a specific person’s perception. While many people are unaware of this, it is important to identify that this is a process, not a single action. It is impossible to describe an individual’s percept exactly because there is no way to correctly verbalize it (Zakia 65). If a person is asked to look at a photograph and then summarize what they see in a few sentences, the task is usually unsuccessful. They can describe the items in

Perceptual observations are the grounds by which our concept of reality exists. Another quote from Aristotle backing this point says, “If we do not perceive anything, we will not learn or understand anything, and whenever we think of anything we must at the same time think of an idea”. (Aristotle Barnes Pg 58). Man perceives facts. If one looks at a purple object and thinks this is purple he will most often be correct. However, if one says this is a purple rose, he has a greater chance of being incorrect. The color purple is a particular fact, easy to perceive (with the exception of those who are color blind), however the flower said to be a rose can be misperceived. Aristotle says a group of similar perceptions, or memories, turn into experiences, which are close to knowledge. Knowledge is achieved when we understand why the rose is purple or, in another words, why the experience occurred. (Aristotle Barnes Pg 58 - 60).

As innately curious creatures, mankind often discovers methods in order to better comprehend the world and their place within it. One of these ways is through the recognition of patterns throughout the material and psychological world. This recognition, and how it functions to form knowledge, is the stem for a myriad of fields whether it be mathematics or the arts and raises the central question: “What role does the recognition of patterns play in the acquisition of knowledge?”