PERCEPTION
Perception is based on beliefs, and leads to form further beliefs. It is the process by which we acquire information about the world around us using our five senses. It is not reality, but perception can become a person's reality because perception has a potent influence on how we look at reality. Perception is a central issue in epistemology, the theory of knowledge. Our perceptions influence how we focus on, process, remember, interpret, understand, synthesize, decide about, and act on reality.
TYPES OF PERCEPTION
As I mentioned before, we acquire information about the world using our five senses.
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Vision
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Touch
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Taste
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Smell
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Sound
There are other senses that allow us to understand things like balance, time, body position, acceleration and the perception of internal states. Most of these are multimedia and are connected to more than one sensor module. Social perception, or the ability to recognize and use social cues about people and relationships, is another important type of perception.
HOW PERCEPTION WORKS
The perceptual process is a sequence of steps
that begins with the environment and leads to our perception of a stimulus and
action in response to the stimulus. It occurs continuously, but you do not
spend a great deal of time thinking about the actual process that occurs when you perceive the many
stimuli that surround you at any given moment.
Ex: The process of converting the light in your retina into a real visual image takes place unconsciously and automatically. Subtle changes in pressure against your skin, you feel objects happen without a single thought.
STEPS IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS
To see the effect of cognition, it is useful to look at how the process works. It happens in eight steps.
1. The Environmental Stimulus: The environmental stimulus is everything in the environment that has the potential to be perceived.
2. The Attended Stimulus: The attended stimulus is the specific object in the environment on which attention is focused.
3.The Image on the Retina
The cornea helps focus the light as it enters the eye, and the iris of the eye controls the size of the pupils in order to determine how much light to let in. The cornea and lens act together to project an inverted image onto the retina.
4.Transduction
The image on the retina is then transformed into electrical signals in a process known as transduction. This allows the visual messages to be transmitted to the brain to be interpreted.
5. Neural Processing
The electrical signals then undergo neural processing. The path followed by a particular signal depends on what type of signal it is.
6. Perception
In this step of the process, you perceive the stimulus object in the environment. It is at this point that you become consciously aware of the stimulus.
7. Recognition: Perception doesn't just involve becoming consciously aware of the stimuli. It is also necessary for the brain to categorize and interpret what you are sensing. The ability to interpret and give meaning to the object is the next step, known as recognition.
8. Action: The action phase of perception involves some type of motor activity that occurs in response to the perceived and recognized stimulus. This might involve a major action, like running toward a person in distress, or something as subtle as blinking your eyes in response to a puff of dust blowing through the air.
THE PROBLEM OF PERCEPTION
The Problem
of Perception is that if illusions and hallucinations are possible, then
perception, as we ordinarily understand it, is impossible. The Problem is
animated by two central arguments:
- 1. The argument from illusion
- 2. The argument from hallucination
The
argument from illusion
According to Wikipedia, the Argument from illusion is the best-known and most historically influential argument for the existence of sense data. An illusion is a case in which one perceives an object, but the object is not the way it appears in some respects.
The argument from hallucination
A hallucination is an experience which seems exactly like a veridical perception of an ordinary object but where there is no such object there to be perceived. Like illusions, hallucinations in this sense do not necessarily involve deception. And nor need they be like the real hallucinations suffered by the mentally ill, drug-users or alcoholics. (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/perception-problem/)
THEORIES OF SENSORY EXPERIENCE
In this section we will consider the leading theories of experience of the last hundred years. These theories are understood here as responses to the Problem of Perception.
The Sense-Datum Theory
1.
1. Experience is fundamentally a relation to a
non-ordinary object; a sense-datum.
2. 2. The character of experience is explained by the real presence of sense-data and their qualities in experience.
The Adverbial Theory
1.
1. Experience is non-relational and
fundamentally a state of mind adverbially modified in a certain way (e.g.,
visually sensing brownly).
2. 2. The character of experience is explained by the intrinsic qualities of experience which constitute the ways in which it is modified.
CONCLUSION
Perception is the process by which people organize and
obtain meaning from the sensory stimuli they receive from the environment. It
might not be the reality, its only the meaning that a person gives to the
environment. Perception plays an important way of knowing which plays a key
role in most areas of knowledge. Philosophers have presented even some theories
of perception. Having a good knowledge of perception is very important in
living in a society.
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