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• Perceptual processing,
• Role of attention in perception,
• Perceptual organization,
• Perceptual sets,
• Perceptual constancies,
• Depth perception,
• Illusions.

Perception is the sensory experience of the world. It involves both recognizing environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli.

Through the perceptual process, we gain information about the properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our survival. Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our environment.

What Is Perception?

Perception includes the five senses; touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. It also includes what is known as proprioception, a set of senses involving the ability to detect changes in body positions and movements. It also involves the cognitive processes required to process information, such as recognizing the face of a friend or detecting a familiar scent.

Learn more about how we go from detecting stimuli in the environment to actually taking action based on that information.

Types of Perception

Some of the main types of perception include:

• Vision 
• Touch
• Sound
• Taste
• Smell

There are also other senses that allow us to perceive things such as balance, time, body position, acceleration, and the perception of internal states. Many of these are multimodal and involve more than one sensory modality. Social perception, or the ability to identify and use social cues about people and relationships, is another important type of perception.

How It 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.

For example, the process of transforming the light that falls on your retinas into an actual visual image happens unconsciously and automatically. The subtle changes in pressure against your skin that allow you to feel objects occur without a single thought.

Perception acts as a filter that allows us to exist and interpret the world without becoming overwhelmed by the abundance of stimuli.

Steps in the Perceptual Process

1. The Environmental Stimulus
2. The Attended Stimulus
3. The Image on the Retina
4. Transduction
5. Neural Processing
6. Perception
7. Recognition
8. Action

Impact of Perception

In order to see the impact of perception, it can be helpful to look at how the process works. This varies somewhat for every sense. In the case of visual perception:

1. The environmental stimulus: The world is full of stimuli that can attract attention through various senses. 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: This involves light actually passing through the cornea and pupil and onto the lens of the eye. 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 (i.e. an auditory signal or a visual signal).
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 perceptual process allows you to experience the world around you and interact with it in ways that are both appropriate and meaningful.

Take a moment to think of all the things you perceive on a daily basis. At any given moment, you might see familiar objects in your environment, feel the touch of objects and people against your skin, smell the aroma of a home-cooked meal, and hear the sound of music playing in your next-door neighbor’s apartment. All of these things help make up your conscious experience and allow you to interact with the people and objects around you.

Tips and Tricks

There are some things that you can do that might help you perceive more in the world around you—or at least focus on the things that are important.

• Pay attention. Perception requires you to attend to the world around you. This might include anything that can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, or heard. It might also involve the sense of proprioception, such as the movements of the arms and legs or the change in position of the body in relation to objects in the environment.
• Make meaning of what you perceive. The recognition stage is an essential part of perception since it allows you to make sense of the world around you. By placing objects in meaningful categories, you are able to understand and react appropriately.
• Take action. The final step of the perceptual process involves some sort of action in response to the environmental stimulus. This could involve a variety of actions, such as turning your head for a closer look or turning away to look at something else.

Potential Pitfalls

The perceptual process does not always go smoothly and there are a number of things that may interfere with perception. Perceptual disorders are cognitive conditions that are marked by an impaired ability to perceive objects or concepts.

Some disorders that may affect perception include:

• Spatial neglect syndromes, which involve not attending to stimuli on one side of the body
• Prosopagnosia, a disorder that makes it difficult to recognize faces
• Aphantasia, a condition characterized by an inability to visualize things in your mind
• Schizophrenia, which is marked by abnormal perceptions of reality2

Some of these conditions may be influenced by genetics while others result from stroke or brain injury.

History of Perception

Interest in perception dates back to the time of the ancient Greek philosophers who were interested in how people know the world and gain understanding.

As psychology emerged as a science separate from philosophy, researchers became interested in understanding how different aspects of perception worked, particularly the perception of color. In addition to understanding the basic physiological processes that occur, psychologists were also interested in understanding how the mind interprets and organizes these perceptions. The Gestalt psychologists proposed a holistic approach, suggesting that the sum equals more than the sum of its parts. 

Cognitive psychologists have also worked to understand how motivations and expectations can play a role in the process of perception.

Today, researchers also work to investigate perception on the neural level and look at how injury, conditions, and substances might affect perception.

The Perceptual Process

Perception is how you interpret the world around you and make sense of it in your brain. You do so via stimuli that affect your different senses — sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. How you combine these senses also makes a difference. For example, in one study, consumers were blindfolded and asked to drink a new brand of clear beer. Most of them said the product tasted like regular beer. However, when the blindfolds came off and they drank the beer, many of them described it as “watery” tasting (Ries, 2009). This suggests that consumers’ visual interpretation alone can influence their overall attitude towards a product or brand.

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On the role of selective attention in visual perception

What is the role of selective attention in visual perception? Before answering this question, it is necessary to differentiate between attentional mechanisms that influence the identification of a stimulus from those that operate after perception is complete. Cognitive neuroscience techniques are particularly well suited to making this distinction because they allow different attentional mechanisms to be isolated in terms of timing and/or neuroanatomy. The present article describes the use of these techniques in differentiating between perceptual and postperceptual attentional mechanisms and then proposes a specific role of attention in visual perception. Specifically, attention is proposed to resolve ambiguities in neural coding that arise when multiple objects are processed simultaneously. Evidence for this hypothesis is provided by two experiments showing that attention—as measured electrophysiologically—is allocated to visual search targets only under conditions that would be expected to lead to ambiguous neural coding.

Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization

eveloped by German psychologists, the Gestalt laws describe how we interpret the complex world around us. They explain why a series of flashing lights appear to be moving. And why we read a sentence like this, notli ket his ort hat. These are just a few real-lie examples of the Gestalt laws.

History of the Gestalt Laws

Have you noticed how alternately flashing lights, such as neon signs or strands of lights, can look like a single light that was moving back and forth? This optical illusion is known as the phi phenomenon. Discovered by German psychologist Max Wertheimer, this illusion of movement became a basis for Gestalt psychology.

According to Gestalt psychology, this apparent movement happens because our minds fill in missing information. Motion pictures are based on this principle, with a series of still images appearing in rapid succession to form a seamless visual experience.

Gestalt psychology focuses on how our minds organize and interpret visual data.2 It emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts.

Based upon this belief, Wertheimer along with Gestalt psychologists Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka, developed a set of rules to explain how we group smaller objects to form larger ones (perceptual organization). They called these rules the Gestalt Laws.

It’s important to note that while Gestalt psychologists call these phenomena “laws,” a more accurate term would be “principles.” These principles are much like heuristics, which are mental shortcuts for solving problems.

Law of Similarity

The law of similarity states that similar things tend to appear grouped together. Grouping can occur in both visual and auditory stimuli.

In the image at the top of this page, for example, you probably see two separate groupings of colored circles as rows rather than just a collection of dots.

Law of Prägnanz

The law of prägnanz is sometimes referred to as the law of good figure or the law of simplicity. This law holds that when you’re presented with a set of ambiguous or complex objects, your brain will make them appear as simple as possible.3 For example, when presented with the Olympic logo, you see overlapping circles rather than an assortment of curved, connected lines.

The word prägnanz is a German term meaning “good figure.”

Law of Proximity

According to the law of proximity, things that are close together seem more related than things that are spaced farther apart.4

In the image at the top of the page, the circles on the left appear to be part of one grouping while those on the right appear to be part of another. Because the objects are close to each other, we group them together.

Law of Continuity

The law of continuity holds that points that are connected by straight or curving lines are seen in a way that follows the smoothest path. In other words, elements in a line or curve seem more related to one another than those positioned randomly.

Law of Closure

According to the law of closure, we perceive elements as belonging to the same group if they seem to complete some entity.1 Our brains often ignore contradictory information and fill in gaps in information.

In the image at the top of the page, you probably see the shape of a diamond because your brain fills in the missing gaps in order to create a meaningful image.

The Law of Common Region

The Gestalt law of common region says that when elements are located in the same closed region, we perceive them as belonging to the same group.1

Look at the last image at the top of the page. The circles are right next to each other so that the dot at the end of one circle is actually closer to the dot at the end of the neighboring circle. But despite how close those two dots are, we see the dots inside the circles as belonging together.

Creating a clearly defined boundary can overpower other Gestalt laws such as the law of proximity.

A Word From Verywell

The Gestalt laws of perceptual organization present a set of principles for understanding some of the ways in which perception works. Research continues to offer insights into perception and how we see the world. These principles of organization play a role in perception, but it is also important to remember that they can sometimes lead to incorrect perceptions of the world.

It is important to remember that while these principles are referred to as laws of perceptual organization, they are actually heuristics or shortcuts. Heuristics are usually designed for speed, which is why our perceptual systems sometimes make mistakes and we experience perceptual inaccuracies.

Perceptual Sets in Psychology

A perceptual set refers to a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way. In other words, we often tend to notice only certain aspects of an object or situation while ignoring other details.

What Is a Perceptual Set?

When it comes to our perceptions of the world around us, you might assume that what you see is what you get. However, in truth, research shows that the way you see the world is heavily influenced (and biased) by your own past experiences, expectations, motivations, beliefs, emotions, and even your culture.1

For example, think about the last time you started a new class. Did you have any expectations at the outset that might have influenced your experience in the class? If you expect a class to be boring, are you more likely to be uninterested in class?

In psychology, this is what is known as a perceptual set.

A perceptual set is basically a tendency to view things only in a certain way.

Perceptual sets can impact how we interpret and respond to the world around us and can be influenced by a number of different factors.

What exactly is a perceptual set, why does it happen, and how does it influence how we perceive the world around us?

How It Works

How do psychologists define perceptual sets?

“Perception can also be influenced by an individual’s expectations, motives, and interests. The term perceptual set refers to the tendency to perceive objects or situations from a particular frame of reference,” explains author Sandra Hockenbury the textbook Discovering Psychology.

Sometimes, perceptual sets can be helpful. They often lead us to make fairly accurate conclusions about what exists in the world around us. In cases where we find ourselves wrong, we often develop new perceptual sets that are more accurate.

Sometimes, our perceptual sets can lead us astray.

If you have a strong interest in military aircraft, for example, an odd cloud formation in the distance might be interpreted as a fleet of fighter jets.

In one experiment that illustrates this tendency, participants were presented with different non-words, such as sael. Those who were told that they would be reading boating-related words read the word as “sail,” while those who were told to expect animal-related words read it as “seal.”

Top-Down Processing

A perceptual set is a good example of what is known as top-down processing. In top-down processing, perceptions begin with the most general and move toward the more specific. Such perceptions are heavily influenced by expectations and prior knowledge.5

If we expect something to appear in a certain way, we are more likely to perceive it according to our expectations.

Existing schemas, mental frameworks, and concepts often guide perceptual sets. For example, people have a strong schema for faces, making it easier to recognize familiar human faces in the world around us. It also means that when we look at an ambiguous image, we are more likely to see it as a face than some other type of object.

Researchers have also found that when multiple items appear in a single visual scene, perceptual sets will often lead people to miss additional items after locating the first one. For example, airport security officers might be likely to spot a water bottle in a bag but then miss that the bag also contains a firearm.

Forces of Influence 

Below are examples of various forces of influence:

• Motivation can play an important role in perceptual sets and how we interpret the world around us. If we are rooting for our favorite sports team, we might be motivated to view members of the opposing team as overly aggressive, weak, or incompetent. In one classic experiment, researchers deprived participants of food for several hours. When they were later shown a set of ambiguous images, those who had been food-deprived were far more likely to interpret the images as food-related objects.6 Because they were hungry, they were more motivated to see the images in a certain way.
• Expectations also play an important role. If we expect people to behave in certain ways in certain situations, these expectations can influence how we perceive these people and their roles. One of the classic experiments on the impact of expectation on perceptual sets involved showing participants either a series of numbers or letters. Then, the participants were shown an ambiguous image that could either be interpreted as the number 13 or the letter B. Those who had viewed the numbers were more likely to see it as a 13, while those who had viewed the letters were more likely to see it as the letter B.
• Culture also influences how we perceive people, objects, and situations. Surprisingly, researchers have found that people from different cultures even tend to perceive perspective and depth cues differently.
• Emotions can have a dramatic impact on how we perceive the world around us. For example, if we are angry, we might be more likely to perceive hostility in others. One experiment demonstrated that when people came to associate a nonsense syllable with mild electrical shocks, they experienced physiological reactions to the syllable even when it was presented subliminally.
• Attitudes can also have a powerful influence on perception. In one experiment, Gordon Allport demonstrated that prejudice could have an influence on how quickly people categorize people of various races.

Real-Life Examples

Researchers have shown that perceptual sets can have a dramatic impact on day-to-day life.

In one experiment, young children were found to enjoy French fries more when they were served in a McDonald’s bag rather than just a plain white bag.11 In another study, people who were told that an image was of the famed “Loch Ness monster” were more likely to see the mythical creature in the image, while others who later viewed the image saw only a curved tree trunk.

As previously mentioned, our perceptual set for faces is so strong that it actually causes us to see faces where there are none. Consider how people often describe seeing a face on the moon or in many of the inanimate objects that we encounter in our everyday lives.

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Perceptual Constancy Defined

Perceptual constancy refers to the tendency to perceive an object you are familiar with as having a constant shape, size, and brightness despite the stimuli changes that occur. But what does this really mean?

Suppose you are at a neighborhood bus stop with a friend. You see the bus as it turns the corner a few blocks away. From a distance, the bus looks like a mere dot in your field of vision. You put up your palm and notice that you can cover the entire area of the bus with your palm. As the bus approaches the stop, it begins to take up more and more of your field of vision. Your palm no longer covers the area of the bus.

By the time the bus reaches the stop, you realize that the bus is twice as tall as you. Despite the fact that the bus now takes up a majority of your field of vision, you don’t perceive the bus as having grown. You know that the bus has the same size, rectangular shape, and brightness now as it did when you saw it in the distance. The reason you know this is due to perceptual constancy.

Even though the image of the bus gets bigger in size, you have enough experiences with buses to know that the actual size of the bus remains constant. You are able to perceive the size of the bus as stable even though the features of the bus continually change in your field of vision. It is perceptual constancy that allows you to identify objects under different conditions, as you mentally reconstruct images of these objects. For example, the bus appears to be the same size in sunlight during the summer, as well as during a dark, snowy, evening in the winter.

Perceptual constancy can be reduced if you are not very familiar with the object, or if there is a decrease in the number of environmental cues to assist with the object’s identification. So what are the different types of perceptual constancies?

Everything to Know About Depth Perception Issues

When people talk about depth perception, they’re referring to your eyes’ ability to judge the distance between two objects.

Both of your eyes perceive the same object slightly differently and at slightly different angles, but your brain can merge the two images into one 3-D image. This process is also known as stereopsis.

With this information, you can gauge how far apart the objects are, as well as how far they are from you.

How to test depth perception

You can test your eyes’ ability to provide this information at home. Here’s how to do it:

1. Gaze at a picture of a circle or a ball.
2. Then, hold up one finger about 6 inches away from your eyes, with the circle in the background.
3. Focus both eyes on your finger. You’ll probably notice slightly hazy images of the circle that appear on both sides of your finger.
4. Now, switch your focus. Keep your finger in the same place, but gaze beyond your finger to the circle.
5. You should see images of your finger on either side of the circle.

If you’re having trouble, you may have an issue with your depth perception.

Causes of depth perception issues

A number of factors can contribute to problems with depth perception. Some of the most common factors include:

Strabismus

Strabismus is a condition that occurs when your eyes are not properly aligned. For example, one eye might turn inward or outward. Sometimes, an eye can also look upward or downward. Some people appear to have crossed eyes, which is also a sign of strabismus.

Essentially, since your eyes may look in slightly different directions, they’ll focus on different things.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) estimates that strabismus affects about 4 percent of children in the United States.

Ambylopia

If your brain favors one eye over the other, resulting in one eye that doesn’t quite track properly, you have amblyopia.

Also known colloquially as “lazy eye,” amblyopia can cause vision loss in the weaker eye that can reduce your depth perception and maybe even your vision. It’s also relatively common in babies and young children, according to the AAO.

Nerve problems

If your optic nerve is swollen or inflamed, it might affect your vision and interfere with your depth perception.

Additionally, some people are born with a rare type of nerve damage called optic nerve hypoplasia, which occurs when the optic nerve doesn’t fully develop.

Trauma to one of your eyes

If one of your eyes has been injured, you may no longer be able to see well enough to have good depth perception.

Blurry vision

There are dozens of potential causes of blurry vision, from corneal abrasions and glaucoma to diabetic retinopathy and plain old nearsightedness.

Any condition that makes your vision blurry, even temporarily, can interfere with your ability to perceive distances and depth accurately.

How it impacts daily life

You use visual cues to make all sorts of decisions every single day. And you probably don’t even think about it unless something is wrong.

When something affects your depth perception, it can also interfere with your daily life.

Here are a few common examples of how a problem that affects your depth perception may create some challenges.

Kids and learning

Children who can’t see very well may not say anything about it. But a careful observer may notice them squinting or moving their head in an effort to try to get a better view.

Some children may even have trouble learning because they can’t see the board or other teaching materials at school.

Adults and driving

People with impaired vision or no vision in one eye may worry about how they’re going to get around. The good news is that you can probably still get a driver’s license.

However, because your vision problems can affect or reduce your depth perception abilities, you may need to use some strategies to help you drive safely.

Navigating the world around you

Depth perception helps professional baseball players gauge the speed of the ball hurtling toward them. But depth perception also helps people perform simple, everyday tasks, like safely crossing a busy street or taking the stairs without the risk of misjudging them and stumbling.

If your depth perception is impaired, you may have some trouble doing those kinds of activities. You might even have trouble pouring a glass of milk.

Treatments

The treatment options for depth perception issues depend on the cause of the problem.

For example, children who have strabismus have trouble with depth perception because their eyes are misaligned. So, glasses can help some of them by helping straighten their eyes.

However, other children may need surgery to straighten their eyes, and they might still need to wear glasses after the surgery.

In other cases, such as when a child has amblyopia, a doctor might recommend putting a patch over the good eye for short periods of time to strengthen the weaker eye.

If you have another type of eye condition that impairs your depth perception, talk to your eye doctor about the best possible treatment options. You might need surgery to remove a cataract, for example, or treatment for glaucoma.

Other tips to cope

Some people with limited sight in one eye but good sight in the other are able to adapt. They get enough visual information from their good eye to be able to perceive depths and make judgments based on what that they do receive.

For example, drivers can monitor factors like the relative speed of other cars on the road and how light affects cars and other objects on or near the roadway. These spatial cues can help you gauge the distance between your car and other vehicles.

There are other strategies to try, too. For example, before driving, find ways to reduce glare and anything else that can interfere with your ability to see as best you can.

This might include cleaning your windshield to eliminate any grime or dirt that can interfere with your view. You can also dim the rearview mirror and angle your side mirrors to minimize the glare from the headlights of cars behind you.

Products that can help

Coping strategies can definitely help, but you might also benefit from the use of certain products or services.

These may include:

Vision therapy

Children can often benefit from vision therapy to help train their brains and their eyes to gain or regain better vision. In some cases, the training may involve physical exercises.

Eye patching can also be a part of vision therapy. Adults with certain eye conditions may also benefit from vision therapy.

Specialized glasses

If you plan to drive, you may be a candidate for specialized glasses that can help you. Your doctor may suggest using bioptic telescope attachments on your glasses to make it easier for you to see things that are farther away.

Better lighting

If moving around your home is a challenge, try altering the lighting and contrast in certain areas to help you see better.

For example, if you have trouble perceiving depth differences at night, try improving the lighting in and around your home, so you’re not creeping around in the dark.

Additionally, placing brightly colored tape on the edge of your stairs may help you navigate them with less fear.

When to talk with your doctor

If you’ve long since adapted to an eye condition that affects your depth perception, you may have already developed a toolbox of effective ways to compensate. But if you’ve just recently sustained an eye injury or developed a condition that’s affecting your vision, it’s a good idea to talk to your eye doctor.

You may not be aware of any depth perception issues yet, but your doctor may be able to examine you and determine if it’s something you should be monitoring.

The bottom line

It’s easy to take good depth perception for granted. But you can still live a full life even if your depth perception has been impaired in some way. You may benefit from certain treatments or vision therapy, or you may find aids to help you.

Many people with depth perception issues develop a combination of strategies to help them go about their lives as best they can. If you notice any changes to your vision, be sure to check with your doctor, just in case you’re experiencing any new problems that may need to be treated.

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