perception

per·cep·tion

P0182700 (pər-sĕp′shən)n.1. a. The process of perceiving something with the senses: the perception of a faint sound.b. An instance of this: sense perceptions.2. a. The process or state of being aware of something: the perception of time.b. Insight or knowledge gained by thinking: the perception that inheritance must be coded in DNA.c. The capacity for such insight or knowledge: theories of how to enhance human perception.d. An insight or point of knowledge: The article is full of astute perceptions.3. An interpretation or impression; an opinion or belief: doctors working to change the public perception of certain diseases.

[Middle English percepcioun, from Old French percepcion, from Latin perceptiō, perceptiōn-, from perceptus, past participle of percipere, to perceive; see perceive.]

per·cep′tion·al adj.

perception

(pəˈsɛpʃən) n1. the act or the effect of perceiving2. insight or intuition gained by perceiving3. the ability or capacity to perceive4. way of perceiving; awareness or consciousness; view: advertising affects the customer's perception of a product. 5. (Zoology) the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptors6. (Law) law the collection, receipt, or taking into possession of rents, crops, etc[C15: from Latin perceptiō comprehension; see perceive] perˈceptional adj

per•cep•tion

(pərˈsɛp ʃən)

n. 1. the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or the mind; cognition; awareness. 2. a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present. 3. immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; discernment. 4. the result or product of perceiving; percept. [1350–1400; Middle English (< Old French) < Latin perceptiō gathering in, perception. See perceive, -tion] per•cep′tion•al, adj.

Perception

See also alertness; hearing; touch; understanding.
Berkeleianism, Berkeleyanismthe system of philosophical idealism developed by George Berkeley (1685?-1753), especially his tenet that the physical world does not have an independent reality but exists as a perception of the divine mind and the flnite mind of man. Also Berkeleyism. — Berkeleian, Berkeleyan, n., adj.chromesthesiaMedicine. the association of imaginary sensations of color with actual perceptions of hearing, taste, or smell. Also called photism, color hearing. Cf. synesthesia.coenesthesia, coenesthesis, cenesthesia, cenesthesisthe combination of organic sensations that comprise an individual’s awareness of bodily existence. — coenesthetic, cenesthetic, adj.dysesthesiaan impaired condition of any of the senses.kinesthesiaMedicine. the sense by which movement, weight, position, etc. are perceived. — kinesthetic, adj.oxygeusiaextreme acuteness or sensitivity of the sense of taste.oxyopia, oxyopyan extremely heightened acuteness of the eyesight, resulting from increased sensibility of the retina.oxyosphresiaheightened acuteness of the sense of smell.panesthesia, panaesthesiathe total or collective experience of all sensations or all the senses. — panesthetic, panaesthetic, adj.paresthesia, paraesthesiaany abnormal physical sensation, as itching, a tickling feeling, etc. — paresthetic, paraesthetic, adj.phantasma vision or other perception of something that has no physical or objective reality, as a ghost or other supernatural apparition. Also phantasma. See also images; philosophy.phonisma sound or a sensation of hearing produced by stimulus of another sense, as taste, smell, etc.photismchromesthesia.sensoriumthe sensory apparatus of the body as a whole; the seat of physical sensation, imagined to be in the gray matter of the brain.synesthesia, synaesthesiaMedicine. a secondary sensation accompanying an actual perception, as the perceiving of sound as a color or the sensation of being touched in a place at some distance from the actual place of touching. Cf. chromesthesia. — synesthetic, synaesthetic, adj.telesthesia, telaesthesiaa form of extrasensory perception, working over a distance and enabling the so gifted observer to perceive events, objects, etc., far away. — telesthetic, telaesthetic, adj.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	perception - the representation of what is perceived; basic component in the formation of a conceptpercept, perceptual experienceinternal representation, mental representation, representation - a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or imagefigure - a unitary percept having structure and coherence that is the object of attention and that stands out against a groundground - a relatively homogeneous percept extending back of the figure on which attention is focusedpattern, form, shape - a perceptual structure; "the composition presents problems for students of musical form"; "a visual pattern must include not only objects but the spaces between them"visual percept, visual image - a percept that arises from the eyes; an image in the visual system
	2.	perception - a way of conceiving something; "Luther had a new perception of the Bible"conceptualisation, conceptuality, conceptualization - an elaborated concept
	3.	perception - the process of perceivingbasic cognitive process - cognitive processes involved in obtaining and storing knowledgeperceptual constancy, constancy - (psychology) the tendency for perceived objects to give rise to very similar perceptual experiences in spite of wide variations in the conditions of observationdetection, sensing - the perception that something has occurred or some state exists; "early detection can often lead to a cure"beholding, seeing, visual perception - perception by means of the eyesauditory perception, sound perception - the perception of sound as a meaningful phenomenonaesthesis, esthesis, sensation, sense datum, sense experience, sense impression - an unelaborated elementary awareness of stimulation; "a sensation of touch"somaesthesia, somatesthesia, somatic sensation, somesthesia - the perception of tactual or proprioceptive or gut sensations; "he relied on somesthesia to warn him of pressure changes"tactile sensation, tactual sensation, touch sensation, feeling, touch - the sensation produced by pressure receptors in the skin; "she likes the touch of silk on her skin"; "the surface had a greasy feeling"
	4.	perception - knowledge gained by perceiving; "a man admired for the depth of his perception"cognition, knowledge, noesis - the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoningdiscernment, perceptiveness - perception of that which is obscureinsight, penetration - clear or deep perception of a situationcognizance - range or scope of what is perceived
	5.	perception - becoming aware of something via the sensessensingsensory activity - activity intended to achieve a particular sensory resultlooking, looking at, look - the act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually; "he went out to have a look"; "his look was fixed on her eyes"; "he gave it a good looking at"; "his camera does his looking for him"listening, hearing - the act of hearing attentively; "you can learn a lot by just listening"; "they make good music--you should give them a hearing"lipreading - perceiving what a person is saying by observing the movements of the lipstasting, taste - a kind of sensing; distinguishing substances by means of the taste buds; "a wine tasting"smelling, smell - the act of perceiving the odor of something

perception

noun1. awareness, understanding, sense, impression, feeling, idea, taste, notion, recognition, observation, consciousness, grasp, sensation, conception, apprehension how our perception of death affects the way we live2. understanding, intelligence, observation, discrimination, insight, sharpness, cleverness, keenness, shrewdness, acuity, discernment, perspicacity, astuteness, incisiveness, perceptiveness, quick-wittedness, perspicuity It did not require a great deal of perception to realise what he meant.

perception

noun1. The condition of being aware:awareness, cognizance, consciousness, sense.2. That which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity:concept, conception, idea, image, notion, thought.

Translations

感觉洞察力理解力

perception

(pəˈsepʃən) noun the ability to see, understand etc clearly. a man of great perception. 感觉，洞察力，理解力 perˈceptive (-tiv) adjective able to see, understand etc clearly. a very perceptive man. 有洞察力的，有理解力的 perˈceptively adverb 有洞察力地，有理解力地 perˈceptiveness noun 洞察力，理解力

perception

perception,

in psychology, mental organization and interpretation of sensory information. The GestaltGestalt
[Ger.,=form], school of psychology that interprets phenomena as organized wholes rather than as aggregates of distinct parts, maintaining that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
..... Click the link for more information. psychologists studied extensively the ways in which people organize and select from the vast array of stimuli that are presented to them, concentrating particularly on visual stimuli. Perception is influenced by a variety of factors, including the intensity and physical dimensions of the stimulus; such activities of the sense organs as effects of preceding stimulation; the subject's past experience; attention factors such as readiness to respond to a stimulus; and motivation and emotional state of the subject. Stimulus elements in visual organization form perceived patterns according to their nearness to each other, their similarity, the tendency for the subject to perceive complete figures, and the ability of the subject to distinguish important figures from background. Perceptual constancy is the tendency of a subject to interpret one object in the same manner, regardless of such variations as distance, angle of sight, or brightness. Through selective attention, the subject focuses on a limited number of stimuli, and ignores those that are considered less important. Depth perception, considered to be innate in most animals, is produced by a variety of visual cues indicating perspective, and by a slight disparity in the images of an object on the two retinas. An absolute threshold is the minimal physical intensity of a stimulus that a subject can normally perceive, whereas a difference threshold is the minimal amount of change in a stimulus that can be consciously detected by the subject. Recent studies have shown that stimuli are actually perceived in the brain, while sensory organs merely gather the signals. William Dobelle's research, for instance, has offered significant hope for the blind.

Perception

Those subjective experiences of objects or events that ordinarily result from stimulation of the receptor organs of the body. This stimulation is transformed or encoded into neural activity (by specialized receptor mechanisms) and is relayed to more central regions of the nervous system where further neural processing occurs. Most likely, it is the final neural processing in the brain that underlies or causes perceptual experience, and so perceptionlike experiences can sometimes occur without external stimulation of the receptor organs, as in dreams.

In contemporary psychology, interest generally focuses on perception or the apprehension of objects or events, rather than simply on sensation or sensory process. While no sharp line of demarcation between these topics exists, it is fair to say that sensory qualities are generally explicable on the basis of mechanisms within the receptor organ, whereas object and event perception entails higher-level activity of the brain. See Hearing (human), Sensation, Vision

Since objects or events are not experienced only through vision, the term perception obviously applies to other sense modalities as well. Certainly things and their movement may be experienced through the sense of touch. Such experiences derive from receptors in the skin (tactile perception), but more importantly, from the positioning of the fingers with respect to one another when an object is grasped, the latter information arising from receptors in the muscles and joints (haptic or tactual perception). The position of the parts of the body are also perceived with respect to one another whether they are stationary (proprioception) or in motion (kinesthesis), and the position of the body is experienced with respect to the environment through receptors sensitive to gravity such as those in the vestibular apparatus in the inner ear. Auditory perception yields recognition of the location of sound sources and of structures such as melodies and speech. Other sense modalities such as taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), pain, and temperature provide sensory qualities but not perceptual structures as do vision, audition, and touch, and thus are usually dealt with as sensory processes. See Olfaction, Pain, Proprioception

Constancy

By and large, these perceptual properties of objects remain remarkably constant despite variations in distance, slant, and retinal locus caused by movements of the observer. This fact, referred to as perceptual constancy, is perhaps the hallmark of perception and more than any other, serves to characterize the field of perception.

Examples of perceptual constancy are: size (except at very great distances, an object appears the same size whether seen nearby or far away, although the size of its image on the retina can be very different); shape (a circle seen from the side is perceived as a circle, although it appears as an ellipse on the retina); orientation (objects appear to keep the same orientation in space, independently of the orientation of the observer's head); and position (a fixed object remains perceived as stationary even when its image on the retina moves because of eye or head movements).

A central problem is whether the perception of properties such as form and depth is innately determined or is based on past experience. By “innate” it is meant that the perception is the result of evolutionary adaptation and thus is present at birth or when the necessary neural maturation has occurred. By “past experience” it is meant that the perception in question is the end result of prior exposure to certain relevant patterns or conditions, a kind of learning process. Despite centuries of discussion of this problem, and considerable experimental work, there is still no final answer to the question. It now seems clear that certain kinds of perception are innate, but equally clear that past experience also is a determining factor. See Intelligence

perception

the reception and interpretation of stimuli. This involves sensory mechanisms and cognitive appraisal, and is influenced by prior learning experiences, emotional state, and current expectations. The significance of the term for sociologists is in acknowledgement of the individual interpretation of events which is socially and culturally influenced. Thus ATTITUDE, RACISM, PREJUDICE, STEREOTYPING have a perceptual aspect. see also GESTALT THEORY.

Perception

a complex system of receiving and transforming information that provides an organism with a reflection of objective reality and an orientation toward the surrounding world.

With sensation, perception is the starting point of cognition, supplying primary material derived from the senses. Since it is a necessary condition for cognition, perception in this process is always mediated in one way or another by the activity of thought and is verified by practical experience. Without such mediation and verification, perception can act as a source of both genuine knowledge and error and illusion.

Included in perception are discovery of an object within a perceived field, differentiation of specific signs in the object, discrimination in the object of informative content related to the goal of action, and familiarization with the discriminated content and the formation of an image (or “operative unit” of perception).

A large contribution in the development of scientific knowledge about perception has been made by philosophers, astronomers, physicists, and artists, including Aristotle, Democritus, J. Kepler, Leonardo da Vinci, M. V. Lomonosov, H. Helmholtz, and many others. The attention of psychologists and physiologists was long focused on the study of the sensory effects that arise under the influence of various objective stimuli, whereas the process of perception itself remained outside the limits of research. The methodology of such an approach was based on sensationalism in the theory of knowledge, especially as developed by J. Locke and the French materialists (P. Cabanis and E. Condillac). In psychology this approach received its clearest expression in the concept of perception according to which the sensory image comes into being as the result of stimuli by external agents on the percipient sense organs of a passively contemplating subject. The limited nature of such an approach—that is, the ignoring of the subject’s activity, the study of only the results of the process of perception, and the representation of the group of analyzers in the cortex as a substratum of sensory processes, as a place where there supposedly occurs the transformation of neural processes into ideational psychic images—all this created practical difficulties for developing methods to control the processes of perception in order to perfect and develop it. Theoretically, moreover, it led either to various subjective and idealistic theories or to a rejection of the scientific explanation of perception.

A decisive step in overcoming the passive “receptor” concept was made by Soviet psychologists, who, by proceeding from the methodology of dialectical materialism and the Sechenov school’s understanding of the reflex nature of sensory processes, regarded perception as a unique activity directed at examining the perceived object and at creating a copy, or representation of it. At present, research on perception is being conducted in several fields on the various levels of the processes of receiving and transforming information. At the entry level of percipient systems (the retina of the eye, the organ of Corti of the ear, etc.) studies are being carried out on the anatomical-morphological, biophysical, and electrophysiological properties of the activity of receptors. Perception is also being studied on the neural, psycho-physiological, psychological, and sociopsychological levels. In cybernetics and bionics a great deal of research is being done on the creation of technical setups that would imitate the operation of the sense organs. The results of various types of studies on perception are published in dozens of journals devoted primarily to the problems of perception. It must, however, be emphasized that thus far there has been no successful construction of a standard theory of perception that would integrate the results of numerous investigations. Great difficulties have been encountered in efforts to model such properties of perception as meaningfulness, constancy, and objectness.

According to current concepts, the totality of the processes of perception ensures the subjective, prejudiced, and nevertheless adequate reflection of objective reality. The adequacy of the image of perception (its correspondence to actuality) is achieved owing to the fact that in its formation there occurs a reconstitution (A. N. Leont’ev)—that is, an adjustment of the percipient systems to the properties of the stimulus. For example, in the movement of the hand as it feels an object, in the movement of the eye as it follows a contour, and in the movements of the larynx as it reproduces a sound, a copy comparable to the original is created. Signs of disparity entering the nervous system correct the image that is being formed and hence correct the practical actions being carried out on the basis of this image. Consequently, perception represents a kind of self-regulating process with a feedback mechanism and the ability to acquiesce to the special characteristics of the reflected object.

An important property of perception is the capacity to reconstruct the sensory models of the outside world that act upon the subject and to change the methods of their construction and identification. One and the same object may serve as the prototype for many perceptual models. In the process of their formation they become defined more accurately, and from the object stock properties and signs are deduced, which results in a perception of the world as it exists in fact. The purposive processes of perception (perceptual activities) appear in their developed, external form only at the early stages of ontogenesis, when their structure and their role in forming the images of perception are most clearly revealed. They subsequently undergo a number of consecutive changes and curtailments until they acquire the form of the instantaneous act of “discerning” an object. This was described by Gestalt psychologists, who erroneously conceived it to be the initial, genetically primary form of perception.

Any living system possesses a developed alphabet—that is, a definite complex of images or perceptual models. During construction of the image of an object, the correspondence of the percipient systems to the characteristics of the stimulus is established; during identification or operation by means of the images that are formed, the characteristics and direction of the process subchange substantially (A. V. Zaporozhets). That is, on one hand, the subject reconstructs with the aid of his own movements and actions a certain representation, or image, of the perceived object; on the other, there occurs a recoding, or translation, of the received information into the “language” of the operative units of perception or perceptual models that have already been mastered by the subject. The second aspect expresses the fact that simultaneous with the establishment of the correspondence of the percipient systems of the subject to the object, a correspondence of the object to the subject is also established, and it is only this dual transformation that leads to the formation of a sound, adequate, and nevertheless subjective image of objective reality.

In well-developed processes of perception there are specialized activities on the basis of which the subject can discriminate informational content and associate the object that has been presented with his accumulated perceptual models. He can then properly implement the process of association and final identification and referral of objects to one class or another—that is, categorization. The process of identification requires considerably less time than the process of forming an image: in order to associate and identify, it is only necessary to extract certain stock properties and signs from the presented object. The percipient systems (this is especially evident in the case of vision) have a certain “manipulative” capacity: within a short time the subject imitates the processes of forming the image, as if he were examining the object from various sides and finding that point at which there is maximum facilitation of association and identification.

In the total act of behavior there exists yet another unique form of reconstitution of the correspondence: the processes of restructuring and transforming an image in order to present information in a form suitable for making a decision. In this process there is the resolution of the problem of a change in reality that is adequate for plans and behavior goals. Preceding such a change is the transformation of the image of a situation, which, as a rule, is not conscious but which nevertheless contributes substantially to the problems of life that confront the subject. Perception is not the passive copying of reality but rather an active, creative process of cognition.

The study of perception has significance in aesthetics, teacher education, sports, and so forth, and specific problems of perception are dealt with in each of these fields.

REFERENCES

Volkov, N. N. Vospriiatie predmeta i risunka. Moscow, 1950.
Sokolov, E. N. Vospriiatie i uslovnyi refleks. Moscow, 1958.
Anan’ev, B. G. Psikhologiia chuvstvennogo poznaniia. Moscow, 1960.
Leont’ev, A. N. Problemy razvitiia psikhiki, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1965.
Rosenblatt, F. Printsipy neirodinamiki. Moscow, 1965. (Translated from English.)
Iarbus, A. L. Rol’ dvizhenti glaz v protsesse zreniia. Moscow, 1965.
Shekhter, M. S. Psikhologicheskie problemy uznavaniia. Moscow, 1967.
Vospriiatie i deistvie. Moscow, 1967.
Gregory, R. L. Glaz i mozg. Moscow, 1970. (Translated from English.)
Zinchenko, V. P., and N. Iu. Vergiles. Formirovanie zritel’nogo obraza. Moscow, 1969.
Allport, F. H. Theories of Perception and the Concept of Structure. New York-London [1955].

V. P. ZINCHENKO

perception

[pər′sep·shən] (physiology) Recognition in response to sensory stimuli; the act or process by which the memory of certain qualities of an object is associated with other qualities impressing the senses, thereby making possible recognition of the object.

perception

1. Biology the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptors 2. Law the collection, receipt, or taking into possession of rents, crops, etc.

perception

per·cep·tion

perception

per•cep•tion

Perception

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perception,

Perception

Constancy

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Perception

REFERENCES

perception

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per·cep·tion

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per·cep·tion

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Synonyms for perception

noun awareness

Synonyms

noun understanding

Synonyms

Synonyms for perception

noun the condition of being aware

Synonyms

noun that which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity

Synonyms

Synonyms for perception

noun the representation of what is perceived

Synonyms

Related Words

noun a way of conceiving something

Related Words

noun the process of perceiving

Related Words

noun knowledge gained by perceiving

Related Words

noun becoming aware of something via the senses

Synonyms

Related Words