One of the important properties of perception is. Perception, its types and properties
Properties of perception
The psychological essence of perception can be fully represented through a description of its basic properties. The leading properties of perception in psychology are objectivity, integrity, meaningfulness, structure, constancy, and selectivity.
Objectivity of perception manifests itself in the attribution of information received from the external world to objects of this world.
Perception brings the perceived object into real space, and does not relate it, for example, to irritated receptors or brain structures.
Objectivity of perception is not an innate quality; There is a certain system of actions that provides the child with the discovery of the objectivity of the world. Touch and movement play a decisive role here. Sechenov I.M. emphasized that objectivity is formed on the basis of externally motor processes that ensure contact with the object itself.
Integrity of perception– a property of perception, consisting in the fact that any object is perceived as a stable systemic whole, even if some parts of this whole are in this moment cannot be observed.
Unlike sensation, which reflects individual properties of an object when exposed to the senses, perception is a holistic image of an object. With any visual perception, first of all, the image as a whole catches the eye, and only then the details emerge. Thanks to the integrity of perception, individual lines and points are combined into a figure.
A classic example of the integrity of perception is the filling in the perception of that part of the surrounding world that is projected onto the blind spot. This area of the retina is insensitive to light and therefore does not send any information to the brain. However, we do not notice any empty “hole” in the world around us. The brain fills it out based on information received from surrounding areas.
Associated with the integrity of perception is its structure– a property that allows you to perceive objects in the totality of their stable connections and relationships.
Perception is not a simple sum of sensations. We actually perceive a generalized structure abstracted from these sensations.
For example, when listening to music, we perceive not individual sounds, but the melody. It remains the same if it is performed by a symphony or string orchestra, or just a piano. The integral structure of the melody in our consciousness appears more clearly than the individual sound sensations, which are different in these cases.
A similar process is observed in the perception of rhythm. At each moment, only one beat can be heard. However, rhythm is not single beats, but the continuous sound of the entire system of beats. The relationship between the beats determines the perception of rhythm.
Constancy– the relative constancy of the images of objects, in particular their shape, color value when the conditions of perception change.
The world in which we live is perceived not only as holistic and organized, but also as constant and unchanging. For already structured objects, our perception retains their size, shape and color, no matter from what distance we look at them and at what angle we see them. Look at your fingers: some are at arm's length, others are twice as close; the fingers will appear exactly the same size, while the image of the fingers of the far hand on the retina will be half the size of the image of the fingers of the near hand. In the same way, a door retains its shape to our eyes regardless of whether it is open or closed. White shirt remains white both in bright light and in the shade. In reality, we realize what corrections our visual perception constantly makes only when we look at photographs of objects taken from certain angles. In this case, the images are objectively reproduced by the camera.
It is easy to understand how great the importance of constancy in size, shape and color is. If our perception were not constant, then with every movement we make, when we turn our heads, changes in lighting, i.e. almost continuously, all the basic properties by which we recognize objects would change.
Constancy of perception is not innate. It generally develops only at two years of age and progresses until age 14. The source of constancy of perception is the active actions of the perceptual system. Repeated perception of the same objects during different conditions ensures the invariance of the perceptual image relative to these changing conditions, i.e. constancy of perception.
The constancy of perception is based not on the stability of the sensations themselves, but on the stability of the law of their change. For example, the shape and size of objects are perceived as unchanged if their image moves on the retina according to the laws of perspective projection. The ability of the perceptual system to correct inevitable errors caused by the infinite variety of conditions of existence of the surrounding world, and to adequately perceive the environment, is well illustrated by experiments with glasses that distort visual perception by inverting images on the retina. When a person puts on these glasses, he sees objects upside down for some time. However, then consciousness corrects the optical distortion, and the person begins to perceive everything without reversals. When he takes off his glasses, at first he sees everything upside down again. Interestingly, when a person put on and took off glasses, the disrupted interaction of the visual, vestibular and kinesthetic analyzers caused him dizziness and nausea. The ability to “relearn” strongly depended on the subject’s ability to actively move in space and feel objects. Those people who walked freely around the room quickly adapted to the distorting glasses, while people sitting on chairs and moving around the same room adapted much more slowly, or did not adapt at all.
In other words, where possible, the brain prefers to interpret changes in sensations as a result of changes in the conditions of perception, as the movement of an organism or object, as changes in lighting, etc., rather than as changes in the object itself. The genetic reason for this is that our world is stable. In a short time, a change in sensations most often occurs due to movement. Therefore, this interpretation of sensory data is the most likely.
So, using the standard interpretation of sensations, the perception usually turns out to be correct. However, there may be cases where perception is mistaken (see Illusions).
Meaningfulness of perception fixes the connection between perception and thinking; This property of perception is associated with comprehension, with awareness of an object or phenomenon.
To consciously perceive an object means to mentally name it, i.e. attribute it to a certain group of objects, summarize it in a word. Remembering a table, a pencil, a bicycle and denoting them with the corresponding word, we abstract from the particular characteristics of this object and attribute it to a certain category. We perceive a table as a piece of furniture, a pencil as an object related to writing instruments, a bicycle as a means of transportation. This generalized nature of meaningful perception is associated with abstraction from unimportant individual characteristics of an object and the attribution of this object to a certain category.
It is enough to guess from a few signs what kind of thing is in front of us, as most of its properties can be predicted with high probability, that is, guessed. Therefore, familiar things are perceived much faster than unfamiliar, “meaningless” ones. Often we simply do not notice what we do not understand, and we also remain literally blind to many insignificant details and features of what we see. Indicative from this point of view are ambiguous drawings in which the figure and the background are perceived alternately. In these drawings, the identification of the object of perception is associated with its comprehension and naming.
Fig.IV.8 Selectivity of perception
Selectivity of perception– one of the properties of perception, consisting in the selection of any objects and signs from the sensory field. Selectivity of perception is carried out through attention mechanisms. The highlighted and therefore more clearly perceived object acts as a “figure”, the remaining objects act as a “background”.
The selectivity of perception reveals the activity of consciousness. The selectivity of perception depends both on the objective properties of the objects that are perceived and on the perceiving subject.
The perceptual filtering mechanism selects, first of all, signals that carry new information about reality. Due to adaptation, constant long-acting stimuli gradually cease to be noticed. This is how we look at the usual, unchanging objects and images that constantly surround us: the faces of our relatives; houses on our street; things that we are used to, but we don’t see them. Therefore, we know worst of all what is closest to us. The strongest, most intense, contrasting stimuli are also predominantly distinguished.
It is not the isolated eye that perceives, nor the ear itself, but a specific person. One of the manifestations of selectivity of perception is apperception.
Apperception is the dependence of perception on past experience, the stock of knowledge and the general orientation of the individual.
Numerous data show that the picture perceived by the subject is not simply the sum of instantaneous sensations; it often contains details that are not even present on the retina at the moment, but which a person seems to see on the basis of previous experience. Each person's experience is unique, it is determined by his personal history. Therefore, looking at the same object, everyone sees something different in it. So, for example, where an ordinary city dweller sees simply grass, worms, beetles, flies, there a botanist sees a lot different types plants, entomologist - certain types of insects, arthropods, etc. The richer a person’s experience, the more knowledge he has, the richer his perception, the more he will see in the subject.
The content of perception is also determined by the needs of a person, his drives, interests, motives, and general orientation of the individual. In one experiment, subjects were shown vague spots on a screen and given general advice, that we need to find “people who do something.” One group of subjects was shown images an hour after eating, another after 4 hours, and a third after 16. The hungrier the subjects were, the greater the percentage of them “saw” something related to food (even though there were no images on the screen at all). Similarly, a frightened person sees some frightening figures in complete darkness. We see various pictures in piles of clouds, in ink blots (Rorschach test). Analysis of the responses shows that what a person “saw” in these cases is usually associated with his desires, interests, anxieties and hopes.
The next factor that determines the selectivity of perception is the task that a person faces at the moment. So, for example, a driver driving a car clearly perceives the lights of traffic lights, road signs, movement of other cars. The same driver, traveling as a passenger - a tourist in a new city, sees mainly architectural features.
A significant factor influencing the content of perception is the subject’s attitudes, i.e. internal expectations that a person has associated with a given situation. The mechanism of perception selectivity selects signals that correspond to human expectations. Sometimes this mechanism turns out to be so strong that a person notices in the world around him only what confirms his expectations, and simply does not see everything that contradicts them. So, Don Quixote expected to meet giants, enchanted princesses, and evil wizards. And the most ordinary things “turned” into images of these romantic expectations.
For all the difference personal experience, needs and attitudes, people living in the same era and within the same culture have much in common in their worldview. They face, in general, the same range of things, concepts, values, and activities. Society introduces into a person its picture of the world, its systematization, assessment of things and phenomena through education, language and art, through books and the media, ideology, etc. Thus, in the perception of the world by each individual, the experience of society, its practices, knowledge, and values are invisibly present.
Human hearing has evolved through the development of speech and music. Geometry and art largely determine human vision, in particular, understanding and perception of perspective.
To summarize, we can conclude that perception is an active process during which a person performs many perceptual actions in order to form an adequate image of an object.
P The cognitive process that bases an individual's picture of the worldview is called perception. This property reflects a phenomenon or object intact only after the receptors are stimulated. One of the biological functions of the psyche is perception, which transforms and accepts data. Perception develops the inseparability of the reflection of the object, which initiates analysis through the compatibility of sensations.
An overly acute perception of life wears out your nerves.
Natsume Soseki
Perception in psychology
Perception is more meaningful than the transmission of neural drives to intended areas of the brain. In order for understanding and representation of an object to occur, a person must transmit sensory information to a certain part of the brain, namely, to feel.
The properties of perception in psychology are divided into 7 subgroups. They are:
- structure, constancy, meaningfulness, apperceptive, selectivity, attribution, objectivity.
Properties of perception
The properties of perception are:
- Structurality - this subgroup is strongly related to integrity, because shape and color together reflect the object.
- Constancy (constancy) is the immutability of the shape and color of an object or phenomenon even under changed physical conditions.
- Meaningfulness (understanding) is a form of the human subconscious to categorize objects or phenomena into their inherent categories. Comprehension includes several subtypes:
Selection is a function that separates the object of perception from the general flow of source data.
An organization is a subgroup in which an object is identified by certain sets of properties.
Distribution of objects and phenomena subconsciously into categories. - Apperceptive is a function that influences the process of perception due to the acquisition of previous skills.
- Selectivity is a type of perception that singles out certain objects or phenomena because of their advantages over others.
- Objectivity - individuals gain a full set of sensations that combine them into images.
- Attribution is a phenomenon when a person attributes certain uncharacteristic features to himself or another person. The definition interprets a person’s behavior by his intentions, actions, expressions of emotions, and certain qualities of the individual that will later be attributed to the partner.
Properties of the perceptual image
Perceptual image properties are divided into two categories:
- External:
Indicate the size.
Strengthening (both emotionally and physically).
Contrast (when there is a contradiction with the environment).
Moving.
Periodicity.
Innovation and distinctiveness. - Internal:
Reception adjustment is the intentionality of seeing something that corresponds to past experience. Necessity and explanation are a function when a person is able to see what he considers important or necessary for him.
Experience is the perception of factors that a person has been taught in the past. I concept - the world is perceived only around you. Personality characteristics - pessimists see the environment from a negative point of view, while optimists, on the contrary, see it in a favorable light.
Selectivity of perception
Properties of perception in psychology distinguish three principles of selectivity of perception:
- Resonance – the necessity and significance of selected human needs is learned faster than unselected ones.
- Defense – something that interferes with a person’s expectations is perceived much worse.
- Alertness - something that can harm the psyche of an individual is recognized most quickly.
Examples of Perceptual Disorders
Illusion
The properties of perception in psychology can be erroneous, so to speak, it is a modified perception of the environment and objects. Such a disorder can be observed both in a mentally ill person and in a completely healthy one. Properties of perception in the psychology of illusions healthy person may turn out to be completely different. Physiological and physical deception, as well as the illusion of inattention, can occur in any person who does not have problems with psychological health.
Optical illusions
The main properties of the perception of illusions are:
- Illusions that have to do with the laws of physics. For example, the properties of sensation and perception of an object that borders a transparent medium. If you put a spoon in a jar of water, it will appear broken. This kind of visual illusion is called a mirage. The analysis function is closely related to physiological illusions. For example, if an overweight person is dressed in black clothes, then visually he will look slimmer than he actually is. Or take a small room that is covered with wallpaper in light colors; it will seem more voluminous. The main properties of the perception of the illusion of inattention are excessive enthusiasm literary composition when a person with a healthy psyche does not notice typos and grammatical errors in the work. Visual illusion, which is associated with a certain pathology mental state. It is divided into three subgroups:
- The main properties of the perception of affective illusion are situations of increased emotional state a person when an individual experiences severe fear, tension or excessive excitement, as well as a state of passion. For example, affective illusions can appear in any person who walks through a cemetery at night.
- Verbal (auditory) illusions can appear in an affective state or in a misunderstanding of the conversation of surrounding people, when the patient perceives a neutral conversation as a threat to him. own life. Insults and humiliations can be heard, even if no one uttered them. For example, a mentally ill person, even in an empty room, thinks that he is not alone and hears different voices.
- The properties of perception in psychology are pareidolic (in other words, imaginary) illusions; they are closely related to the imagination of an individual when he fixes his gaze on objects that have a vague outline. If this kind of disorder is observed, it takes on a certain fictitious character. For example, in the constant movement of clouds in the sky, a person can see portraits of saints, and in the pictures depicted on the wallpaper - various animals and unknown creatures. This kind of illusion appears due to a lack of consciousness tone when the background is intoxication.
Perception is a basic category of psychology. A person in the process of cognitive activity deals not with individual elements of phenomena or their characteristics, but with a complex representation of an object. The properties and parts of an object, their size, taste and smell make it possible to recreate a single picture of what is happening. The process of merging such puzzles is called perception in psychological science.
What is the process of perception?
Before revealing the topic "Basic properties of perception", you should Special attention devote physiological mechanisms of this process. Perception is difficult process reflections of phenomena and objects in the human subconscious, which occurs through direct influence on the senses.
The mechanism for displaying objects in the human mind is quite complex, since it has a direct relationship with other processes - thinking, speech, attention and memory. A person evaluates a visible object quite objectively and can use a certain definition to designate it. We can conclude that perception is a meaningful act that takes place in the human mind.
The process of perception has an emotional connotation and is enormously motivated. Because of this, perception disturbance and cognitive dissonance may occur. The contradictions that have arisen can be corrected only by resorting to professional psychological help. Otherwise, such deviations are fraught with the development of serious diseases.
Differences between perception and sensation
Inexperienced researchers very often confuse the properties of sensation and perception, reducing them to a single process. This is a grave mistake, since the two definitions indicated have significant differences.
Any object, influencing the human senses, causes a certain effect, which has only a subjective connotation, as it is felt inside. In this case, there is no reaction from the subject who is affected by such an influence. In contrast to sensations, when a person perceives an object, a process of objectification occurs, in other words, the object is reflected in space.
Another important difference between sensation and perception lies in the final forms that emerge after the process is completed. When sensing an object, a person experiences a certain feeling: a sweet taste, a loud sound, etc. When perceiving an object, an image that has a unique design pops up in a person’s mind. In other words, there are certain properties of the image of perception.
Such facts suggest that perception and sensation are two completely different processes, despite their interaction in the process of human socialization.
Basic properties of perception
Speaking about perception, you need to know that in its structure scientists distinguish two interrelated elements: types and properties. The main emphasis is placed on the properties of perception in psychology, since it is this definition that allows us to understand the essence of this process.
So, the main properties of perception are:
- historicity;
- activity;
- objectivity;
- integrity;
- meaningfulness;
- constancy.
The world around us consists of many objects, but a person perceives only a few. A detailed study of each property of perception in psychology will help to understand the selectivity of the individual’s subconscious.
Historicity of perception
IN scientific literature in psychology, perception is designated as a perceptual action, the formation of which requires a certain amount of time. Speaking about this property, it should be noted that the perceptual action is not static; on the contrary, the image is formed over time, taking into account human activity and experience itself. Adequate construction of an idea of an object is possible only with a consistent study of the subject, which means that historicity is a key property of perception.
Perceptual activity
The perception of objects is impossible without effector components. Every person knows the world in accordance with own worldview, abilities, needs and wants. In other words, perception directly depends on the past of the individual, his present. A similar dependence of life experience and cognitive activity has been obtained scientific name apperception, which is the basis of the most important property of perception in psychology - activity.
Objectivity of perception
Each person, perceiving information with the help of his senses, correlates the information with a particular object. This property allows you to structure information and study it in the form of a complete image, and not as a diverse set of characteristics or sensations. Thus, objectivity is the fundamental basis for a person’s normal perception of the world around him.
Integrity of perception
The importance of this property of perception in psychology is that, thanks to integrity, a person has the opportunity to perceive stimuli as a set of certain characteristics or features, and not as isolated passages and elements of a single picture. The construction of a holistic image occurs during mental activity, when a structure from individual elements is completed in the subconscious.
Meaningfulness of perception
Man, unlike animals, has a mind, so perception in a person is not just a biological process. Knowledge of an object is meaningful, in other words, a person is fully aware of the functions of this or that object, its purpose. Thanks to the comprehension of information, it is possible to achieve maximum objective perceptual action while learning about the world around us. The image of the object becomes objective, which does not violate the mental health of the individual.
Constancy of perception
Constancy is closely interrelated with other properties of perception. Thanks to this, a person realizes not only the holistic image of the object, but also its constancy. An object has constant shape, size, color and weight. An example of the constancy of perception is a machine. A person perceives a car as an object in the same way, regardless of whether it is moving or not.
Perception is one of main categories modern psychological science. A comprehensive study of this process allows us to understand the essence of the human subconscious, as well as avoid numerous mental illnesses.
Perception(perceptual process) is a cognitive mental process, providing a holistic reflection of objects, situations and events that arise from the direct impact of physical stimuli on the senses.
Perception is based on sensations, but perception cannot be reduced to a simple sum of sensations. When perceiving, we not only select a group of sensations and combine them into a single image, but also comprehend this image, attracting past experience, i.e. perception is inextricably linked with memory and thinking.
Types of perception.
Depending on the dominant analyzer, the following types of perception are distinguished: visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory. In all types of perception, motor sensations are always involved to one degree or another.
Perception is also highlighted deliberate(for example, during observation) and unintentional.
The basis of another type of classification is the forms of existence of matter: space, time and movement. In accordance with this classification, there are perception of space, perception of time and perception of motion.
Perception of space - necessary condition human orientation. It includes perception of shape, size and relative position objects, their relief, distance and direction. Perception does not always give us an adequate reflection of objects in the objective world; numerous facts and conditions for errors in perception are described in the literature, mainly visual illusions .
Perception of time- reflection of the objective duration, speed and sequence of phenomena of reality. Reflecting objective reality, the perception of time gives a person the opportunity to navigate environment. The perception of long periods of time is largely determined by the nature of the experiences. Thus, time that was filled with interesting, deeply motivated activities seems shorter than time spent in inaction. The perception of time also changes depending on the emotional state. Positive emotions give the illusion of a rapid passage of time, negative - subjectively somewhat stretch out the time intervals.
Motion perception- a reflection of the change in position that objects occupy in space. The main role in the perception of movement is played by the visual and kinesthetic analyzers. The movement parameters of an object are speed, acceleration and direction.
4. Properties of perception.
Most important features perception - objectivity, integrity, structure, constancy and meaningfulness.
Objectivity of perception - This the ability to reflect objects and phenomena of the real world not in the form of a set of sensations unrelated to each other, but in the form of individual objects. Objectivity is not an innate property of perception. The emergence and improvement of this property occurs in the process of ontogenesis, starting from the first year of a child’s life. I. M. Se-chenov believed that objectivity is formed on the basis of movements that ensure the child’s contact with the object. Without the participation of movement, images of perception would not have the quality of objectivity, i.e., being related to objects of the external world.
Integrity. Unlike sensation, which reflects individual properties of an object, perception gives a holistic image of the object. It is formed on the basis of generalization of information received in the form of various sensations about the individual properties and qualities of an object. The integrity of perception is expressed in the fact that even with an incomplete reflection of individual properties of the perceived object, the received information is mentally completed into a holistic image of a specific object.
The integrity of perception is also associated with itsstructure. This property lies in the fact that perception in most cases is not a projection of our instantaneous sensations and is not a simple sum of them. We actually perceive a generalized structure abstracted from these sensations, which is formed over some time. For example, if a person listens to some melody, then the previously heard notes still continue to sound in his mind when information about the sound of a new note arrives. Usually the listener understands the melody, that is, perceives its structure as a whole. Thus, perception brings to our consciousness the structure of an object or phenomenon that we encounter in the real world.
The next property of perception is constancy . Constancy is the relative constancy of certain properties of objects when the conditions of their perception change. For example, a truck moving in the distance is perceived as a large object, despite the fact that its image on the retina will be much smaller than its image when we stand near it.
Thanks to the constancy property, manifested in the ability of the perceptual system to compensate for changes in the conditions of perception, we perceive the objects around us as relatively constant. Constancy is observed to the greatest extent in the visual perception of color, size and shape of objects.
Perception depends not only on the nature of the stimulus, but also on the subject himself. It is not the eye and ear that perceive, but a specific living person. Therefore, perception always affects the characteristics of a person’s personality. The dependence of perception on the general content of our mental life is called apperception.
Huge role Apperception is influenced by a person’s knowledge, previous experience, and past practice.
Next property perception is his meaningfulness. Although perception arises from the direct action of a stimulus on the sense organs, perceptual images always have a certain semantic meaning. Human perception is closely related to thinking. The connection between thinking and perception is primarily expressed in the fact that to consciously perceive an object means to mentally name it, that is, to attribute it to a certain group, class, to associate it with a certain word. Even when we see an unfamiliar object, we try to establish its similarity with other objects. Consequently, perception is not determined simply by a set of stimuli affecting the senses, but is a constant search for the best interpretation of the available data.
Activity (or selectivity) of perception lies in the fact that at any given time we perceive only one object or a specific group of objects, while other objects of the real world are the background of our perception, that is, they are not reflected in our consciousness.
All properties of perception are acquired by us during life (those who have matured in mature age people still cannot use all the possibilities of vision).
INTEGRITY OF PERCEPTION(English) wholenessofperception) - property perception, consisting in the fact that any object, and even more so a spatial objective situation, is perceived as a stable systemic whole, even if some parts of this whole may not be possible at the moment. observable (eg the back of an object).
Problem Integrity of perception was first clearly formulated and experimentally studied by Gestalt psychologists - M.Wertheimer,IN.Köhler etc. However, in Gestalt psychology C.v. was understood as an original property determined by the immanent laws of consciousness.
Domestic psychology considers the color of the century. as a reflection of the integrity inherent in the objectively perceived world. The image formed in a person in the process of reflecting reality has a high redundancy of features. This means that some set of components image contains information not only about itself, but also about other components, as well as the image as a whole. Thus, a person who, according to the conditions of perception, could only observe the head and shoulders of a passer-by, perceives the position of the passer-by’s arms, torso, legs, and even the nature of his gait. The degree of clarity of this amodal perception depends on the probability of anticipation of currently missing parts of the object, which is determined in the process of image formation.
INTEGRITY(integrity of perception) - a property of perception, consisting in the fact that any object, and even more so a spatial objective situation, is perceived as a stable systemic whole, even if some of its parts cannot be observed at the moment (for example, the back of a thing): not actually perceived signs nevertheless they turn out to be integrated into the holistic image of this object. This pattern shows a connection with the characteristics of the stimulus and psychophysiological patterns. The problem of the integrity of perception was first experimentally studied by representatives of Gestalt psychology. But here integrity acted as an initial property of perception, determined by the laws of consciousness. Russian psychology considered the integrity of perception as a reflection of the integrity objectively inherent in what is perceived. The image formed in the process of reflecting reality has high redundancy - a certain set of image components contains information not only about itself, but also about other components and about the image as a whole. The degree of clarity of this perception depends on the anticipation of actually not perceived parts of the object.
