Perception - the interpretation of information.

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Gemma Stirling

Perception

Perception is the interpretation of information, which we receive through our senses. We all receive sensory information, like smells, sounds or noises. We can also make sense of them, both consciously and unconsciously. This therefore allows us to fit the new information in with other things that we already know. As part of studying human beings we need to be able to explain both how the similarities have come about and also how the differences happen. The study of perception is one of the most advanced areas of psychology. Many perceptual processes, especially those involving vision and audition, are well understood and provide a vital bridge between neuroscience and behavioral science. But much more must be learned. One major mystery is how we identify the shapes of things, the configuration of contours and edges that populate our visual world with poodles, people, potholes, and Picassos. Another is how we move from identifying the shapes of objects to identifying the objects themselves. A third is how perception is influenced by a person's experiences, motives, expectations, and goals. Psychologists consider that people have come to be who they are as a result of two sources of influence: Firstly, their biological make up, and secondly the experiences which they encounter throughout life. This debate is called the nature – nurture debate. Within this essay the nature – nurture debate about perception will be discussed as will the conflicting theories, evidence and the opinions of the debate.

Perception is the process by which we make sense of our sensations. The process of perception involves the brain decoding and making sense of information that it is reading. Sense organs operate through sensory receptor cells that receive external forms of energy and translate these in to neural impulse that are in the brain. Within the perception if form psychologists have advanced two major hypotheses about the mechanism of pattern perception, or visual recognition of particular shapes. The first hypothesis suggests that our brain contains temples of all the shapes we can perceive. We compare a particular pattern of visual input with these templates until a fit. The second hypothesis suggests that our brain contains prototypes, which are more flexible than simple. Perception involves both bottom-up and top-down processing. Our perceptions are influenced not only by the details of the particular stimuli we see, but also by their relations to each other and our expectations

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                . One of the very first to look at whether perception is learned or inherited was that of Stratton, in 1893. He spent a week wearing an inverting lens over one eye. (The other eye was covered with an eye patch). For the first couple of days, he had great difficulty in adjusting to an upside down world, but after a while his perception adapted, and he didn’t have any trouble. It was only when he saw something that was obviously wrong, like a candle flame pointing downwards that he realised he was seeing upside down. This shows that ...

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