Perception and illusion - Gestalt psychology

We always remain surrounded by the forces of our environment. Our sensory receptors are bombarded continuously by the various stimuli present in this environment. As a result, we become aware of (although in a very typical selective way) some light, sound, or chemical stimuli by experiencing some typical sensations. This awareness or information about the stimuli is then relayed by our sensory transmitter to the centers of the nervous system.

Remember that the psychological process up to this stage is strictly confined to the feeling of some consciousness or awareness of one or the other stimuli present in our environment. Our eyes for instance, only make us aware of some light stimuli – it does not “see” the book or the pen. Our ears are aware of some auditory stimulation but cannot tell us that the train is whistling or birds are twittering. The question arises, then what happens inside our central nervous system? How are we helped in analyzing, identifying, classifying, interpreting, and deriving the meaning of the awareness or sensory impressions concerning the typical stimuli? In other words, how is our brain able to organize the transmitted sensory coded message concerning a variety of stimuli of our world into some meaningful pattern? The answers to all these questions may be given through the psychology of perception.

Let us first try to get acquainted with the meaning of the term perception.

Perception: Meaning and nature

The term perception may be defined as under:

E.G. Boring, H.S.Langfield and H.P.Weld: 

“Perception is the first event in the chain which leads from the stimulus to action”

  (1948.p.10)

Charles G.Morries:

“All the processes involved in creating meaningful patterns out of a jumble of sensory impressions fall under the general category of perception”

  (1979, p.325) 

Edmund fantino and G.S.Renolds: 

“Perception is the organizing process by which we interpret our sensory input”

(1975, p. 262)

O. Desiderato, D.B.Howieson, and J.H. Jackson:

“Perception is the experience of subjects, events or relationship obtained by extracting information from and interpreting sensations”

  (1979, p.128)

R.E. Silverman:

“Perception is an individual’s awareness aspect of behavior, for it is the way each person processes the raw data he or she receives from the environment, into meaningful patterns”

  (1979, p.123)

Perception is a process.

Perception is essentially a process rather than a product or outcome of some psychological phenomenon. If we talk in terms of a systems approach, then, sensory impressions, gathered through our sensory organs, may be termed as input. How we finally behave or react to this gathered information may be taken as output. Perception provides the necessary link in terms of a process of converting input into output by way of organizing and interpreting sensory impressions.

Perception is the information extractor.

Our sensory receptors are bombarded continuously by various stimuli present in our environment. It is difficult and rather impossible to react to all stimulation. A selection process is therefore essential. Perception performs this duty by extracting relevant information out of a jumble of sensory impressions and converting them into some meaningful patterns.

Perception is preparation to respond.

Perception is the first step toward the active behavior of the organism. It is the preparatory stage that prepares an individual for action and response. Our sensory receptors are just the receiving and transmitting centers of sensory information. How we should react and respond is ordered by our central nervous system through the involvement of some meditation activity known as perception.

Perception involves sensation.

Simply and straightforwardly, we may sense that sensation precedes perception. The relationship between sensation and perception is always direct, that is, what we do have in sensation is always a part of perception. Perception goes beyond sensation as it organizes, interprets, and gives meaning to the result of sensations. Therefore, to a student of psychology, perception means assigning meaning to sensory stimuli sensation, attached with some meaning, is thus termed as perception.

Perception provides organization.

In addition to the help provided in deriving meaning to sensory impressions, perception also helps in its proper arrangement and organization. This arrangement or organization reflects a particular pattern rather than merely a summation of the sensory impressions. What one perceives, he perceives as a whole in an organized pattern and not as the total of various stimuli.

Perception is highly individualized.

Perception, by all means, is an individual affair. Different individuals do not perceive objects, events, or relationships in much the same way. Even individual perceptions of the same event may vary. For example, a hawker selling commodities in the open ground and a farmer standing on his farm are likely to perceive rain in quite different ways. The same rain may cause a quite different perception and is always influenced by internal bodily factors as well as psychological factors like attention, expectations, motivation and past experiences with the stimuli, etc.

A closer look at the nature and characteristics of perception may help us to derive a somewhat useful definition in the following form:

“perception is a highly individualized psychological process that helps an organism in organizing and interpreting the complex patterns of sensory stimulation for giving them the necessary meaning to initiate his behavioral responses’