Andre
Perception refers to how you recognize, interpret, and respond to sensory information. Basically, it allows you to take sensory information and make it into something meaningful.
For instance, you will always recognize your favorite food when you perceive the aroma; you can identify mango’s shape by seeing it or the taste of pineapple flavor.
There’s no way you can interact with the world without these sensory experiences. And your ability to recognize and interpret sensory information like smell and sounds are part of perception. In a nutshell, perception revolves around everything we think, believe, do, know, or love.
Types of Perception
There are different types of perception, and some of them are;
- Touch
- Smell
- Vision
- Taste
- Sound
Of course, you can also perceive things with senses like acceleration, body position, balance, time, etc.
How Does Perception Work?
The perceptual process is systematic. It’s a sequence of steps that starts with how the environment triggers our perception about a stimulus, and ends with our action in response to the stimulus.
Perception is a continuous process. But your brain processes the sequence faster whenever you perceive all the stimuli around you.
For a better understanding of how perception works, here are the steps in the perceptual process;
Environmental Stimulus
The environmental stimulus refers to anything you can perceive within your environment.
The Attended Stimulus
The attended stimulus refers to the specific object that you focus your attention on.
The Image on the Retina
Once you focus your attention on a specific object, the next step is an image on the retina. It has to do with light passing through your cornea and pupil unto your lens. Interestingly, the cornea, pupil, and the Iris of the eyes act together to project an inverted image on the retina.
Transduction
Transduction is a process that transforms the image on the retina into electrical signals. And it allows the eyes to transfer visual messages to the brain for interpretation.
Neural Processing
After transforming the image on the retina into electrical signals, these signals go through neural processing. Again, these signals may follow different paths during neural processing. And it depends on whether they are visual or auditory signals.
Perception
This is an important step in the perceptual process. It happens when you perceive the stimulus object around you.
Recognition
The perceptual process doesn’t end when you are consciously aware of the stimuli. Your brain also needs to analyze and interpret what you are sensing. So, recognition refers to the ability to interpret and sense the meaning of the stimulus object.
Action
Action is the final step in the perceptual process. Basically, it’s how you respond to the perceived and recognized stimuli. However, it involves activities like running towards a distressed person, blinking your eyes in response to a flying object, etc.
Whenever you perceive a stimulus object, your brain goes through the process mentioned above before you take action. Interestingly, the perceptual process allows you to interact and experience the world around you meaningfully.
How to Perceive More In the World Around You
Here are some tips that will help you improve how you perceive the world around you.
Pay Attention
One of the easiest ways to improve how you perceive the world is to pay attention to it. Always pay attention to anything you can see, touch, taste, smell, or hear.
Also, pay attention to your sense of proprioception ( awareness of your body’s position and movement). Again, try to observe the change in your body’s movement and its relation to the objects around you.
Make Meaning of What You Perceive
Like I mentioned earlier, the recognition stage is an important step in the perceptual sequence. It enables you to recognize and sense the world around you. And whenever your brain analyzes the object, you can always react to it.
Take action
Taking action is the last stage in the perceptual process. And it has to do with how you respond to the environmental stimulus. Again, the action you take may differ depending on the stimuli object. But it can be activities like turning your head, listening to music, etc.
Perceptual Disorders That Interfere With the Perception Process
There are instances when perceptual disorders interfere with your perception process. Sadly, when this happens, you will find it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to perceive environmental stimuli.
Here are some of the disorders that could impair your ability to perceive an object or concept;
Spatial Neglect Syndrome
Spatial neglect syndrome is a perceptual disorder that could interfere with your perception process. It occurs when one side of your body fails to attend to stimuli.
Prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia is a perceptual disorder that makes it difficult for you to recognize faces. Sadly, prosopagnosia interferes with the perception process because if you can’t analyze and become aware of a stimulus object, you can’t’ take action.
Aphantasia
Aphantasia is a disorder that prevents you from visualizing things in your mind. It’s one of the common conditions that can interfere with the perception process. Some of the symptoms of aphantasia are; inability to recall sounds, smells, or sensation.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a type of perception disorder in which you interpret reality abnormally. Delusion, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, abnormal motor behavior, etc. are symptoms of schizophrenia.
How does Perception Affect Your Life?
Generally, perception is relative. In other words, two people may see a particular situation differently.
Here’s a practical example of perception. Let’s assume you give two people a glass of water. The first one views the glass as half-empty, and the other one views the glass as half full.
They are both correct. But their perception of the glass differs. How you see the world and everything around you affects your thoughts, actions, and behavior.
Furthermore, perception helps you to relate a series of events as they occur. And it allows you to recognize objects, patterns, and situations.
Lastly, perception can influence our personality. According to experts, our perception and a perceived situation may be different. But the relationship between them could affect how you behave.
