PERCEPTION: A BASIC PROCESS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the last unit, we discussed application of psychology to policing. The unit also served to introduce us to other units in this course. You can now identity groups of citizens with whom the police interact. In addition, you can explain the advantages and disadvantages of a psychologist serving as consultant. Time is now ripe for you to study another interesting and relevant unit: perception: a basic process. We will now consider what is meant by perception. Let us take a close look at what other content you should learn in this unit as specified in the objectives below:

2.0 OBJECTIVES

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

1. define the concept of perception; and 
2. identify the factors affecting perception 

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Concept of Perception

Perception is a-psychological operation that is basic to the determination of terminal human behaviour. It is important for you to note that without any satisfactory perception of this precise nature of the stimulus objects or things, there cannot be accurate cognition. Without Cognition, there can be no learning. It is therefore likely .that wrong percepts may lead to wrong or mistaken concepts, and hence the psychology of perception becomes so
basic a topic in any introductory text of educational psychology. In addition, the psychology of perception and attention are closely interlinked and the understanding of their functioning becomes very relevant considered from the teacher’s point of view.

Perception implies the psychological process occurring in the brains of the organisms. This leads to the organization and interpretation-of sensory information received from the stimulus or stimuli. Perception mechanisms include analysis, synthesis, and integration of sensory information. When several individuals confront an object or thing in their environment, the input of information that impinges their respective sense organs, for example, eyes, ears, and so on, is the same for every individual, though they perceive differently (Mukherjee, 1978).

3.2 Factors Affecting Perception

Stimulus Configuration Factors Gestalt school of psychology, a school of the psychology of perception, originating from Germany, has made a significant contribution in showing how different configurations of the stimuli in the environment lead to easier perception. The following are some of the important factors influencing perception:


i. Grouping of the Stimuli: When many stimuli of different types are presented to the individuals, it is found that grouping of the stimuli aids perception. For example in classroom teaching, the children will perceive better if the materials to be learned are presented in some well organized groups of similar types, shape or cases, and categories.
ii. Similarity of the Stimuli: Similar stimuli elements will be more easily perceived than dissimilar ones. In the teaching of mathematics, it will help if the mathematics teacher can classify the
problems of a mathematics exercise into sets of similar problems.
iii. Proximity of the Stimuli: If the stimuli elements are in close proximity to one another, the perception becomes an easier process than when they are remotely associated In blackboard presentation of any teaching materials, it is a bad habit, if one aspect of the information is written in one comer of the board, and another aspect in another comer of the board. Attention and Perception

Human perception is a selective process. We cannot attend to more than one thing at a time and perceive all at the same time. For example when you are listening to a person talking to you, you do not attend to any other person talking at the same time.

You tend to select that stimulus information in which you are interested or directed to attend. The unattended messages tend to be filtered out, and the model of perception represented in Figure I explains this point. If teaching can be made interesting then there is no reason why the children in the classroom should fail to attend. It is true that none of us can keep attention fixed at a thing or object for longer than a few. A simple experiment will show the validity of the above statement.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

When you are reading this unit, take a pencil in your hand and hold it a foot away from you, trying to keep your attention on it for as long a time as you possibly can. During this period of your voluntary attention, you will soon find so many different things or thoughts crossing your mind. Since without attention, meaningful perception may not be achieved, it is now necessary to consider the ways and means which would facilitate attention of the children. Of the various factors facilitating attention of individuals, the following maybe cited.


a. Novelty of the Stimulus: A novel situation or stimulus will at once draw the attention of the person confronted with such a situation. b. Repetition of the Stimulus: A stimulus word or sentence or figure
will be attended t to if the same is repeated frequently.
c. Intensity of the Stimulus: A high pitched sound or a visual stimulus with a high intensity of illumination will be more attractive for attention than either a low pitched sound or a less illuminated visual stimulus.
d. Size of the Stimulus: If the visual stimulus is large and clear, then it will facilitate attention of the onlookers.
e. Contrasting Stimulus: If the stimuli appear in contrast with some other stimuli at the same time, then the contrasting features of the stimuli would very likely attract the attention of the subjects. The importance of the above factors in securing attention of human beings has long been recognized in the fields of commercial advertisement in the press or on television. Each advertiser makes use of one or more features of the stimuli to secure attention of his potential buyers. It is also true that many aspects of our day to day perception take place without our being aware of the presence of the stimuli in our environment. This is so evident when we recall that signboard or that particular advertisement on the screen or magazine which says: ‘Don’t buy our product’, etc. Here we notice how a subtle and contrasting message was deliberately put in so that our attention is automatically directed to the message. This is so because our normal expectation about all commercial advertisements lies in the presence of a message exactly opposite in character where we expect to see or hear: ‘Buy our product because it is so and so, etc’.


If commercial advertisers can make use of these important psychological findings to draw the attention of their customers, then there is no reason why the teachers should fail to secure the attention of even the most inattentive pupils of their classes. Blackboard diagrams, writings, teacher's utterances and so on, during the imparting of lessons, can at random make use of any or all of the above features to keep their pupils interested and attentive during the lesson hours.

Personality Factors

Besides the above factors affecting perception, there are other factors which differ from individual to individual, and these influence individual perception to a considerable extent. For example, individual’s interests, values, and cultural backgrounds. Their experiences in life also differ, and these experiences generate expectations among them. It is for these reasons that we should consider each of these factors separately, viz:
i. Learning Style and Perception: Some individuals are reflective in their learning style, and they take a much longer time to perceive a stimulus or a stimulus pattern. They are usually more accurate in
their recall of the perceived stimuli, but if the stimuli are presented only for a short while then these individuals are likely to miss out a lot of the details of the stimulus though recalling with accuracy the part of the stimulus situation reflected over. Contrasted with these individuals are those who are called ‘impulsive’ in their learning style. These individuals are quicker in their perception though they are generally inaccurate in their later reproductions of the stimulus situations. Reflective pupils learn well if the teacher is patient with them. They are usually good in mathematics and problem solving types of subjects, while the impulsive ones are those who need special care especially if the topic of learning is complex, that is, problem solving.
ii. Motivation and Perception: Individuals perceive things according to their motivation and needs. Children who are motivated to learn will perceive more easily the lesson materials than those who are not so motivated to learn.
iii. Interests, Values and Perception: Individuals tend to perceive according to their interests and values. We frequently come across children who do not seem to bother with what goes on during
teaching. It may be that such children do not seem to possess ~e relevant interests or values with the topic of the lessons in the classrooms. There is therefore the need to modify the interests of
such children.

iv. Culture and Perception: Individuals are influenced by their respective culture in their perception. In teaching a group of students coming from various cultures, great care ought to be taken by the
teachers in their teaching and dealing with the various expectations of these children till they settle down accepting the norms of the country.
v. Experience and Perception: There is evidence that, we tend to perceive according to our experience, as we tend to select from a host of competing stimuli only those which satisfy our experience.

4.0 CONCLUSION

In this unit you have learnt what perception is; you have therefore learnt factors affecting perception. You have also learnt stimulus configuration factors, attention factors, and personality factors.

5.0 SUMMARY 

1. What you have learnt in this unit concerns the process of perception. 2. It can be said that perception is due to the organization of the sensory information of the data from the stimulus objects.
3. The model explaining perception mechanism shows why individuals differ in perception even when confronted with the same stimulus at the same time
4. Besides, there are various factors that tend to influence perception, for example, Gestalt factors of stimulus configurations, factors of attention, and personality factors.

6.0 TUTOR – MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1. a. Define perception.
b. List the stimulus configuration factors.
c. List any 4 attention factors affecting perception.