Perception Refers to Cognition I.E.

Perception refers to cognition i.e. understanding of what is being viewed. When lights falls on the retina and creates an image instantaneously, it is our perception that helps us see what the image represents. Instead of it being a haphazard disorderly collection of small fragments of light, the image comes as a picture to us which we can easily grasp.

This instantaneously recognition of image is called cognition which is simply the way mind processes incoming information. When certain stimuli are received, the brain quickly organizes information in such a way as to make complete sense to the person. The person can then see clearly what is in front of him, a house, a cat, a person. The final product is the result of series of processes which man usually doesn't pay conscious attention to and which take so quickly that there is no time to reflect.

Perception is expressed as a psychological process compared to sensation which has been defined more in terms of a physiological process. The difference lies in the way these processes work and lead to the final percept. Sensation involves things we are aware of and things which are usually tangible. For example in the process of seeing something, what are involved are one's eye, retina, and light that falls upon it. However this doesn't show us how we can still make sense of the image in front us. It is through psychological processing that when light falls on retina, what we see in front of us makes an immediate impression on our minds of something we know or understand. A cat for example is a cat because we know it to be so. We have seen it before, and hence we can easily process the information coming through sensation and psychologically give meaning to the image in front. But let us suppose that it is not a cat but something totally new to us-For example a new animal that we have never seen. Will it not take us some time before we can make sense of the image? We will look more closely to find some kind of connection. Have I seen this anywhere, what does it resemble. Does it look like a camel, or an ostrich? These are the types of questions that may go through our minds and we may end up building a link or finding ourselves without a clue. This means that while sensation is there just the same way as it was in the case of the cat but psychologically we are not at the same place. We cannot process information in the same manner because we have no prior knowledge of the object.

Perception organization refers to the way we process information or stimuli to make sense of what we are observing. We can thus give them meaning which we can understand easily. There are some important steps in perception organization or we can say types of steps we can take to reach a conclusion.

These are: figure and Ground, Stereotyping, perceptual schemes, closure, proximity and similarity. Figure is what we immediately notice and it is the object of our attention. Ground is the area or stimuli surrounding that image. For example when a friends calls us from a distance, his voice becomes the point of focus while everything else around us like other people's voices become the ground. Perceptual schemes are also used to make sense of information. These are based on appearance, social roles, interaction style, psychological traits and membership. For example if you are close to your church, you might assume that everyone who goes to that church thinks the way you do. Similarly if you meet your professor, you are likely to place him in the category of a teacher and see him from that standpoint alone.

Stereotyping is very common and we sometimes engage in it without even realizing. Imagine an old man walk up to you, completely confused about directions to his destination. You might immediately think "old people never know where they are." This is a way of stereotyping.