Perception

We explain what perception is, how it works and the stimuli on which it is based. Also, its characteristics and extrasensory perception.

What is Perception?

It is understood as perception set of mental processes through which our brain interprets the stimuli it collects, at a sensory level, from the environment that surrounds us, thus creating a conscious impression of reality.

To these sensory stimuli thoughts and feelings of one's own tend to be addedto complete the formed image in a logical or meaningful way for each observer.

See also: Psychology.

Features of perception:

1. It is inferential

Perception is the first cognitive process. It allows you to take information from the environment to form an image or idea after the decoding and assimilation of sensory and energetic stimuli (makes an inference and interpretation).

2. It is constructive

Added to our inferences, the perception incorporates data held by memory, classifies it and merges it into a single object: builds an idea based on new and pre-existing observations and data.

3. It is distinguished from sensation

Although these concepts They are often used interchangeablyperception and sensation differ in many details.

The sensation is a lived experience from a stimulus in the form of a response to sensory experimentation, while perception is the interpretation of a sensation, which provides meaning and order.

4. It uses our senses

In order to perceive, we need to capture stimuli through our senses, which is why perception can be:

• Visual (image)
• Auditory (sound)
• Olfactory (aroma)
• Gustatory (flavor)
• Tactile (physical contact)

5. Requires attention

In order to capture, interpret and assimilate stimuli, perception uses attention defined as the filter you apply to capture only important or significant stimuli. Thus, it can attend to internal factors (biological needs, subsistence processes, social interests) and external factors (shapes, textures, colors, lights and more).

The attention can be sustained or selective. Thus, familiar stimuli take a backseat (we do not perceive the everyday aromas of home, but rather new and different ones to detect dangers and changes).

When faced with unpleasant stimuli, perception decreases and non-significant stimuli can disappear (for example: when we drive a car, we do not pay attention to the clothing in the shop windows, but to the road and the environment).

6. It has a purpose

The perception has an objective, a purpose, which is to achieve a construction. This construction can be carried out to understand the situation, to try to remember and memorize content, to detect dangers, modifying itself according to immediate, urgent, or daily needs.

7. It has a process

It is carried out in a continuous, dynamic process, located in time and space. The process can be internal or external (a memory or an observation of an item, for example), or it can include both phenomena (we observe an object and remember other similar ones).

The process of perception also is mediated (various factors participate such as language, memory, affections, needs, etc.), active (requires our action) and interactive (there must be a relationship between the person and the object/environment/stimulus).

8. It is relative

Perception is never absolute but relative: always occurs in a context that can change over time. Thus, perception adapts to the observer's experimentation with the stimulus, in time and space.

9. Perception of people or objects

Similar in their mechanics (both are structured – they follow a process to create categories of information – and seek meaning – interpret the object or person -), the perception of people and objects differ in:

• People are perceived as causal agents (they consider intention, feelings and other variable elements) and objects are perceived as constants.
• People are inferred based on their similarity to our characteristics, and objects are not.
• People are perceived through our interaction with them: we perceive at the same time that we know that we are perceived, which modifies our behavior in the interaction.
• The perception of people is more complex: it involves, for example, emotional factors, while that of objects is simpler and more direct.

10. extrasensory perception

Extrasensory perception is related to the way in which we collect data without using the ordinary senses. Some examples of these phenomena:

• Telepathy. Reading and transmitting data in the mind
• Precognition. Prediction of future phenomena
• Retrocognition. Visualization or knowledge of past events
• Clairvoyance. Ability to mentally see objects that are not in the same space
• Psychokinesis. Being able to modify matter through the mind
• Telekinesis. Ability to move elements with the mind
• Intuition. Perceive absent situations in real space and time
• Synesthesia. Ability to sensory perceive specific elements