Unit 3.

PERCEPTION

Perception
▪ Definitions and concepts Students should be able to:
▪ Perception
▪ Illusion 1. Define and use the important terms
▪ Selective Attention relating to perception
▪ Stereotyping
▪ Factors influencing perception 2. Assess the relationship between
perception and behavior

DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS

As always, you should try to find a definition of the topic that will help you to understand the main points
of the chapter.

“Perception (psychology) is the way we interpret our sensations and therefore make sense of everything around”
(Psychology 101 @ [Link]

perception a psychological process: the act of organizing and interpreting sensory experience. (Fiest &
Rossenberg, 2012)

perception the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize
meaningful objects and events (Myers, 2011)

“Perception encompasses all processes associated with the recognition, transformation and organization of
sensory information. It is closely related to all higher-order cognitive functions (such as reasoning, concept
formation, problem-solving, memory, etc.) as well as sensory-motor behavior… ” (Carterette & Friedman, 1978)

Sensation usually refers to “the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in
the eyes, ears, skin, nose and tongue”.

“Sensation refers to the process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. This
information is sent to our brains in raw form where perception comes into play” (Psychology 101)

Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive different things about the same
situation. But more than that, we assign different meanings to what we perceive. And the meanings might
change for person to person. Even an individual may change his perspective or simply make things mean
something else. Perception has both a biological and a social component to it.

Different perceptions of the same thing. This is a famous picture. What does it
look like to you?

Some people see a young lady looking

away. Others see an old lady looking down. What is this?
Depending on how you look at it, part of the
picture might be the young woman's nose
and eyelash, or it might be a wart on the old
woman's nose. What is the young woman's ear might be the old woman's eye. What is the young woman's
necklace might be the old woman's mouth. The picture hasn't really changed. You just emphasize
different parts of it and assign them different meaning.

Look at these two arrows. Which horizontal line is the longest? They are exactly the same size.
However the top one looks longer than the bottom one. It is on
optical illusion tricking us into assigning a different meaning to what
we see. We fill in a lot of blanks with our minds. If we have
incomplete perceptions, which we practically always do to
... a certain extent, our minds fill in the rest. Are those letters? Or are
Müller-Lyer Illusion
they just lines and blotches on the paper? How do you know?

[Link]
For further information see the link above

SENSATION
SENSES. Without sensation there could be no perception, for our brain uses the data transmitted by our
sensory neurons and through the perception process transforms it into cognitive and motor responses that
demonstrate our understanding of what has come to us.

What senses do we have? The five most commonly known sensations are:
• auditory (hearing),
• visual (sight),
• olfactory (smell),
• gustatory (taste), and
• tactile (touch, which is divided into 3 – response to pressure, temperature and pain).

In addition we have two more senses: kinesthesia and the vestibular sense.

• kinesthetic sense is the sense of movement; or muscle sense. Kinesthesia is a key component in
muscle memory and hand-eye coordination, and training can improve this sense. The ability to
swing a golf club or to catch a ball requires a finely-tuned sense of the position of the joints.
This sense needs to become automatic through training to enable a person to concentrate on
other aspects of performance, such as maintaining motivation or seeing where other people are.

• vestibular sense, or balance sense, works with the auditory sense, to ensure that our muscles
keep us upright. Excessive swinging of a child causes the fluid in the cochlea to be disturbed and
the child flops to the group in a disoriented state for a few moments after the swinging. Then the
vestibular kicks in and he or she gets up again and is ready to go.

Sensation is the response of the raw stimulus on the body’s

receptors in our eye, hand etc.

The impossible objects

Perception, on the other hand, better describes one’s own experience of the world and typically involves
further processing of sensory input. In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to
separate, because they are part of one continuous process

SENSATION is the energy that stimulates the receptor cells to activate a neural signal or impulse
which is then taken to the central nervous system where the perception process begins. Our sense organs
translate physical energy from the environment into electrical impulses processed by the brain. This
process is known as transduction. The body’s sense organs are equipped with highly specialized cells
called receptor cells which detect and respond to one type of sensory stimuli – light, sound waves, odors
and so one. For example, light, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, causes receptor cells in our eyes
to activate and send signals to the brain. But we do not understand these signals as pure energy. The
process of perception allows us to interpret them as objects, events, people, and situations.

SELECTIVE ATTENTION.
Above we spoke of the ways in which our senses adapt to different conditions. Here we discuss how we
select which stimuli for attention and which to ignore. It is impossible to maintain sustained attention on
all the things we encounter in life. To filter out unwanted sensory stimuli, we employ the “Filter” or the
“Attenuation” process so that things that are unimportant to us fade into the background.

Filter Model of Selective Attention. In the late 1950s, Donald Broadbent developed a theory which
claims that individuals attend to messages based on the loudness or pitch of the message. He claims that
only one message can pass through the filter at a time and information is attended to only if it passes
through the filter e.g. a person who is engrossed in a movie or reading a book may fail to hear the loud
knocking on the front door. In this way we control our perception and ensure that we do not perceive
more things than can be comfortably managed by the mind. Failure to do so might lead to emotional
disorders. Psychology 101 points out that

A large amount of information is being sensed at any one time such as room temperature,
brightness of the lights, someone talking, a distant train, or the smell of perfume. With
all this information coming into our senses, the majority of our world never gets
recognized. We don't notice radio waves, x-rays, or the microscopic parasites crawling
on our skin. We don't sense all the odors around us or taste every individual spice in our
gourmet dinner. We only sense those things we are able too since we don't have the
sense of smell like a bloodhound or the sense of sight like a hawk; our thresholds are
different from these animals and often even from each other.

The problem with this theory is that although it is generally true, yet it does not explain
why we may be able to tune out loud and persistent noises in the environment and pay
attention to one particular sound, as described in the Coctail phenomenon mentioned
below

“Cocktail Party phenomenon” describes that ability to tune out from all external “cocktail party” noises
and attend to the person with whom one is talking. Colin Cherry (1953) who propounded the “Coctail
phenomenon” believed that one tunes in or out depending on the physical characteristics of the
stimulus rather than the auditory characteristics. This ability to separate sounds has been described as an
auditory “figure-ground phenomenon”Cherry found out the our ability to focus depends on several factors
including the gender of the speaker, the pitch of the sound, the direction from which the sound comes and
the speed of the speech being heard.

This highly focused attention can be disturbed in a process known as shift of attention

Shift of Attention. We cannot always control the perception process. A “shift of attention” may
be caused by:
▪ Sudden change – as when a cool breeze enters a sweltering room or we receive
a particularly high or low grade on an exam
▪ Changes in intensity – heat, cold, light, loud noise or sharp pain
▪ Color – changes in background color or
▪ Contrast - light to darkness, loud to silence
▪ Novelty – a dog enters the classroom, a very unusual hairdo turn up, a pretty girl
passes
▪ Repetitive stimuli – when the same TV commercial is played a dozen times
throughout the course of a football game.

Rathus (2002) says that there are other factors that determine whether the auditory signal can be
interpreted correctly.. These are the extent of the background noise (loudness or quietness– e.g. it is easier
to hear a friend in a quiet room than in a noisy one), and finally, the sharpness or acuteness of a person’s
biological sensory system. All these, together with the signal detections effort,also determine one’s ability
to perceive a [Link]. This concept has many interpretations, but in perception and
sensation, it refers to the fact that our brains pay more attention to those factors that cause changes in our
sensitization levels. For example, the radio is playing soft music during dinner and we hardly notice it but
when the programme changes and loud reggae music is channeled out, we suddenly become aware of the
music from the radio and either switch it off on listen with greater attention. .The process of becoming
more sensitive to stimulation is called sensitization or positive adaptation and the process of becoming
less sensitized to the stimulus is called desensitizing or negative adaptation. In other words a vase was
sitting on the coffee table for months, but only yesterday did I become aware of its presentation. I became
sensitized to its existence on the coffee table.

“Desensitization” or Negative Adaptation. This last concept refers to the way in which the
body reduces or eliminates an organism's negative reaction to a substance or stimulus. It is often
spoken of as the process by which a psychologist helps a person to get rid of his or her phobias.
For example, someone who is mortally afraid of snakes, may be exposed to pictures of children
and snakes, to real snakes, and finally be induced to touch a snake. Children can become
desensitized to violence on the TV. This is called negative adaptation, where one has become
accustomed to something that in reality is very negative.

In conclusion, sensation is the first step in the perceiving and understanding process although in practice,
sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous
process

PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
When we receive visual or auditory inputs, we then need to organize them into meaningful patterns.
Firstly, we must be able to identify the object. This is first done by establishing the figure-ground
relationship.
FIGURE-GROUND RELATIONSHIP. Notice that once you perceive an object, the area around that object
becomes the background. For example, when you look at your computer monitor, the wall behind it
becomes the background. The figure (i.e. computer), is closer to you, and the background, or ground, is
farther away. Humans always seek to separate the background from the form or shape of the object being
perceived but this is not always easy. In the picture to the left, do
you see a vase or do you see two faces looking at each other? Your
interpretation of the picture will depend on what you see as form
and what you see as background.

The meaning of something will change when you look at it

differently. There is no fixed meaning to anything. You can always
change perspectives and change
meanings. Why not change them to
what you prefer them to be? We may
not do this because we live in a world where perception is a shared
commodity. If one person persists in making personal and unique
interpretations of visual stimulate which cannot be substantiated by others,
then it is likely that others will consider that person to be deluded or at best
strange, and his or her life may
not be as comfortable as would
be wished.

The impossible objects

BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING. This is a method of information
processing in which individual components of a stimulus are combined in the brain and prior
knowledge is used to make inferences about these patterns

TOP-DOWN PROCESSING. Information processing in which previous experience and conceptual

knowledge are applied to recognize the nature of a “whole” and then logically deduce the individual
components of the whole

Remember, perception describes one’s own experience of the world and so each individual must process
all sensory input in the light of his or her background and social experience.

GESTALT LAWS OF ORGANIZATION

There is a branch of perception psychology that was conducted by the early Gestalt psychologists - Max
Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler – which discovered that human beings have developed a
“short cut” system to organizing the data that comes to them through their senses. We do NOT take every
single individual piece of date that comes in and spend time trying to understand it. Instead, we organize
the data and make quick connections in our brain to the nearest similar object and assume that this is what
it is. For example, when we see a number of individual apples placed together, one on top of the other, on
the vendor’s table, we assume that they for sale in a heap. These findings by Wertheimer, Koffka and
Kohler are called the Gestalt Laws of Organization and some are described below.

1. The Law of Proximity - stimuli that are near each other tend to be grouped together. Thus if three
people stand near each other and a fourth persons 10 feet away, the adjacent three will be seen as a
 group and the distant person as an outsider. Below we assume that we are seeing 4 groups of 2
squares.

2 Law of Similarity –“birds of a feather flock together”

and stimuli that are similar in size, shape, color or form
ten to be grouped together. Picture two bands marching
side be side, If their uniforms are different color, the
bands will be seen as two separate groups, not a one large
group. In the illustration lines of red and blue balls are
interspersed.

3 Law of Continuity – This law leads us to see a line as

continuing in a particular direction, rather than making an
abrupt turn. In the drawing on the right, we see a straight line
with a curved line running through it. Notice that we do not
see the drawing as consisting of the two pieces in the
drawing on the right

4 Closure –According to the law of closure, we prefer

complete forms to incomplete forms. Thus, in the
drawing below, we mentally close the gaps and
perceive a picture of a circle and a square. This
tendency allows us to perceive whole objects from
incomplete and imperfect forms

5 Common Fate – the belief that objects seen to be

traveling together will actually go to a common Taken from: [Link]

destination, or experience a common fate.

Organizing principles, according to the Gestaltists are not set in stone, but can be used as seen fit in
helping one to organize the visual stimuli that one perceives.

We can easily see how important these organizing laws are to the speed at which we can learn,
understand and develop. Without these laws it would take a very long time for humans to process sense
data and come to an understanding of the world around, and persons with quick organizing skills are
 perceived to be more intelligent than those with slower and less accurate perceiving skills.

THE WHOLE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE SUM OF ITS PARTS. Before leaving the Gestaltist theory,
however, we must also mention their theory about “insight”. For them, perception is NOT the step by
step “analyze and interpret” method; it is the ability to see the whole picture or the solution to a
problem flash before you in a kind of “insight” even though you have spent many hours trying to
understand or figure out the details of a problem. This insight, according to the Gestaltists, is an
accumulation of knowledge from our years of existence into which we tap to make holistic sense of the
stimuli we get.

PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCIES.
What are perceptual constancies and what are their role in perception? Perceptual constancies are
similar to the organizing laws we learned about above.

The brain has developed the ability to interpret images on the retina that are different to be the same
object. What does this mean?

Shape Constancy. One simple example of shape constancy is a plate. If we look straight down on if
from above we will
see that it is
circular. However,
if we look at it from
the side, it is an
elipse or an oval.
Yet we do NOT
have to spend 5
minutes wondering
if it is the same as the round object seen from above. We
know it is… because of our shape constancy

To the left, the retina can pick up 3 different objects, yet

Taken from: [Link] also all pictures on this page
normally it will perceive all three to be the same door. The
perception of the object is therefore unaffected by the fact

that the retinal difference is different. This is because of our shape constancy ability.

In the image on the top right, shape constancy has been distorted. The figure on the left of the room
suggests that the window is larger than the figure as is usually the case. On the right, the figure resembles
a giant. and it is felt that the picture represents an impossible situation. Our perception is disturbed,
because the normal indicators of size are messed up. However, this is what is seen when a person peers
that a hole in the wall using only monocular vision (the use of one eye)
Color Constancy. It is not always easy to understand color constancy, but we must realize that objects
can cast a shadow on an yellow object causing it to look grey in parts, but our mind does not interpret it as
a two colored object, but rather it understands that the parts that looks grey are still yellow in reality.

Also, the background of an object can affect the color that is portrayed… However,

This is the ability of the individual to perceive

an object as a particular color regardless of the light that it is in. We do not perceive the color of an object
in isolation but rather by comparing the light one object reflects to the light other objects in the same
scene reflect. The tendency of an object to appear nearly the same color under a variety of lighting
conditions is called color constancy.. An apple for instance looks green to us in the early morning
daylight, whose main component is bluish, and also in the late afternoon light, when the main component
is reddish. This allows to easily identify objects and has an obvious advantage, suggesting that the color-
perception system of other animals has a similar feature. See to get an understanding of how
background color affects one’s perception of a color itself. This is an amazing example and makes us
realize how careful we should be about avowing that something is of a particular color without first taking
into account the background.

Size Constancy. This is the tendency to perceive the veridical size of a familiar object despite
differences in their distance (and consequent differences in the size of the pattern projected on the retina
of the eye). Your perception of the size of an object depends not only on how big an image it makes on
your retina but also on your perception of the distance to the object.

This scene is an illusion . It seems to be depicting a larger man chasing

a smaller man. Or does it? The two men are absolutely identical. What
you see is not always what you perceive. So What? Our constancies
have taught us that the figure in the background is supposed to look
smaller so as to account for the distance between the front and the
back. Hence, in the picture on the right, even though the man at the
back is the same size as the one in front, our brains have been taught to
make allowance for distance, so it rightly concludes that the man at the
back is really huge.

You have very little experience judging distances when looking down
from a building, you have more experience judging distance across the
ground. So you make an adjustment for size constancy when looking at
the football player, you do not make such an adjustment when looking at the pedestrians below

Brightness Constancy. A sheet of white paper seen in the bright sunlight reflects a very different amount
of light than the same sheet of paper seen later that night in a softly lighted room. Yet we perceive the
paper as having the same whiteness in each case. This is an example of brightness constancy, our ability
to see objects as continuing to have the same brightness even though light may change their immediate
sensory properties. Psychologists have determined that an object will exhibit brightness constancy as long
as both the object and its surroundings are in light of the same intensity. If the background brightness
differs from the object, brightness constancy is not maintained. For example, if the background is lighter
than the object, the object appears darker

The two inner circles

(B) are of equal
intensity, yet may
appear different
because of their
backgrounds. Move
your cursor over the
circles to remove the
background. Did you notice how the colors are the same?

The grey squares in the middle of the white crosses do not exist in
reality. However, they are a reflection of the black on the white
background, and demonstrate the brightness of the black and its
impact on the white. It is an illusion.

DEPTH, SIZE AND MOTION PERCEPTION

Think of the problems that you might encounter if you could not judge depth – bumping into other
people, falling down stairs, and having accidents in your car. Depth perception is the ability to perceive
the visual world in three dimensions and to judge distances accurately. We judge how far away objects
and other people are, and we climb and descend stairs without stumbling. Depth perception is three
dimensional.
ILLUSIONS

An illusion is a false perception or a misperception of an actual

stimulus in the environment. A visual illusion occurs when your
perceptual experience of a stimulus is substantially different from
the actual stimulus you are viewing.

We can misperceive size, shape or the relationship of one element to

the other. We need not pay to see illusions performed by magicians. The Ebbinghaus Illusion
Illusions occur naturally and we see them all the time. The moon
looks much larger at the horizon than it does overhead. Why? One explanation of the moon illusion
involves relative size. This idea suggests that the moon looks very large on the horizon because it is
viewed in comparison to tress, buildings and other objects. When viewed overhead, the moon cannot be
directly compared with other objects, and it appears smaller.
Perceptual Constancies Playing Tricks. The principles of
perceptual organization makes it possible for our eyes to “play
tricks” on us. Perceptual constancies trick the eye through visual
illusions. The objects seen
on pages one and two of
this chapter show how the
eye can be tricked into
believing that one object is
being portrayed, when it is
quite possible for one to
see yet another object from the same picture.

The Hering-Helmholtz illusions above are often perceived by

eyes that are accustomed to using perceptual cues, to be 3 dimensional drawings.
We perceive the radiating lines to be parallel and the two horizontal lines to be
intersecting the receding and protruding lines. However we know that they would
have to appear bent out at the center if they were to be equidistant at all points
from the center of the circle.

The Ponzo Illusion seems to show us a train track receding into he distance with
it two (seemingly ) parallel line and two horizontal lines. Using the principle of
size constancy we believe that the top (first) horizontal line is longer than the
second and that the second is further down the train track. (size constancy says
that if two objects appear to be the same size and one is farther away, the farther
object must be larger. They are in fact the same length
Taken from:
[Link]

The Mueller-Lyer Illusion. Experience tells us that the vertical lines in the illusion above to be the
corners of a room as seen from inside a house at left and from outside a house, at right.

The reverse arrow heads to the left are lines where the walls meet the ceiling and the floor. We perceive
such lines as extending toward us. They push the corner away from us. The arrowheads to the right are
lines where exterior walls meet the roof and foundation. We perceive them as receding from us. They
push the corner toward us.

The vertical line to the left therefore is perceived to be farther away. Because both vertical lines stimulate
equal expanses across the retina, the principle of size constancy encourages us to perceive the line to the
left as longer

Illusions therefore are generally produced by our mis-application of the constancy principles. If there are
no interpretive cues that help us to understand the illusion (such as prior knowledge) we may continue to
misunderstand the illusion. However, context, experience etc teach us to recognize the illusion from the
reality. Impossible figures like the fork on page 2 cue us to their impossibility when one pays greater
attention to the figure.
MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING PERCEPTION
Hermann von Helmholtz believed that perception results from a process of unconscious inference about
what the stimulus affecting the sense organs is most likely to be. He thought these unconscious inferences
are formed by past experiences and learning, and they are unconscious because people are clearly not
aware of making them. All perception is thus heavily influenced by socio-cultural factors. Below is a list
of some of the factors that determine how we perceive objects that we see.

Perceptions are shaped by three sets of influences:

1. internal conditions within the individual
2. external physical characteristics of the stimuli,
3. the relation of the stimuli to their surroundings,

Another way of explaining it is to say that perception is influenced by

▪ the perceiver. – culture, projection, stereotyping, halo and horn effect
▪ the target. – motion, sounds, size, background, proximity, culture
▪ the situation – this is used often to interpret the actions and objects that one sees.
The situation too impacts on how the object is perceived. Crowd hysteria often influences one to come to
a common conclusion for which there is not real evidence. Social, psychological and physical factors can
impact how a person interprets a stimulus.

Below is an expansion on what was already mentioned to ensure your full understanding of the factors
that impact on perception

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERCEIVER THAT AFFECT PERCEPTION.

These characteristics may be divided into two categories:
▪ psychological (Mental) and
▪ physiological (physical).
The person doing the perceiving may interpret the sensation based on his culture, the stereotypes he holds
(perceived characteristic of an individual, based on one’s beliefs about the group to which the individual
belongs), and whether first impressions were good (halo) or bad (horn). Religious beliefs, social norms all
influence the perceiver.

Factors relating to the perceiver that influence his frame of reference include: learning experiences,
attitude, personality, and self-image. Other factors that influence perception include people's moods or
frames of mind, their physical abilities to experience sensation, their personalities and motivations, the
social and physical context in which they perceived things, the social and physical context of the stimuli
being perceived, and their own physical condition.

Other perceiver conditions include:

• motives and needs – for example food that may not really be appetizing may be perceived as
wonderful because one is hungry
• learning and previous experiences – any previous experience with a particular item or person
may lead us to perceive all group members to be similar, as in prejudice and stereotyping
• perceptual expectations – depending on the topic, one may make a judgment as to the message
being delivered – similar to me effect, different to me (halo/horn)
• attention - selective, divided. Only a small fraction of the sensory input we receive at any time is
actually perceived. The events we perceive clearly are in focus, and others only dimly perceived
are those to which attention has not be paid. Attention is the term given to the processes that
select certain inputs for inclusion in the focus of experience.
 • habituation – when one is accustomed to something, what originally seemed obnoxious becomes
commonplace and accepted – e.g. a bad smell in the room soon disappears and only the
newcomer to the room will pick it up.
• frame of reference/context – our frame of reference often determines how we think of the
object
• social background – class and upbringing have a tremendous effect on how we understand the
things that happen around us. Our predisposition to trust or to suspicion, or willingness to take
risks and to deal closely with authority figures
• religion – Christians and Muslims tend to view many things differently. This is again similar to
ones social background.
• language – one’s facility with the language being used around you will determine a large extent
of how you understand what is going on.
• gender roles - in extreme cases where gender differences affect how people see things, this can
affect how one perceives what is taking place.

Characteristics of the “stimulus or target” that is being perceived.

Remembering that perception come in many different “shapes” : visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, it is
obvious that the way we perceive something is affected by the characteristics of the stimulus.

motion - An object seen in motion may be difficult to identify as it could be a bird, a plane, a UFO, etc
depending on how far away it is , how fast it is traveling, its actual size.

extensity - Extensity refers to an item's size. People generally notice larger items over smaller objects.
Given the same color or presentation, a larger item will be seen before a proportionately smaller item.

Characteristics of the “External Conditions (situation)” of the stimulus or target.

Stimulus features such as

• context – one may perceive something as alright if it is in one context, but out of place and
unacceptable in another place
• time of day – light changes hue depending on the time of day, however, we have a built in
adaptor that will allow us to see objects as the same color whatever the time of day, despite the
fact that in reality they appear different.
• intensity – intensity concerns how high above the required threshold level of perception a
stimulus is. For instance, a more vividly colored photograph tends to draw attention over a muted
portrait. According to Weber's Law, a stimulus must at least reach the just noticeable difference
in intensity before the individual will perceive a change. color
• duration – the longer an object remains the more one is likely to pay attention to it. Over a long
period, it induces monotony and is ignored, but initially, an object that has existed for a long time
draws attention e.g. the Stonehenge monuments.
• adaptation level – the time taken to adapt to changing light conditions. For example, when one
goes from a lighted room to a dark one, one sees nothing. After a while one is able to distinguish
objects and maneuver around fairly safely in the dark.
• contrast - underlined typeface draws attention because of contrast; it is different than the text
surrounding it. As defined by Rice, contrast "can create apparent intensity of stimulus without
utilizing size, loudness or color." Contrast is different only when considered in its context.
• motion – our attention tends to be drawn to things in motion over stationary objects. Perceived
movement may be actual or--in the case of art or photography--simulated.
 • novelty - what is not typical draws attention. Differences in what is considered unusual can
complicate this influence on perception. However, all humans notice what is not expected over
the mundane
• repetition - although repetition may also dull one's senses, in its initial stages repetition draws
attention by repeating the stimulus. So long as that stimulus is not regularly expected, it may
increase the odds for perception.
• depth/distance – individuals develop their own way of perceiving depth and distance. An object
that is far away appears smaller than one nearby, but one must take this calculation into account
when we try to estimate the size of an object.
• culture – the environment in which the person or object exists will impact the perception of the
person. . In the Bible, Zachariah spoke of tools of war and described them as grasshoppers, but
today we may identify them as helicopters which we are familiar with and which Zachariah was
not. One’s biases and stereotypes can also affect how we perceive what is happening.

The object or person being perceived too may take on different characteristics depending on how far away
it is, whether it is still or in motion, whether the background is light or dark, smooth or rough, loud or
soft.

STEREOTYPING.

Our perception of people and things can be greatly influenced by our stereotypes. Stereotyping is
holding fixed, conventional ideas about a group. This can take place in regard to persons of a different
race, religion, size, age, gender and also about things. Any fixed opinion that is based upon some common
view that is not based in reality, and which generalized from the specific to the group can be seen as
stereotyping. Many victims of mistaken identity in the USA have been sent to prison or worse because
some whites are unable (or unwilling) to distinguish between one black or Indian person and another.
Many false social perceptions are held by one ethnic group about another (all Chinese people eat dog, all
Indians are skinny). Stereotyping develops as information that is untested is passed through a group and
gradually becomes commonly accepted and held to be a fact by that group.

Wikepedia tells us that Stereotypes are ideas held by some individuals about members of
particular groups, based solely on membership in that group. They are often used in a negative or
prejudicial sense and are frequently used to justify certain discriminatory behaviors. More
benignly, they may express sometimes-accurate folk wisdom about social reality.

Often the terms stereotype and prejudice are confused: [Link] site on
learning and instructions

• Stereotypes are a generalization of existing characteristics (facts), they reduce complexity

and offer also opportunities to identify oneself with others.
• Prejudices are either an abstract-general preconception or a negativeattitude towards
individuals.