What Are the Characteristics of Perception?

Perception is a series of processing information that organizes and explains the generation of external objects and events. In other words, perception is the overall recognition of things in the mind that objective things directly act on the senses. Perception has several characteristics: integrity, constancy, meaning, and selectivity.

Perception is a series of processing information that organizes and explains the generation of external objects and events. In other words, perception is the overall recognition of things in the mind that objective things directly act on the senses. Perception has several characteristics: integrity, constancy, meaning, and selectivity.

Chinese name

perception

Foreign name

perception

Applicable subject

psychology

Scope of application

Personality psychology

Perceptual words concept

Basic information

Word: Perception

Pinyin: zh jué

Basic perception

1. [consciousness]: feeling

perception

Regain consciousness

2. [perception]: Perceptual knowledge

Perceptual anomalies

3. [know]: know; be aware

I do not shoot, the enemy is unaware

4. [understand; comprehend]: understand;

Unconscious

Perceptual citation

Know

" Han Han Du Shi Biography": "Knowing that there are treacherous and fraudulent people, there is no sense." Tang Peiyi "Legendary Nie Yinniang": "Stab it for me, no perception." "Volume 6:" Fang Xinle is extremely sad, how can he perceive and cause trouble in the world. "Ming Feng Menglong," Eastern Zhou Dynasty Records "72nd back:" Old man but there is a way to save people, how can there be a murderous heart? " Alas! Although I have lived here for a year and a half, and no one is aware of it. But Zhaoguan is very strict. How can the son live? There must be a perfect strategy to avoid it. " I do nt shoot, the enemy is unaware; in a stroke, the wind swept the leaves.

Comprehend

Wang Yu Song's "Tang Yulin Supplementary Two": "Taste the order of Lizhou thorns as a" Thousand Characters "order, bring birds, fish, birds and beasts, but say: 'You Yu Tao Tang.' You can't bear laughter. To Xue Tao, Yun : "Zuo Shi A Heng." There is no fish or bird in his predicate, please punish him. Xue Xiao said: "Heng Zi still has a small fish roe, which makes Jun" Yu Taotang "without a fish." The assassination was unconscious at the beginning. "Journey to the West, 99th:" The eight precepts are also conscious. The sand monk is fully aware, and the white horse can understand. "

3. Feeling.

Preface to "Zhongyong Chapter Sentence" by Song Zhuxi: "The consciousness of the virtual spirit in the heart is nothing." Qing Fu's "Jiang Zhai's Poetry" Volume 2: "If the word" heart "is uniform, there are those who use virtual spirit perception, The official of the heart thinks 'and the like.' Zhang Tianyi's "The Last Train": "The wind hurts my face: I don't know if it hurts because of the sand or it's cold. I don't feel my hands."

4. Perception is the overall reflection of the human brain on objective things that directly affect the senses. It is a basic psychological process. It is more complicated than feeling and is often intertwined with feeling. It is also called sensory activity.

Basic meaning of perception

PerceptionPerception

Perception is a series of processing information that organizes and explains the generation of external objects and events. The recognition of the individual attributes of objective things is sensation. The combination of various sensations of the same thing forms the overall knowledge of the object, that is, the perception of the object. Perception is the reflection in the human brain of objective objects directly acting on the sense organs.

Perception is a combination of sensations. It comes from sensations, but it is different from sensations. Feelings only reflect the individual attributes of things, but perception knows the whole of things; feelings are the result of the activity of a single sensory organ, but perception is the result of the coordinated activities of various senses; feelings do not depend on individual knowledge and experience, but perception is affected by Influence of personal knowledge and experience. The same object, different people's perception of it is similar, but the perception of it will be different, the richer the knowledge and experience, the more perfect and comprehensive the object perception. As long as the blood sample under the microscope is not color-blind, no matter who looks at it, it will be red; but the doctor can still see the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in it, and people without medical knowledge cannot see them.

Although consciousness has reached the overall understanding of things, it is more advanced than the sensation that can only know the individual attributes of things, but consciousness comes from sensations, and both reflect external phenomena of things, both belong to the cognition of things. So there is an inseparable connection between perception and perception. In real life, when people form a consciousness of a certain thing, various sensations have been combined, and even as long as a kind of sensory information appears, it can cause the overall image reflection of the object. For example, seeing an object's vision includes the distance and orientation of the object, and even the recognition of other external characteristics of the object. Therefore, it is difficult to have a sense of individual existence in real life. Studies of single or narrow sense are often Can only be produced in the laboratory.

Feeling and perception are both different and related.

Feeling and perception are different psychological processes. Feeling reflects the individual attributes of things, and perception reflects the whole of things, that is, the different attributes, parts and relationships of things; feelings only depend on the activities of individual sensory organs, Perception depends on the joint activities of multiple sensory organs. It can be seen that perception is more complicated than feeling.

Feeling and perception have the same side. They are all reflections of things that directly act on the sense organs. If things no longer directly act on our sense organs, then our feelings and perceptions of the things will stop. Feeling and perception are the primary forms of human understanding of the world, reflecting the external characteristics and external connections of things. If you want to reveal the essential characteristics of things, you can't rely on feeling and perception alone. You must also perform more complex psychological activities based on feeling and perception, such as memory, imagination, and thinking. Perception is based on sensation. Without sensation, there is no consciousness. The more and richer the individual attributes of things we feel, the more accurate and complete our perception of things is, but perception is not a simple addition of feelings, because there is also human subjective experience in the process of perception People need to use their existing experience to explain the sensory information of the current thing, so as to identify the current thing.

In short, the production of consciousness is premised on the sensory information in the head and proceeds simultaneously with the sensation. But perception is not a simple sum of feelings. Because in addition to feelings in perception, it also includes memory, thinking and speech activities. Perception belongs to the stage of perceptual awareness above sensation. But consciousness, like sensation, is something that directly affects the sense organs. Without the direct effect of things on the senses, there is neither feeling nor consciousness.

Basic characteristics of perception

Perception has the following characteristics: integrity, constancy, meaning (understanding), and selectivity.

Perception, like sensation, is produced by stimuli directly acting on sensory organs, and is a form of our perceptual reflection of reality. Without the direct effect of the stimulus on the sensory organs, neither sensation nor perception can be produced. Through sensations, we only know the individual attributes of things, and through perception, we have a complete image of things, so we know its meaning.

Compared with feeling, perception has different characteristics from feeling:

First, perception reflects the meaning of things. The purpose of perception is to explain what is acting on our senses. Try to use words to mark it, so perception is a process of explaining things.

Second, perception is a generalization of sensory attributes and the result of comprehensive processing of information from different sensory channels, so perception is a generalized process.

Third, perception contains elements of thinking. Perception is based on the sensory information and the supplementary experience provided by the individual's subjective state to jointly determine the result of the reflection. Therefore, perception is the process by which people actively process, reason, and understand sensory information. It can be said that sensation is the basis of perception, and perception is the depth of perception. ^[1]

Other factors affecting perception

Perception is not only affected by sensory systems and physiological factors, but also greatly dependent on a person's past knowledge and experience, as well as personal interests, needs, motivation, emotions and other psychological factors. Modern neuropsychological research shows that the perceptual process is a complex functional system that relies on the coordinated activities of complete complexes in many cortical regions.

The process of perception is also influenced by personality tendencies. Needs and motivations have a limiting effect on the perception process. Bruner and Goldman (1947) used children (10 years old) from different rich and poor families as subjects, and asked them to estimate various coins under the same conditions to compare the relationship between children's money value and perception. It was found that the estimates of the coin area of both groups of children had a tendency to exaggerate, but the exaggerated tendency of the poor children group far exceeded that of the rich children group.

This result illustrates the effect of demand intensity on perception.

Perceptual observation

The observation we are talking about here refers to observation in the narrow sense of perception only. It refers to a purposeful, planned, and long-lasting perception, which is an advanced form of perception.

Modern psychology regards observation as an important part of people's discovery and acquisition of knowledge, and is an important part of intellectual activity.

Basic characteristics of perception

Perceptual relativity

Perception is the subjective interpretation of the data obtained by an individual based on his existing experience. Therefore, perception is often referred to as perceptual experience. Perceptual experience is relative. We see an object existing. Under normal circumstances, we cannot use the object in isolation as a stimulus to induce perception, but we must also see other stimuli existing around the object. In this way, the nature of other stimuli around the object and the relationship between them will inevitably affect the perception experience we have obtained for the object. Image and background are the most obvious examples of perceptual relativity. Image refers to the specific stimulus seen by the visual, and background refers to other stimuli associated with the specific stimulus. In the general context, the image and the background are the relationship between the principal and the vice: the image is the theme and the background is set off. Another example is perceptual contrast, which refers to a phenomenon in which the difference in perception caused by two stimuli is particularly obvious when two stimuli of a relative nature appear simultaneously or sequentially. For example, the appearance of a fat person and a small skinny person together will make people feel that fat people will gain weight.

Relativity of Picture Perception-1: Image and Background-Both the black and white parts of the picture may be regarded as an image or background. If the white part is regarded as an image and black is the background, the image can be interpreted as a candlestick or a vase; instead , It can be interpreted as a projection image on the sides of two faces.

The relativity of graph perception-1

The perceptual relativity of the picture-2: Perceptual contrast-The circles A and B in the picture have completely equal radii, but due to the difference of other stimuli in the surrounding environment, it has a contrast effect, causing the observer to form A circle smaller than B circle psychologically Perceptual experience.

The relativity of graph perception-2

Perceptual selectivity

There are many kinds of objective things. At a certain time, people can only feel a small amount or a few stimuli, and they only make vague reflections on other things. Objects selected as perceptual content are called objects, and other things that set off objects are called backgrounds. Once something is selected as the object of perception, it seems as if it emerges from the background immediately and is recognized more clearly and clearly. In general, things with a small area and a large area, surrounded by surrounding, surrounded by vertical or horizontal slope, warmer than cooler, and things that have a large difference from the surrounding clarity are more likely to be selected as objects of perception. . Even for the same perceptual stimulus, if the observer takes different angles or selects different focal points, it can also produce completely different perceptual experiences. Factors affecting perceptual selectivity include changes in stimulus, contrast, location, movement, size, intensity, repetition, etc., and subjective effects such as experience, emotion, motivation, interest, and needs. Judging from the phenomenon of perceptual selection, we can imagine that, with the exception of a few perceptual stimuli with positive characteristics (such as a pen in the hand), we can hardly predict whether providing the same stimulus situation can get the same perceptual response from everyone.

Selectivity of graph perception1: The graph is a cube, but if you pay close attention, you will find that the closest side of the cube to you is changing at any time. This type of pattern, which can lead to very different perception experiences, is called a reversible pattern. As a matter of fact, the graphics themselves have not changed, but they have different perception experiences due to the different points of focus of the observer.

Selectivity of Picture Perception-2: Dawn and Dusk-a famous woodcut painting by wood carving artist MCEscher in 1938. If the reader first looks at the left side of the picture, you will think that it is a dawn scene of a group of black birds leaving the nest; if you first look at the right side of the picture, you will think that it is a dusk that a group of white birds return to the forest; If you look at the middle of the drawing, you will get both the black bird and the white bird, and you may also get the perception experience of the black bird and the white bird suddenly.

Selectivity of graph perception-1

Selectivity of graph perception-2

Perceptual integrity

The objects of perception are composed of many parts of different attributes, but when people perceive it, they can form a whole according to previous experience. This characteristic of perception is the wholeness (or integrity) of perception. For example, a green tree has red flowers, and green leaves are part of the stimulus, and red flowers are also part of the stimulus. We combine the red flowers and green leaves, and the psychological perception of beauty exceeds the sum of the two physical properties of red and green .

Perception is not a mechanical addition of sensory information, but a cognitive activity derived from sensation and above sensation. When a person perceives a familiar object, as long as he feels its individual attributes or main characteristics, he can know its other attributes or characteristics based on experience, and thus perceive it as a whole. If the object of sensation is unfamiliar, perception will rely more on sensation, and take the characteristics of the perceived object as a shift, and perceive it as a whole with a certain structure.

The integrity of perception is purely a psychological phenomenon. Sometimes even if the stimuli that cause perception are fragmented, the resulting perception experience is still holistic. The figure in the figure on the right can be used as an illustration of this psychological phenomenon. From the perspective of objective physical phenomena, this figure is not complete, but is formed by the accumulation of irregular lines and surfaces. However, anyone can see that the figure clearly shows its overall meaning: it is formed by two triangles overlapping and then covering three black squares. We will find that although the triangles in the first layer in the middle of the figure actually have no edges and no outlines, they are the graphics with the clearest edges and the clearest outlines in perceptual experience. Such a stimulus has no contour in itself, but shows a contour of "out of nothing" in perceptual experience, which is called subjective contour. Judging by the psychological phenomenon of subjective contours, human perception is extremely wonderful. This phenomenon has long been applied by artists to painting and art design, so that incomplete perceptual stimulation forms a complete aesthetic sense.

Perceptual constancy

When observing a well-known object at different angles, different distances, and different brightness levels, although the physical characteristics (size, shape, brightness, color, etc.) of the object change due to environmental influences, but Our perceptual experience of object characteristics, however, tends to retain its psychological effect as it is. Such an external stimulus changes its characteristics due to environmental influences, but maintains a constant psychological tendency in the perception experience, that is, perception constancy.

In visual perception, the constancy of perception is very obvious. For example, if you look at the same person from different distances, the size of the image projected onto the retina is different due to the change in distance, but we always think that the size has not changed and we still perceive him according to its actual size. Another example is a piece of red paper, half of which is illuminated by sunlight and half of which is not illuminated by sunlight. The brightness and saturation of colors are very different, but we still perceive it as a piece of red paper. It is because of the constancy of perception that we can objectively and steadily understand things, and thus better adapt to the environment.

In addition, we all have experience. The sound of thunder or the whistle of a train, such as judging only by physiological hearing data, may not be louder than the sound of a knock on a door near a thunder or train whistle. But we always feel the thunder or train whistle loud. This is the constancy of sound. Another example is that the body parts change at any time, sometimes tilting the head, sometimes bending down, sometimes lying down, and sometimes upside down. When body parts change, the relationship between up and down, left and right in the external environment opposite to the body parts also changes at any time, but we all have experience, and changes in body parts generally do not affect our judgment of orientation. This phenomenon is called directional constancy, which is related to the function of the vestibular and semicircular canals in the inner ear.

Perceptual organization

In the process of transforming sensory data into psychological perceptual experience, it is obviously necessary to subject the data to subjective selection. This subjective selection process is organized, systematic, and logical, rather than Disordered. Therefore, in psychology, this type of selection process from perception to perception is called a perceptual organization. Gestalt theory of psychology believes that there are four main principles of perceptual organization.

Law of similarity: When there are multiple stimuli in the perceptual field at the same time, if there are similarities between the stimuli in certain aspects (such as size, shape, color, etc.), they will tend to belong to them In a class. As shown on the right, in the square matrix, the dots are similar to the diagonal fork, which is obviously seen as a square matrix composed of dots among the large square matrix composed of the diagonal fork. This kind of psychological tendency that composes the perceptual experience according to the similar characteristics of stimuli is called the law of similarity.

Similarity rule

Law of approach: Sometimes, the characteristics of the stimuli in the sensory field are not very clear, and even the stimuli can not find enough distinguishing features. In such situations, we often subjectively seek the relationship between stimuli based on past experience, in order to increase their characteristics, so as to obtain meaningful or logical perceptual experience. As shown on the right, Figure A and Figure B are also square matrices composed of 20 dots. If you look at each dot alone, it is not easy to find the features for classification and organization. However, if you look closely, the distance between the points in the two figures is not equal; the distance between the two points in Figure A is closer than the left and right intervals, so it seems that 20 points automatically form four columns. . The left-to-right interval between two points in B is closer than the up-to-down distance, so it seems that 20 points automatically form four lines. This kind of psychological tendency that composes perceptual experience according to the distance relationship between stimuli is called the law of proximity (1aw of proximity).

Law of approach

The law of closure: If the stimuli on the perception site appear to have their distinguishing characteristics, but based on these characteristics alone, the relationship between the stimuli cannot be determined. At this time, the observer often uses his own experience to actively supplement (or reduce) the relationship between the stimuli, thereby increasing their characteristics, so as to help obtain a meaningful or logical perceptual experience. As shown on the right, at first glance, the picture is only some irregular black fragments and some white lines that are only partially connected. But if you look closely, you will find that it is a white cube and some black discs; you may also think that there is a black disc on each corner of the white cube. If this is the case with your perceptual experience, then your perceptual mentality is in compliance with the 1aw of closure. Here, the condition of the perceptual stimulus itself is not closed or connected. It is the observer who sees the three closed black irregular pictures as a complete black disc; at the same time, many unclosed and unconnected white The lines are psychologically connected and closed into a white cube. In fact, eight black disks and one white cube do not exist in the actual figure. They only exist in the observer's perception experience, and this existence is established according to the law of closure.

Closure rule

The law of continuity : Similar to the law of closure is the law of continuity (1aw of continuity). As shown in the figure below, most people always regard it as a straight line and a curve intersected multiple times; no one will think of it as a plurality of unconnected arcs and a horizontal line. From this we can see that the continuity referred to by the law of continuity in perception does not necessarily mean de facto continuity, but psychological continuity. The law of continuity in perception has long been widely used in the art of painting, architecture and clothing design. The discontinuity in the physical image enables the observer to have a psychologically continuous perception, thereby forming more lines or color changes, thereby increasing the expression of beauty. Auditory perception also has a tendency to continuous psychological organization. Many people sing together, or a variety of musical instruments, and people with musical accomplishments will not mix different sounds into one, but will distinguish the continuous of each sound.

Law of continuity

Perceptual significance

Perceptual meaning

What do you see? (5 photos)

. When people perceive something, they always try to explain what it is based on previous experience. This is the comprehension of perception. Human perception is a proactive process, and the comprehension of perception is just such a proactive manifestation. People have different knowledge and experiences, different needs, different expectations, and different understandings of the same perceptual object. A test report, except that the patient perceives a series of symbols and numbers, but does not know what it means; and the doctor sees it, not only understands the meaning of these symbols and numbers, but also can make an accurate judgment. Therefore, perception is deeply linked to memory and experience. When perceiving, understanding of things is achieved through thinking activities in the process of perception, and thinking is closely related to language. Therefore, language guidance can make people understand the objects of perception more quickly and more completely.

Perceptual Perception

Perceptual set refers to the special preparation state of the subject for a certain activity. Specifically, people's current activities are often influenced by activities they have previously engaged in, and tend to have the characteristics of previous activities. When this kind of influence occurs in the process of perception, it is perceptual settling, which is generally caused by earlier experience. Of course, the needs, emotions, attitudes, and values of the perceiver also have a setting effect. For example, when people's emotions are very pleasant, they can also have a tendency to have a good perception of the surroundings. Positioning is two-way. The positive effect is to make the process of perception quick and effective. The negative effect makes the setting appear rigid, hindering perception or causing misperception.

Perception category

Perception of space

The perception of space characteristics such as the shape, size, distance, and orientation of objects, that is, space perception. For individual life, space perception is obviously an indispensable ability, because individuals live in three-dimensional space. In all activities, they must make proper judgments about distance, height, and direction at any time. Otherwise, difficulties will inevitably occur. Even in danger. The leaping tigers of animals, the climbing of monkeys, the homecoming of birds, the ascent and descent of people, the crossing of roads, and the operation of tools all depend on the judgment of space perception. Spatial consciousness is the product of the coordinated activities of multiple sensory devices, including visual, auditory, tactile, motor, and other activities, and their interconnections. The visual system plays a leading role. Spatial perception includes shape perception, size perception, distance perception, depth perception (stereo perception), orientation perception and so on. Spatial consciousness is formed, developed and perfected in the acquired practice of man.

Linear perspective (linear perspective): refers to the stimulus itself on the plane, the size of the area, the length of the line and the distance between the lines and other characteristics, the clues that can cause depth perception. As shown below, although the rails are actually parallel, the image reflected from the retina looks at infinity, and the two straight lines (rails) seem to intersect at one point. This linear perspective principle can be used to express a three-dimensional impression when drawing a flat graphic. Superposition: When two (or more) objects are on the same plane, such as when one part of one object is covered by another object, an overlap phenomenon is formed. The image formed by the overlap will make people have a sense of depth; some of the covered objects look far away, and all the exposed objects look closer.

Bright and shadow: On the floor plan, simply adjusting the brightness of the color and making the contrast between light and dark can form a clue of depth perception. As shown in the figure below, this is formed by the contrast of two different brightnesses in black and white plus the principle of linear perspective-Zhang is a flat but three-dimensional figure.

Perception of time

Time perception, also known as time sense, refers to an individual's feelings and judgments about changes in the length, speed, etc. of time without using any timing tools. What makes time perception special is that it is not caused by fixed stimuli, nor does it provide clues to the sense organs. In the absence of timing tools as a reference standard, the clues to obtain time perception may come from two aspects: (1) external clues, such as the rise and fall of the sun, the lack of the moon, the replacement of the day and night, the change of the four seasons, or life The working procedures at work provide parameters for people to judge time; (2) Internal clues, such as the human body's own breathing, pulse, digestion, and biological rhythm, can also become the basis for judging time.

Time perception is also gradually developed in human practical activities. Humans have invented many timing tools and methods. Certain natural phenomena also have time stamps, such as tree rings, animal teeth, and fossils. Time estimation often occurs in daily life. The younger the child, the worse the accuracy of the time estimate. In addition, different occupations and different emotional states also affect the estimation of time. When you are in a good mood, you feel that time passes quickly, and when you are in a distressed state, time passes very slowly. For example, if you buy a ticket and wait for ten minutes at the entrance of the theater, you will feel that it is a long time; a friend who comes to the theater to watch a movie for two hours may think that the time is short.

Perceptual motor perception

Motion perception is human perception of the motion characteristics of space objects. It depends on the speed, distance, and state of the observer. For example, when the object moves from far to near or from near to far, the change in the size of the image on the retina provides the human brain with the information that the object is "approaching" or "going away." Objects move too fast or too slowly to make people feel motion. It is difficult to observe the movement of the hour hand or the movement of light on the watch with the naked eye, because they are too slow or too fast. Object distance and motion speed directly affect motion perception. Objects moving at the same speed, far perception movement is slow, near perception movement

perception

Move fast, you can't see the movement too far. It can be seen that motion is the root cause of human perception motion, but the direct cause of motion perception is angular velocity, which is the amount of change in perspective caused by unit time. In fact, all things in the world are moving, just the speed. Therefore, if we want to observe the speed of an object, we must compare it with another object. This compared object is a reference system for motion perception. Different reference systems will have different motion perceptions. For example, a cyclist uses a pedestrian as a reference system, and the perception is fast, compared with a car, the perception is slow. With few reference systems, the movement of two objects can be perceived as one of them being in motion. The general rule is that people tend to regard larger objects as stationary backgrounds, and smaller objects move in them. Such as thin clouds and the moon, can be considered as the moon is moving, can also be considered as the clouds are moving. This phenomenon is induced movement. Looking at a stationary light spot in a dark room, you will feel the light spot moving after a while. This is an autonomous movement, caused by the lack of a reference system in the field of vision.

Apparent motion refers to that the stimulus that causes the motion perception experience does not move by itself, but the observer clearly perceives that it is moving. Strictly speaking, the occurrence of motion-like phenomena is not due to the actual movement of objects, nor the relative movement between individuals and objects, but a false movement, which is also considered an illusion phenomenon.

Like-motion phenomenon 2

Examples of motion-like phenomena include the following classic graphics. Eyes stare at the red dot in the center of the image below, and then gradually move your head closer to or away from the screen.

Relative motion refers to the object that we see. It does not move, but because our own body is moving, we feel that the object is moving. As shown on the right, you can experience the phenomenon of relative movement by looking at the scenery outside the window during the train. At this point, the scenery outside the window seems to be moving in the opposite direction from the train, and the nearby scenery moves faster, and the distant scenery moves slowly. In this relative movement situation, the clues of movement perception come from the movement of the image on the retina.

Perceptual illusion

Although the perceptual experience is caused by the stimulus in the environment, the subjective interpretation of the objective stimulus in the perceptual experience is obviously far from the standard of authenticity. Taking perceptual contrast alone as an example, the interpretation based on perceptual experience is obviously distorted, and can even be said to be wrong. A perceptual experience of such a distorted or distorted fact that is totally incompatible with the characteristics of the stimulus itself is called illusion.

Illusions are relatively common, and the perception experience consisting of sight, hearing, taste, smell, etc. will have illusions. In our daily life, illusions are felt at any time. For example, before the train started, it often felt that the carriage was moving because of the movement of adjacent carriages. This phenomenon is called the illusion of movement. For another example, when looking at the rails at the rear window of the train, if the train is moving, it will feel that the rails are rapidly protruding backward from under the car; if the train stops suddenly, it will feel that the rails are rapidly indenting toward the bottom of the car. When you watch the electric fan rotate, you may feel that it is suddenly turning forward, suddenly reversing, and sometimes even feel temporarily stopped and not turning.

Why do people have the illusion? It is unclear. It is generally believed that: illusion is not a problem of perception, but a problem of perception, because even if it is known, illusion does not change; illusion does not occur on the retina; optical illusion is not caused by the activity of visual organs.

Horizontal illusion

Horizontal-vertical illusion is one of the phenomena of optical illusion. In the upper left figure, two vertical lines of equal length are vertically and horizontally. When the vertical is perpendicular to the midpoint of the horizontal, it seems that the vertical is longer.

Debuff illusion

Delboeuf illusion is one of the phenomena of optical illusion. The small circle in the upper left image is equal to the circle in the right image, but the two seem to be different; the one on the right appears smaller.

Hailin Illusion

Hering illusion is one of the optical illusions. When the two parallel lines in the upper left are cut by a multi-directional straight line, it looks like they have lost the characteristics of the original parallel lines.

Staircase illusion

Staircase illusion is one of the optical illusions. Look at the top left graphic for a few seconds. You will find two senses of perspective; sometimes it looks like a staircase upright, sometimes it looks like a staircase upside down.

Fancy illusion

Twisted cord illusion is one of the phenomena of optical illusion. The upper left image coils up the spirals. In fact, it is composed of multiple concentric circles. The reader can choose any point on the circle to test it according to its line.

Sander illusion is one of the phenomena of optical illusion. The diagonals of the larger parallelogram on the left look significantly longer than the diagonals of the small parallelogram on the right, but they are actually the same length.

Perceptual illusion

Hallucination is different from illusion. It is an unreal perception that occurs without the direct action of corresponding external objective things. Hallucinations have similar characteristics to real perception, but they are illusory. Normal people under certain special conditions, such as strong emotional experience accompanied by vivid imagination, memories, or expectant moods, tense emotions, or being in hypnosis, can

Hallucinations

There can be hallucinations. Hallucinations also occur during sleep or wakefulness. Hallucinations are also important signs of psychological abnormalities, such as sensory deprivation, mental illness, drug poisoning, excessive drinking, and drug use, which often produce hallucinations.

Perceptual neurophysiology

Perceptual supercolumn

In the 1950s and 1980s, many scholars represented by Huber and Wiesel used microelectrode technology to prove that there are many visions in the visual center of the brain in frogs, cats, monkeys and other animal specimens. Characteristic detection of N cells, they form "super-pillars". Super-pillar refers to the basic unit of comprehensive response to various perceptual attributes formed by multiple characteristic detection cells with the same receptive field in the cerebral cortex.

The relationship between super-pillars and multi-mode perception N elements:

Super-pillars in the cortex and cortical multimodal perception N-elements play an important role in the formation of perception, and may be the structural and functional units of perception;

The super column only realizes the comprehensive response of various attributes in the same sensory mode to form a simple perception;

The multi-mode perception N element in the cortex of the contact area can respond to a variety of information, realize a comprehensive reaction process of multiple sensations, and can integrate the sensory information of multiple modes into complex perceptions.

Inferior temporal gyrus

Since the 1980s, Rohr and others at the University of Oxford have found that there are face recognition cells in the amygdala, infratemporal gyrus, and superior temporal groove. Many studies have demonstrated that there are "multimodal sensory N cells" in the contact cortex between the temporal, parietal, and occipital regions and the cortex in the frontal lobe.

The multimodal sensory neurons of the infratemporal gyrus can not only produce complex vision, but also perceive a variety of other sensations such as somatosensory, motor, food smell and taste.

A Brief History of Perceptual Research

Some psychologists believe that researching perceptual experience through introspection is an important part of psychology; others emphasize that only observable phenomena are the object of psychological research, and subjective perceptual experience cannot. It is an objective observation, so it should not be the subject of psychological research. Each of these two perspectives has its own ups and downs in history. At the beginning of the 20th century, psychologists had a strong interest in describing their perceptual experiences. By the 1920s and 1930s, behaviorism in the United States, represented by JB Watson, strongly attacked subjective empiricism, and advocated that the study of perceptual issues that could not be observed publicly should be prohibited. This school believes that psychology should only study the relationship between stimulus and response, and perception is a subjective concept, so it is not the object of scientific psychology research. Watson's behaviorism negated subjective introspection and subjective experience. In fact, it canceled all topics of perceptual research at that time, and brought great losses to early perceptual research.

Shortly after the rise of behaviorism, however, the Gestalt school emerged in Germany. This school's exposition of perception has aroused great interest, and the study of perception has been reactivated. Although Gestalt's view is very different from the early theory of perception, it is consistent that perception experience is a key issue. In fact, Gestalt psychologists pay more attention to the subjective experience that individuals see or hear, even more subjective than before.

At present, psychologists have widely acknowledged that perception is an important part of human cognitive activities, and perception experience is also one of the basic contents of psychological research. Psychologists can use scientific methods to analyze another person's perceptual experience. Psychologists can both study the phenomena and laws of perceptual experience, put forward hypothetical theories, and directly study the brain mechanisms of perception. The two materials confirm and complement each other, which can make our understanding of the perception process more comprehensive. The study of perception is becoming a promising field in modern psychology.

Perceptual theory

There are several representative perception theories.

Gestalt Perspective

Gestalt psychology plays an important role in modern perception theory. Its representatives are W. Keller, K. Kofka and M. Wertheimer. Gestalt psychology proposes the following perceptual principles:

The initiative of perception. The perception does not passively record all the details of the stimulus like a camera. On the contrary, perception is an active process. It processes the stimulus, discards some details of the stimulus, retains its basic characteristics, and organizes the stimulus experience in a conceptual form, so that the objective stimulus becomes a complete structure in perception Image.

The organization of perception. In a time-changing and colorful world, the perceptual is limited by channels, and it is impossible to enter all the information that acts on the senses at every moment. Therefore, people can only respond to the basic characteristics of stimuli and organize many isolated stimuli from the outside into a meaningful whole.

How does perception arise in the activities of the nervous system? In response to this problem, the Gestalt School put forward the assumptions of perceptual experience and the isomorphism of the nervous system. This theory holds that there is a corresponding relationship between the perceived images of stimuli and their performance in the central nervous system, that is, the perception phenomenon is consistent with the characteristics of the nervous system. For example, in the organizing principle of perception, certain stimuli can be perceived as a complete figure, and other stimuli are perceived as the background. This is because nerve cells in the cerebral cortex have the characteristics of electromagnetic fields. The distribution of forces in the magnetic field causes some excited regions to attract each other and other regions to repel each other, thereby forming a certain structure or "gestalt". This gestalt in the brain is the figure-background structure in people's perception experience. In the case of optical illusion, perception is distorted because its performance in the central nervous system is distorted. Gestalt school of perception theory is a kind of transcendental theory, which regards perception as an intrinsic property of the nervous system, and ignores the role of knowledge and experience in perception.

Theory of perceptual perception

Another influential view of perceptual psychology is the inferred theory of the basic properties of perceptual. The basic assumption is that the perception experience is a mixture, part of which comes from current sensations, and most of it is extracted from information stored in the brain. People make inferences about the nature of objects based on experience gained throughout their lives about stimuli that act on the senses.

The American psychologist W. James described the theory as follows: "Now it is sufficient to prove the general rule of perception: part of what people perceive is the object that comes from people through the senses, and the other part (probably most) always It comes from people's own hearts. "He believes that based on the stimuli that triggered the senses at the time, people made inferences about the nature of the objects that might produce such stimuli. This inference is made based on the sensory experience that people form throughout their lives, and is therefore a possibility with a high probability. H.von Helmholtz has long pointed out that the inference of perception is an automatic unconscious process.

Another basic assumption of the theory of perceptual inference is that the sensory information input instantaneously is extremely preliminary, vague, or incomplete, and it cannot be used to determine what the corresponding external physical stimulus is. In any perceptual process, near-end stimuli acting on the senses (such as retinal elephants) can only provide clues, but cannot provide a true and complete description of the far-end stimuli (objects outside). Therefore, the true nature of near-end stimulation must be evaluated based on the clues provided by the near-end stimulation and a series of assumptions about the world based on past experience. The result of this evaluation is human perception.

The theory of inference of perception is a theory of reconstruction, that is, people can reconstruct the objective world through perception. This theory must assume that the world in which people live is an orderly and diverse world, because only in such a world can the input of the fragment become a clue, enabling people to infer what the sensory input is from, and what is missing What is the input snippet. If, in a chaotic world, only a piece of this world's knowledge, it is simply impossible to provide knowledge of the rest of it. In such a world, past experience does not help infer the nature of external things.

Theory of perceptual psychophysics

The representative of this theory is JJ Gibson. His point of view is contrary to the theory of perceptual inference. He believes that stimuli in nature are very complete. The conscious person is in direct contact with the environment. It can completely produce perceptual experiences that correspond to stimuli that reach the senses in all aspects without the need for assumption There is a process of reasoning.

Gibson distinguishes stimulus from stimulus information. Although the observer's retina was stimulated by light in the dense fog, the light was uniform at this time, so he could not see anything. This shows that the stimulating effect of light does not necessarily include stimulating information, and the information of perception is included in the difference of external light. Whether the observer observes the surrounding space at any point, the distribution of ambient light is different. This difference or structure of ambient light is an important stimulus for vision, and it contains spatial information. Distance is not an abstract space between an observer and an object, it is obtained by direct perception of the physical light distribution.

The psychophysical correspondence theory of perception completely excludes the role of perception and past experience, and the role of these factors in the process of perception is not negated.

Some psychologists have found that eye movements and hand touch movements play an important role in perception. When people observe complex graphics, the movement of their eyes can help the perception of graphics. When people perceive the surrounding environment, active movement participation of the limb can more easily adapt to the new environment.

With the development of modern cognitive psychology, the study of perception focuses on the information processing of visual graphics. These studies include the formation and development of graphics perception, graphics after-effects, and image recognition. In image recognition, template matching, prototype matching theory and "pan magic" recognition model have been proposed. The cognitive perspective of perception emphasizes the role of representations and concepts in perception, perceiving that perception is part of human advanced cognitive activities.